A review by booklvrkat
Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Setting: Winter, New England, Massachusetts, an older farmhouse purchased with her husband. 
Time of day: Night, bedtime for her young children. 
Senses Used: Touch, it’s suffocatingly dark so she’s going to have to escape with her sense of direction and small touches. Hearing, she knows the sound of her home like the back of her hand, every creak, rumble, and click. Sight, not much since the farmhouse is old and the corners hold shadows darker than ink. Smell, is that fire? 
 
“Easier to believe a woman’s lying than that bad things happened on your watch. Easier to believe the simplest thing is always correct. And it’s simple to say a woman is crazy.” 
 
From a first-time author, this psychological thriller is mind-boggling. Tracy Sierra knows just what to describe to notch up the tension as the mother is grabbing her children, trying to keep them quiet, all the while eluding the shadow-man she’s just seen in her house. While the tension is extreme throughout the story, and as the past to present timelines intersect, we learn that all is not as expected, and to be believed she’s going to have to take matters into her own hands. I listened to this story in one day, the narrator, Emily Ellet (she’s fabulous, and I will be looking for her voice again). I was breathless and thunderstruck in the blizzard of this story. 
 
Fun fact: Tracy Sierra used her own house and the mystery behind it for the description of this story. 
 
CW/TW: misogyny, gun violence, kidnapping, stalking, gaslighting, pedophilia, chronic illness 
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