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A review by caughtbetweenpages
That Night by Cyn Balog
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I think a problem for my reading of this book is that it was presented to me as a thriller; the vibe is very much more in line with a CW-type teen drama, 13 Reasons Why-esque story until the last 20 ish pages (which unfortunately did nothing to change my opinion on the above).
The dual timeline worked insofar as it kept me reading/wanting to know how (1) Hailey's past where she's falling in love with Declan and her friendships with Kane + the (unmemorable-except-for-how-much-girlhate-there-was) girls Hailey hung out with are strong and (2) Hailey's present as a deeply depressed, presumed psychotic girl with no friends, marry together. However, in neither timeline was there any sense of urgency, of a building darkness in The Past that could inform the present or of a looming darkness in The Present that is contextualized by the past, which I consider a staple of the thriller genre. Nor was there any active threat to Hailey in the absence of a less defined mood of tension. There's some mystery implied given Hailey's amnesia about the day of Declan's death, but not nearly enough to warrant the plot hinging on the fact that she killed him in a jealous rage thinking he was his new girlfriend , which the whole plot hinged on. Since it WAS the lynchpin of the mystery, I'd have expected there to be at least a tad more weight placed behind that, and not,,, Hailey kind of being terrible to be around.
And she was terrible to be around, both in the present and past timelines! That was the nail in the coffin for me as a reader, personally. It made some sense in the present, where her ennui and lethargy can be explained by her depression, but in the past she is just as uninteresting, lowkey misogynistic, and hyperfocused on a boy who is, frankly, far too good for her (truly boggles the mind that anyone liked her in any way at any point). I'd be fine if she was just unlikeable. The killer is that she was boring. Mainly I read on to see how her terrible but at least somewhat interesting friends would get on.
There were some interesting ideas brought up re: the ways that perfect-on-the-outside people are just as flawed as everyone else, and the ways that religiousness can be either part of that veneer or the cause of a pressure that makes the veneer crack, but given the marketing of the story, I expected less introspection and more dynamism to carry the plot. And it seemed, given the ending, that the author intended for that to be the case and for the book to be a thriller and not a literary fiction piece pontificating about grief in the youth, so I feel justified in wanting and expecting that! I still had fun with this book, but in a vague sort of way which I don't think I'll be returning to.
The dual timeline worked insofar as it kept me reading/wanting to know how (1) Hailey's past where she's falling in love with Declan and her friendships with Kane + the (unmemorable-except-for-how-much-girlhate-there-was) girls Hailey hung out with are strong and (2) Hailey's present as a deeply depressed, presumed psychotic girl with no friends, marry together. However, in neither timeline was there any sense of urgency, of a building darkness in The Past that could inform the present or of a looming darkness in The Present that is contextualized by the past, which I consider a staple of the thriller genre. Nor was there any active threat to Hailey in the absence of a less defined mood of tension. There's some mystery implied given Hailey's amnesia about the day of Declan's death, but not nearly enough to warrant
And she was terrible to be around, both in the present and past timelines! That was the nail in the coffin for me as a reader, personally. It made some sense in the present, where her ennui and lethargy can be explained by her depression, but in the past she is just as uninteresting, lowkey misogynistic, and hyperfocused on a boy who is, frankly, far too good for her (truly boggles the mind that anyone liked her in any way at any point). I'd be fine if she was just unlikeable. The killer is that she was boring. Mainly I read on to see how her terrible but at least somewhat interesting friends would get on.
There were some interesting ideas brought up re: the ways that perfect-on-the-outside people are just as flawed as everyone else, and the ways that religiousness can be either part of that veneer or the cause of a pressure that makes the veneer crack, but given the marketing of the story, I expected less introspection and more dynamism to carry the plot. And it seemed, given the ending, that the author intended for that to be the case and for the book to be a thriller and not a literary fiction piece pontificating about grief in the youth, so I feel justified in wanting and expecting that! I still had fun with this book, but in a vague sort of way which I don't think I'll be returning to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Mental illness
Moderate: Misogyny and Murder