Reviews

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

Only show reviews with written explanations

lucygoss's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

rjvrtiska's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional tense 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

5.0

monstl's review

Go to review page

Hated the descriptions of sexual violence. Should have many trigger warning.

melissafirman's review

Go to review page

Night Watch was on my TBR before it won the Pulitzer because I apparently enjoyed one of Jayne Anne Phillip's previous novels, Lark and Termite. (I gave it 4 stars but don't seem to have reviewed it, so I can't tell you much more of my thoughts.) And I started off liking this post-Civil War historical fiction novel, too. Night Watch opens with an intriguing scene: a mother and her thirteen-year-old daughter ConaLee are being transported at night to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. The mother is mute -- we get the sense something traumatic has happened - and she's recently given birth but the "babbies" (this pronounciation of babies kind of irked me, TBH) have been left behind.

So far, so good. I was interested in their back story but it quickly became confusing with time switches and people with two different names and, worst of all, a violent and graphically detailed rape scene. (I'm still a bit shook a day after listening to the audio narration.) From other reviews, it seems that

there are additional assaults yet to come, including of ConaLee

and that was the deciding factor for me to DNF.

Content Warnings

zjanda's review

Go to review page

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

There are scenes in this book that are extremely graphic and disturbing.

I wasn't a fan of this book. It is well researched but I found the writing dense, repetitive, and (despite some poetic and flowery language) somewhat shallow. I'm very surprised to see to see a majority of people score this as "strong character development". I don't feel like I ever got to know any of the characters and therefore was never moved by their struggles. At best the characters escape their tropish borders but none of them feel memorable or lived.

Overall this book is fine. It's extremely underwhelming for a pulitizer prize winner and tiers below the runner up Same Bed Different Dreams. It's well researched and harrowing but never gives you a reason to care about it other than being witness to the horrors it describes. The prose is muddy and makes for a slow read.

The juice just isn't worth the squeeze on this one.