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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Did I pick up this book just because I liked Dark Roads and it had a pretty fall leaf on the cover, without even reading the description? I sure did! Did this actually have anything to do with fall? nope! I have no idea why the cover looks like that, other than a very brief mention of the leaves changing colour in the last chapter. One thing I've learned recently is I'm not a big fan of stories that take place partly in a prison setting. It makes me uncomfortable but not in a fun way, just an icky way. I'm not sure which is worse, some of the inmates or the system itself.
I'm still glad I read this, since I want to read all of Chevy Stevens' books. I thought it was well-written and I like how the story was told through different timelines. It did a good job of showing the shittiness of the prison system and how it's shaped by the people in power. Toni was saved from being a somewhat unlikeable character by her love of rescue dogs. I think maybe the point was that even if she wasn't always the most likeable or sympathetic person, she didn't deserve what happened to her. Her mother and sister, the school system, and then the "justice" system already decided she was "bad," so how was she supposed to act? I thought the gang of girl bullies was a little over the top evil, especially Shauna, but I guess girls like that do exist. Overall this was a good read, and at least it didn't have prison r*pe like another book I read, so thank you for that!
mysterious
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
sad
medium-paced
Review originally published at Love Literature Art and Reason Book Review Blog.
I picked up That Night on a whim because I noticed that it wasn’t written to a psychologist and it wasn’t ABOUT said psychologist, which led to believe this would be a little more unique than her other books, but still a compelling contemporary mystery. And it was.
That Night was about an event that ended up sending Toni and her high school boyfriend, Ryan, to prison for the murder of her sister. It bounced back and forth between time frames: before that night, Toni in prison, Toni on parole (the present), and the small sliver of time after the murder and before Toni was put away. We kept getting the pieces and Toni’s point of view throughout all of the various times.
I’m a bit conflicted because I tore through the book quickly. I wanted to see what happened and the agony was killing me. Which is great, right? But the book was LONG. And even though a lot of what I got was important to the building up of the characters, the setting, and Toni’s motives, there was no reason it should have been so long and drawn out. My head was screaming JUST TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, OMG! Tension and anticipation is great, but the author really overdid it with this book and it got to be too much.
It was obvious Toni didn’t kill her sister. I knew that from the beginning. I knew she was somehow framed and I knew who lied, but not necessarily what the truth was. I knew I was supposed to feel for Toni and her circumstances because somehow, she was labeled as troubled and it was so easy for her to just walk right into it. But I got so much of Toni that I started to nitpick.
As a teenager, Toni was a troublemaker. She smoked pot, she dated a bad boy she loved with all of her heart, she copped an attitude, and her parents blamed a lot on her. Her sister was always good, got good grades, stayed out of trouble, and was generally opposite. But Nicole started to slip a little bit. Toni noticed this. Here’s the thing, though. It was only when Toni was being confronted by her parents for something that she’d ever really bring up how weird Nicole was acting. It seemed like such a conspiracy.. How could they just blame Toni for things Nicole was doing? But Toni lied ALL THE TIME about what she did, so it just looked like she was trying to shift the blame. She never once approached her parents on a normal day to talk about Nicole. It was maddening because the reader knew what Toni did and didn’t actually do, but she dug that hole herself so many times by being the girl who cried wolf and lied too much to be believed. I mean, her mom was kind of awful, but Toni only made it worse.
Adult Toni didn’t grow up at all, which I think is kind of the point because people don’t grow in prison where the rules for survival are based on dominance and distrust of authority. She stayed the same way, always lying and walking into trouble without seeming to know why. When inmates caused her problems, she either tried to stay under the radar or she got into a fight because it’s not a thing to alert authorities to problems or you’re known as a rat. It did not help someone like Toni. When she got out, she was once again put into situations where she didn’t alert her parole officer, boss, ANYONE about stuff until after it bit her in the butt and made her look bad. Meanwhile, the reader knew that she was being set up, people were lying, and that Toni did nothing wrong. But she just didn’t handle her situation like adults would and constantly ending up walking right into trouble.
Eventually, at the very freaking end, we were able to unearth what actually happened the night Nicole died. It seemed like she was making some progress at being an adult, too, which was good, but it took her ages.
I liked the book and the story, but it was also incredibly frustrating. It was maddening to watch Toni walk herself blindly into trouble. It was agonizing to wait forever for any kind of closure as to what happened. But the story was great, with compelling characters and a nice twist, so I can’t knock it completely. It’s worth the read if you can prepare yourself to read Toni’s point of view.
I picked up That Night on a whim because I noticed that it wasn’t written to a psychologist and it wasn’t ABOUT said psychologist, which led to believe this would be a little more unique than her other books, but still a compelling contemporary mystery. And it was.
That Night was about an event that ended up sending Toni and her high school boyfriend, Ryan, to prison for the murder of her sister. It bounced back and forth between time frames: before that night, Toni in prison, Toni on parole (the present), and the small sliver of time after the murder and before Toni was put away. We kept getting the pieces and Toni’s point of view throughout all of the various times.
