Quick Synopsis

A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.

In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants.

Book Review

Why are people not screaming from the rooftops about Nightwatching? This is the best book I have read so far this year, and it is sure to make my best books of the year list.

Nightwatching is a debut thriller about a home break in and what a mother will do to protect her children from a predator. Yet, it is also about so much more.

I was initially skeptical if I would enjoy Nightwatching and decided to read it anyway. From the synopsis, it seemed that a major focus of the book would be protecting children, which did not sound like a storyline I would enjoy. What I found was beyond my expectations, especially for a debut novel.

Nightwatching quickly pulls readers into the story as the protagonist hears someone else in her house and takes off from there. I easily became completely immersed in the book while reading. Whenever I was forced to stop, it took me a bit to reorient to my surroundings and realize I was not hiding from a man threatening violence. Sierra expertly wields the written word to harness your emotions and ensure that the tension, anxiety, and fear the protagonist feels transcends the page. It is difficult to describe just how caught up in this story I became. Do not be surprised if you find yourself holding your breath while reading. I was so gripped and consumed by Nightwatching that I actually dreamed that I was the protagonist.

Sierra expertly created characters that feel like real, complete people you can reach out and touch. Unfortunately in a story of this kind, that also means that the villains are well-developed and get under your skin. I found two particular characters infuriating enough to cuss them out some and gasp aloud at their remarks. (My spouse made some hilarious comments about witnessing my Nightwatching reading experience.)

While the tension and horror are elemental to this novel, I did not anticipate also reading a blistering social critique along with the storyline. In Nightwatching, Sierra examines our current patriarchal culture that blames and dismisses victims. This accurate portrayal is both maddening and effective, demonstrating that the horror does not always cease after the crime or violation.

Told in the close third-person narrative, Nightwatching is a brilliant debut and a heart-pounding story of survival that will stay with you long after you finish. My review cannot do it the justice it deserves. If you have every questioned a woman’s intuition, you should read this book.

Rating

Overall Rating

Writing

Plot

Character Development