Book Review: Night School By C. J. Daugherty

Night School

(Night School #1)

By C. J. Daugherty

Allie's world is falling apart...

She hates her school. Her brother has run away. And she's just been arrested.

Again.

Now her parents are sending her away to a boarding school where she doesn't know a soul.

But instead of hating her new school, Allie finds she's happy there. She's making friends. And then there's Sylvain, a suave French student who openly flirts with her. And Carter, the brooding loner who seems to have her back.

Soon, though, Allie discovers Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Nothing there is as it seems. And her new friends are hiding dangerous secrets.

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My Review:

*I won a physical ARC Copy of this book from another blog.

I really don't know how I got it in my head that this book had to involve some paranormal phenomenon. The title makes that a strong suggestion, the US cover helps a lot, the synopsis basically leaves you in the dark and throws you into the book. Yet, I didn't encounter anything in the fantasy realm. I was somewhat disappointed, but then again, if  someone told me before hand that I wouldn't find anything out-of-this-world in this novel, I probably wouldn't even have looked at it twice. Which still would have been sad since this is actually, putting aside my need of paranormal-ness, a very good book.

This story is one huge conspiracy theory. It actually doesn't get too into how it all works, but you can deduce that it is one hell of an elaborate scheme. Which, coincidentally, revolves around Mrs. Allie's (main heroine's) family.

"Things are not what they seem. People aren't always who they seem to be."

I liked Allie, from the beginning. Sure she was a trouble maker and feeling lost in the world, but her attitude was what made her so relatable. She wasn't the oh-I-hate-my-life-so-I'll-just-do-nothing-in-a-corner. No, she was the I'll-live-vicariously-even-if-it-kills-me kind of gal. 

I am Team Carter! He came off as VERY sketchy in the beginning, but the more you see Allie interact with him the more you understand his side of the story. Deep down (and when no one was looking) he's actually a pretty great, gentle and caring guy (toward Allie, that is). Over all, I think he's the best pick.

I don't know if it was just me, but I didn't like Syl-VAN since the beginning. He was just TOO nice and TOO willing to befriend the new and not-belonging-there new girl. I suspected he had second intentions from the beginning. Also, what he tried to do to Allie was totally down played in this novel. There was also (after that night) no talking of bruises and Allie talking to the Headmistress about it either. What happened to pressing charges in cases of attempted rape. 

Something else that bothered me was how the author never described when Allie changed clothes. I like knowing if the character changed clothes to sleep, for example. It seemed like Allie lived all those weeks wearing just a change of her uniform and sometimes her version of running gear. What happened to wearing PJ's when going to bed? When she get's up does she shower? Put on makeup? 

Overall, this was a good story. Since it's not really my style in genre and even though is was a great surprise, I won't be reading Book #2. Though, for fans of this genre (Suspense? Thriller? Mystery?) I do recommend the sequel, because there was somewhat a minor cliff hanger.

Favorite Quotes:

"No matter how hard she tried to change her life, it didn't work. Trouble was her default setting."

"Everybody turns on me. Everybody leaves me."

"Standing still as a corpse, Allie held her breath. She wore her running clothes (...). (...) she figured she must be practically invisible. Think Catwoman, she told herself"

My Rating: