Publisher’s Synopsis:

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

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.

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: February 6, 2024
Source: Borrowed from the Library
Rating: 3.5 Stars

My Thoughts:

NIGHTWATCHING is a nerve-wracking literary thriller about a mother and her two young children hiding from a man who’s invaded their home. There were parts of this book that were truly terrifying, and it’s something I would not want to read if I was home alone!

Overall, I’m left with mixed feelings. There were so many flashbacks that slowed the pace, and the main character’s ongoing inner monologue was a bit much. On the flip side, the home invasion parts were riveting.

The book highlights the ways women are gaslit by men not wanting to believe them, and all the men in this book were pretty awful. Even her 5-year old son was annoying. UGH! I ended up very frustrated with the main character several times, and maybe that was the point. The reader gets to feel the same frustration that she does. NIGHTWATCHING was good, but I didn’t love it.