The Night Child (ARC) - (United States)

Started: July 24, 2017

Finished: July 28, 2017

Country: United States

Publication: Jan 30, 2018

Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I must confess that the title piqued my curiosity and I thought this might be a rather conventional mystery/thriller/suspense novel. Boy, was I wrong!

This book deals with a topic that might be very difficult for some readers, and without spoiling the plot, I will try to provide some detail.

We meet Nora, who lives in Seattle and on the surface has it all - husband, daughter, a job she enjoys as a teacher. But it seems that Nora has a secret, and she really didn't know that she had a secret, or exactly what that secret was, until some strange things start to happen. Images start to form and memories start to emerge that she has kept buried for many, many years. She is diagnosed with PTSD, and thus begins her journey of healing. Nora desperately loves her child Fiona, and Fiona is the anchor that she must tether herself to if she wants to survive and work through the impacts that PTSD has on her and her family.

With help from a therapist, Nora is able to slowly remember certain memories and confront  them, painful though they are. And it is this process that I found most interesting. I have not been diagnosed with PTSD, nor have I been subjected to any of the experiences that Nora had to live through as a child. This book re-enforced for me that there are some experiences that are so horrendous, so heinous, so difficult for our minds to process (especially for young children) that as a natural defense mechanism, our mind attempts to help by burying those experiences and memories into places that allow us to function and have some type of life. Hopefully, with a good support system of medical doctors, therapists, family and friends, a person suffering with PTSD can work through the issues, identify them and have as close to a "normal" life as possible. Nora is lucky to have such a support system (for the most part) but it is Fiona who truly is her anchor; it is for Fiona that Nora perseveres and works toward a better life.

I was not especially convinced with the ending, but I did appreciate the symbolism that the ending reflected. Overall, I did enjoy the book and I would recommend to others.