Survive The Night Book Review

I came across Danielle Vega as an author on social media. She was in a list of female horror authors, one of many. I wrote her down, and made a goal to check her writing out, along with the others on the list. I checked out Survive the Night from my local library on my Kindle. Not only that, but I went into the book “blind,” having not looked at any other reviews, or even what the book was about, I liked the name and the cover. Here is my Survive the Night book review.

This book is YA. I didn’t expect it going in. I should have known that there is young adult horror, but for some reason, I just didn’t. The main features of this book are: the protagonist’s pain, her addiction (although, I would argue that she almost has that forced on her) and toxic friendship, and a big ol’ monster. Let’s look at these one-by-one:

Pain

The protagonist (Casey) and her pain is something that is ever-present in the story. It takes a backseat, but colors her worldview as she moves throughout the tale. She grits her teeth against it, she fights it, it almost gets her, it is the thing that nearly wins. Her pain is a shadow, a monkey-on-her-back. It’s another character.

Survive the Night Book Review

Addiction

The story of Casey’s addiction is told through memory. WSe know this story is about addiction from the beginning, but we only see her addiction through flashes. It makes us wonder, is she really addicted? Or did her parents overreact like she keeps on saying, it layers the story with that infamous unreliable narrator feeling. Is she addicted, or does she only think she is? How can someone so young be addicted to something besides their phone?

Toxic Friendship

The heart of this story lives in the friendship between Casey and Shana. It takes minutes to realize that Shana is not a good person. This part of the story, along with the strange romance between Casey and her ex-boyfriend, reminded me why I don’t read YA anymore. However, the toxic relationship, one that you would hope would only happen during those teen-years was heartbreaking, yet relatable. Shana and her larger-than-life antics, her “look at me” ways, reminds all of us of people we know or knew. Their relationship is the one that kept the pages turning.

The Monster

Why pick up a horror novel if there isn’t going to be something horrific? This book certainly delivers. Although the simple prose may not have been something that I was expecting (that’s what I get for not knowing anything about the book beforehand). The monster lurking in the water, something straight out of a Lovecraft story, was something beyond any kind of hopes I had for the novel. I was thinking of a knife-wielding killer, but to get an actual monster? It was so much more than I could have hoped for.

I would say that this is a book for you if you are an actual teenager. Better yet, if you are a female teen who likes scary novels, this book would be a wonderful read. Or, I guess, if you are a writer of teenaged scary novels, this book would be a good read for you. That concludes my Survive the Night book review. Here’s a link to buy it, if you’re interested: Survive the Night