Review: Nightstruck by Jenna Black

Book Blurb:

It starts with a cry in the night.

Becket, walking her dog one winter evening, fears it’s an abandoned baby left out in the cold. But it is something else—something evil—and it tricks Becket into opening a doorway to another realm, letting a darkness into our world, a corruption that begins transforming Philadelphia into a sinister and menacing version of itself…but only at night.

The changes are subtle at first, causing Becket to doubt her senses and her sanity. But soon the nightmarish truth is impossible to deny: By day, the city is just a city, but at night it literally comes alive with malevolent purpose. Brick and steel become bone, streetlights turn into gallows, and hungry alleys wait to snare mortal victims. Terrified citizens huddle indoors after dusk, as others succumb to the siren song of the night, letting their darker sides run wild.

Once, Becket’s biggest problems were living up to her police commissioner father’s high expectations and a secret crush on her best friend’s boyfriend. Now she must find a way to survive and protect her loved ones…before the darkness takes her as well.

My Review:

5 Out Of 5 Hearts

Genre: Mystery, Scary, Supernatural, Suspense, Teen--

One night while walking her dog, Becket hears a baby crying. Regardless of her apprehension and the fact her dog is freaking out, she goes to help the baby. What she finds was not a baby, not really anything she could describe outside of a nightmare, with piercing eyes. She ends up getting cut by something in this strange “baby” bundle which then dissolves into the night. Becket calls the police, but nobody believes her claim, not even her police Commissioner Father. This was the last night the world was normal.

I equally loved and was horrified by this book. It was so interesting and different and odd, as well as eerie, and disturbing and supernatural. I had no idea what I was getting into but man can I not wait to get into more with the next book. This is the first in a series (duology?trilogy?) and the ending was awful and bittersweet and sad and I am hooked. This was my first book by this author and it will not be my last. The idea for this book is unlike anything I have ever read and the author did not pull any punches. Without giving anything away, nobody is safe and the unexpected is the norm. I was kept on my toes, and when I started to relax, something terrible would happen that shook me out of my comfort zone. I could not put down this book.

There is a lot of strange things and violence that goes on in this book, but there are no answers to anything. The story has a slow build, but I do not mean that in a negative way at all. The world (or the city, actually) changes into something bizarre and unknown gradually for the first half of the book until utter madness exists. But while we get this slow build, there was a lot of character development for Becket (who I really liked and rooted for despite her conflicted feelings) as well as the side characters like Luke and Piper, as well as the questions surrounding Aleric. The author eases us into the surreal environment gradually, with relationship building between the characters to help set the tone for the outcome of this book and the personal drama that goes on. Mixed in here and there were short chapters from random people who became victims of the changes, fast and violent to help paint the world. The author is really good with descriptions because I could see the scary things that roamed and the acts committed as if I was there.

I will make this review short because I don’t want to give anything away. I enjoyed this book and the terrible things that occurred in the pages. Be aware that it is not for the faint of heart because there is murder and gore thrown around casually. I need the next book like immediately to see what will happen next because the ending was SHOCKING.

I received this title from the publisher in return for my honest review.