NIGHTWATCHING
TRACY SIERRA
*****
There was someone in the house.
Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. Then 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...
In that split second, she has three choices.
Should she hide? Should she run? Or should she fight?
MY REVIEW
***** A mother wakes up to the sounds of footsteps in her house. Gathering her children she goes to hide in the walls of her unique house. Who is after her and what do they want?
Nightwatching is a chilling read, I hadn’t really realised how much it was affecting me until someone dropped something in the room next to me whilst I was reading it and I jumped out of my skin! This book creeps up on you, reels you in and keeps you hooked. I really don’t want to give too much away as it really is best to go into the story without knowing anything beforehand.
The writing is superb and even the small details (such as the fact we never get to know the name of the mother or her children) makes for a well-crafted read. There are flashbacks dotted around the main story, where we get to know more about the main character and her life up to this point. This also means that small reveals and twists can be drip-fed to the reader in a nicely paced way. This also means that we feel like we really get to know The Mother and empathise with her, but are often kept on edge, unsure of what the next revelation will be.
Overall Nightwatching is a superbly crafted book – a thrilling debut and I’m excited to read another book by Tracy Sierra – certainly an author to watch! Nightwatching is a Kindig Gem for 2024 and thank you to NetGalley & Penguin – Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton and Viking for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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