Reviews - The Night Watch | The StoryGraph

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805 reviews for:

I'm a bit conflicted on this one. On the one hand, I absolutely loved the setting, the worldbuilding, the attention to detail — that was all wonderful. The relationships among the characters were messy and complex, although several of the characters themselves didn't actually seem to get much development or growth. And here we get to my main complaint: nothing happened. Events took place, yes, but it was hard to identify any kind of story arc, character growth, or any real point to the story. This was exacerbated by the reverse-chronological sequence: nothing gets any kind of closure. We see things that have been alluded to in prior sections, but none of them are any kind of surprise; it's a slow reveal of...nothing terribly unexpected, really, given the setup. It was wonderful to revel in the setting, and some of the individual scenes were affecting, but overall, it mainly left me with a lingering sense of "so what?"

ashbashcrashed's review against another edition

4.0

I don't really understand why the book went from 1947 to 1944 to 1941 instead of from 1941 to 1944 to 1947. It doesn't add much tension, and it makes more sense chronologically.

mairi_curly's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

carole_leone's review against another edition

2.0

I did not care for the way this book moved backward in time, for me it caused confusion in the storytelling. The characters were well developed but the story moved too slowly.

llorenza's review against another edition

4.0

Allereerst: Sarah Waters heeft een ontzettend vlotte schrijfstijl. Zodanig vlot dat ik nauwelijks merkte dat ik niet in mijn moedertaal aan het lezen was.

Het verhaal zelf speelt zich vlak na/tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog af en keert terug in de tijd (van 1947 naar 1944 naar 1941). Dit heeft als nadeel dat je al weet hoe het eindigt en bovendien is er door het tijdsinterval van 3 jaar telkens veel dat niet verteld wordt. Maar door terug te keren in de tijd worden de vier personages -die mij aanvankelijk niet erg aanspraken- uitgediept. Zeker in de laatste 100 pagina's, wanneer je de personages kent en wanneer je helemaal ondergedompeld bent in de sfeer van constante bombardementen, is het boek bijzonder sterk en aangrijpend. Aanrader.

tylertylertyler's review against another edition

4.0

There were some sections I was less excited about, and felt a little less interested in reading, but overall this was a great book. The ending (or, I suppose, the beginning) of all the characters' stories is remarkable and ties everything together so well. Very tragically, of course, but very well.

too_fond_of_books's review against another edition

2.0

I read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters earlier this year and loved it so I was excited to pick up The Night Watch. Unfortunately I was hugely disappointed and did not enjoy this much at all.