Dead of Night by Carlyle Labuschagne | Rating: ★★★☆☆

As a note, a copy of this novel was sent to me via NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

To be perfectly honest with you guys, it took me months to get into this book. I almost DNF it multiple times and even sat it down for half of the time it took me to read it. It's not that Dead of Night is a bad book by any means, it's just that it wasn't wholly my cup of tea and took me a bit of time to find my own groove within it. While it didn't click with me right away, I will say that by the end of the novel I was much more intrigued by where the series could, and will, head in future installments.

Which is why I'm excited to pick up the second installment in the future. Aftershock has the potential to only get better and grow from Dead of Night onward. Carlyle Labuschagne takes on an almost hypnotic tone as the story goes deeper and I really respect that--it takes a lot to tell a story and it takes a lot to improve upon it with every page.

There was a lot going on in a short amount of time that could have been developed a little more. I had many moments where I liked the world, the premise, the characters, but ached for just a little more in depth explorations on each. Dead of Night had a nasty of habit of dragging on or going too quickly; it became its own worst enemy for a portion of its time.





I found myself quite sympathetic to the leading lady of the novel: I can't imagine living in such a world with no prior memories. It's a dark notion, just not knowing, and that would be one of my biggest fears.

Overall, when Dead of Night picked up, I found myself enjoying it much more than I had at the start. Here's to hoping the sequel improves upon Dead of Nights faults.