I felt like this book started off strong and then got progressively more confusing and stilted. The ending was really disappointing and frustrating to me. I realize that there is a sequel, but instead of feeling like a cliffhanger, it felt like the author just randomly stopped writing. I actually thought I had accidentally pressed some button on my Kindle that skipped me to the preview of the next book. But, no, that actually was the end of the book . . . I did think the premise of the book -- 3 teenagers basically living their lives at night due to their diagnosis of xeroderma pigmentosa -- was interesting. In fact, that was the reason I picked up the book in the first place. But it felt to me like Mitchard was trying to tell too many stories at once leaving little time for character development. "What We Saw at Night" is a novel written by Jacquelyn Mitchard the tells the story of three teenagers who suffer from Xeroderma Pigmentosum, Because of this deceased the trio is cursed to never be out in the sunlight and do all of their daily activities at night. Most people see them as very strange, usually going as far as openly calling them "vampires", but this does not bother the three because, to them, everyone is just a "Daytimers". The story begins to develop when the Allie Kim, the main protagonist, hears about Parkour from her best friend, Juliet, and decides to roam the nights doing these stunts with both Juliet and her male friend, Rob. These three are just teenagers seeking big thrills in the middle of the night, however things quickly change when secrets are revealed and trust is questioned. In this book, there were some things I liked as well as some tings that I absolutely hated. One of the things that I thought lacked the most was the overall story in general. The timeline of the book is about a half of a year, and in some moments the author does a terrible job at making time transitions in order to keep you "up to date". Another thing that I thought was kind of poorly done was the direction the author decided to create the story. You'd think he's going one way, and then he goes the complete opposite direction. In the theory, the book's plot sounds more interesting than it is actually portrayed. That kind of disappointed me a little and made me question if I wanted to continue reading. On the other side,something that was great about the book was it's amazing characters. This books consists of very little characters, so the author does a good job at personalizing them. I found Allie very relatable and found her whole outlook on life amusing and interesting. Overall, the characters were really great, I just thought the story itself needed some improvement. After everything I would probably give this book about a 3.5 and probably recommend it to someone in 8th to 9th grade. The book is not that complicated and after reading it, I don't really think of it as "good highschool" literature. If the plot had been better than maybe but I think they really did the bare-minimum when it came to story structure.
What do You think about What We See At Night (2000)?
got this in the mail last week, my latest book win! =) thank you kidsbookclubbook.com's book blast!
—savannahfoster2000
The characters in this book were a little annoying but I thought it was an interesting premise.
—Glad81
It was a light read. Reminded me of The Twilight Books
—frostfleur