I’m a bit conflicted because I tore through the book quickly. I wanted to see what happened and the agony was killing me. Which is great, right? But the book was LONG. And even though a lot of what I got was important to the building up of the characters, the setting, and Toni’s motives, there was no reason it should have been so long and drawn out. My head was screaming JUST TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, OMG! Tension and anticipation is great, but the author really overdid it with this book and it got to be too much.
It was obvious Toni didn’t kill her sister. I knew that from the beginning. I knew she was somehow framed and I knew who lied, but not necessarily what the truth was. I knew I was supposed to feel for Toni and her circumstances because somehow, she was labeled as troubled and it was so easy for her to just walk right into it. But I got so much of Toni that I started to nitpick.
As a teenager, Toni was a troublemaker. She smoked pot, she dated a bad boy she loved with all of her heart, she copped an attitude, and her parents blamed a lot on her. Her sister was always good, got good grades, stayed out of trouble, and was generally opposite. But Nicole started to slip a little bit. Toni noticed this. Here’s the thing, though. It was only when Toni was being confronted by her parents for something that she’d ever really bring up how weird Nicole was acting. It seemed like such a conspiracy.. How could they just blame Toni for things Nicole was doing? But Toni lied ALL THE TIME about what she did, so it just looked like she was trying to shift the blame. She never once approached her parents on a normal day to talk about Nicole. It was maddening because the reader knew what Toni did and didn’t actually do, but she dug that hole herself so many times by being the girl who cried wolf and lied too much to be believed. I mean, her mom was kind of awful, but Toni only made it worse.
Adult Toni didn’t grow up at all, which I think is kind of the point because people don’t grow in prison where the rules for survival are based on dominance and distrust of authority. She stayed the same way, always lying and walking into trouble without seeming to know why. When inmates caused her problems, she either tried to stay under the radar or she got into a fight because it’s not a thing to alert authorities to problems or you’re known as a rat. It did not help someone like Toni. When she got out, she was once again put into situations where she didn’t alert her parole officer, boss, ANYONE about stuff until after it bit her in the butt and made her look bad. Meanwhile, the reader knew that she was being set up, people were lying, and that Toni did nothing wrong. But she just didn’t handle her situation like adults would and constantly ending up walking right into trouble.
Eventually, at the very freaking end, we were able to unearth what actually happened the night Nicole died. It seemed like she was making some progress at being an adult, too, which was good, but it took her ages.
I liked the book and the story, but it was also incredibly frustrating. It was maddening to watch Toni walk herself blindly into trouble. It was agonizing to wait forever for any kind of closure as to what happened. But the story was great, with compelling characters and a nice twist, so I can’t knock it completely. It’s worth the read if you can prepare yourself to read Toni’s point of view.
I almost didn't stick with this book - the narration of the audiobook really bothered me, sounding nasal and whiny at times. But after a while I figured maybe that was part of the character depiction, so I went with it.
The story did finally grab me, and I'm glad I stayed to find out what happened to the main character, Toni, who was falsely imprisoned for her sister's murder when they were in high school. It's a good mystery, but might have been better enjoyed in book form rather than audio.
The story did finally grab me, and I'm glad I stayed to find out what happened to the main character, Toni, who was falsely imprisoned for her sister's murder when they were in high school. It's a good mystery, but might have been better enjoyed in book form rather than audio.
okay, so, i actually enjoyed this, but it's so frustrating when a book has about a million different meaty topics it could really go into and just DOESN'T. there are flashes where it's trying to say something, but never really goes there, which, whatever, popcorn mystery, i get it, but it could be so much more:
- it could have expanded on the cruelty of the prison system. like, i know toni has a terrible time in jail, but not nearly as bad as it, realistically, probably would have been, considering she was CONVICTED for MURDER. and there's never a "wow, the systematic mistreatment i'm dealing with in here/in the halfway house would be bad even if i were guilty" moment, which i was really hoping for.
- it could have done a better job of showing just how magnetic and manipulative shauna was, how she was able to get these girls under her thrall. the horrible things teenagers are willing to do to stay in the good graces of the center of their social circle are so fascinating to me, but a lot of it seemed to be like, "well, people go along with shauna because they already don't like toni." which, also:
- people treating toni like her "badness" is a foregone conclusion
up to and including shauna's father not caring that they got her sent to prison! because she ~would have ended up there anyway~ is.... There, but it's not delved into in a satisfying way, imo. kind of a missed chance to talk about how the system labels certain kids as Bad and dooms them from the start in more depth. - ALSO THE BIG ONE.
POLICE CORRUPTION. OH MY GOD. it's just like "well shauna's dad was just A Bad Cop" like the whole police system isn't set up to let officers get away with whatever they want. no mention of him abusing his position??? no mention of how fucking EASY it is for ANY officers to abuse their position and the trust the public is told to put in them???? C'MON
This book definitely too a while for me to become invested in. The beginning was slow and I didn’t care about any of the characters or what happened o them. About mid way it really picked up though and I became very interested in the story. Although what happened was pretty predictable, why it happened surprised me and that really helped save the book for me. 3.5 stars
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No