Review: What We Saw At Night

What We Saw At Night
by Jaquelyn Mitchard
Pages: 272
Release Date: January 8, 2013
by Soho Teen

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Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.”

On a random summer night, the trio catches a glimpse of what appears to be murder. Allie alone takes it upon herself to investigate, and the truth comes at an unthinkable price. Navigating the shadowy world of specialized XP care, extreme sports, and forbidden love, Allie ultimately uncovers a secret that upends everything she believes about the people she trusts the most.

*A copy was provided by Soho Teen for review purposes*

I can honestly say that I have never read a book like What We Saw At Night…but it doesn’t automatically follow that it was an awesome book.  I must admit that I was a bit disappointed in it.  While the idea was really good, I feel like the story moved a little too slow, with a lot of unnecessary info-dumps throughout the book, which I usually just skipped.  There wasn’t a lot of action, but the plot was kind of complex, and it was interesting.  The writing was pretty good, and I liked how Mitchard got right into the story, but I just didn’t really click with this book.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this cast either, although, I will admit, they made the book more interesting.  I think the most interesting character was Juliet.  She was definitely spirited, but also kind of annoying.  She wasn’t exactly the best friend you could ever ask for, and she was kind of mean as well.  I wasn’t a huge fan of Allie either. She didn’t really have much personality, and she was kind of boring.  Rob was my favorite character in this book, and that was mostly just because he was pretty nice and he was a guy ;P

I really wish I could have liked this book a bit more, but I just didn’t really enjoy it.  What with the slow storyline and the meh characters, I had to give this book a not-so-great rating.

2.5 pink flowers