A review by carleneinspired
That Night, by Cyn Balog
3.0
Find my review at Carlene Inspired.
That Night follows Hailey as she tries to uncover the truth about what happened to her boyfriend, Declan. He was happy, a believer, it had to be something else. Hailey has selective amnesia though and it is only after she become a pseudo-Nancy Drew that she begins remembering the events leading up to Declan's passing. Kane, her best friend and Declan's step-brother, remains her steadfast friend, but as the truth is revealed it becomes harder for Hailey to distinguish from what is real and what is not.
That Night by Cyn Balog left me feeling sad, like how could any of these people continue to interact as they were after what had happened. How was any of this allowed to happen under the watchful eye of parents and teachers and friends? Oh wait, the parents were absent, school seems to be an afterthought, and no one thought that the strange interactions of one individual were worth mentioning. Is it a gripping story? Absolutely. I didn't catch onto the big twists into quite late into the story, but by then I was already just so sad. Hailey lacks everything she needs to have to be a successful person, it's so painfully obvious, and it's sad to me that she feels like a secondary character even in her own narrative. I couldn't see how everything amounted to what it did, though I admit Hailey was supremely selfish. All her actions should have made someone help seek mental health assistance, not just throw a rug over it.
It feels like this book was meant to be a thriller, but the mental health portion is handled in such an insensitive way that it makes it more of an uncomfortable read rather than a shocking one.
That Night follows Hailey as she tries to uncover the truth about what happened to her boyfriend, Declan. He was happy, a believer, it had to be something else. Hailey has selective amnesia though and it is only after she become a pseudo-Nancy Drew that she begins remembering the events leading up to Declan's passing. Kane, her best friend and Declan's step-brother, remains her steadfast friend, but as the truth is revealed it becomes harder for Hailey to distinguish from what is real and what is not.
That Night by Cyn Balog left me feeling sad, like how could any of these people continue to interact as they were after what had happened. How was any of this allowed to happen under the watchful eye of parents and teachers and friends? Oh wait, the parents were absent, school seems to be an afterthought, and no one thought that the strange interactions of one individual were worth mentioning. Is it a gripping story? Absolutely. I didn't catch onto the big twists into quite late into the story, but by then I was already just so sad. Hailey lacks everything she needs to have to be a successful person, it's so painfully obvious, and it's sad to me that she feels like a secondary character even in her own narrative. I couldn't see how everything amounted to what it did, though I admit Hailey was supremely selfish. All her actions should have made someone help seek mental health assistance, not just throw a rug over it.
It feels like this book was meant to be a thriller, but the mental health portion is handled in such an insensitive way that it makes it more of an uncomfortable read rather than a shocking one.