Honestly, this was not a book that was really for me. The story felt a bit over the top, and overly predictable. It dragged on to long, and rehashed the same plot arc over and over. The mystery and trauma and the way it all unfolded was well done, but I found myself skimming more than I would have liked, and sludging through a good part of it.

This is an emotionally tough book about mental health, suppressed memories and abuse. Although these are very hard subjects to read about, this is a beautifully written story about a strong woman who works hard to deal with her demons.

The synopsis is SUPER compelling. The story itself? Equally so. I was on the edge of my seat (or rather, bed) the whole time I read. Awesome book!

This book touches on every woman's inner feelings - and has some pretty heavy themes at times. Rape, murder, infedility .
Not for the faint of heart. I enjoyed stepping out of my book comfort zone. Would definitely read another book by Anna quinn.

After seeing a young girl who isn't there, Nora Brown seeks help from a neurologist and a psychologist. I read through this one quickly and didn't love it because the dark secrets Nora finally uncovers weren't the impossible stuff I'm used to seeing in suspense fiction. And that makes sense -- this novel started out as a memoir. If I'd known that up front, I probably would've gone into the book with a different set of expectations.

Nora lives a quiet life with her husband and six year old daughter but one day, after dismissing her high school class she is confronted by the apparition of a young girls face. Terrified but hopeful it's a strange one off she tries to continue with life but within a day the girl is back. Nora seeks medical attention and then eventually sees a psychiatrist. It's at that stage secrets from her past unknown even to her begin to be revealed by the mysterious blue eyed girl.

This is a very affecting and impossibly sad novel. It's not much of a spoiler, but perhaps a warning, that child abuse is part of this story and the abuse is directly described rather than been alluded to. It's done sensitively but was for me, incredibly hard to read. For that reason I'd find it difficult to recommend this to anyone which is a shame because it is very well written with well rounded and sympathetic characters (hence the stars) It's just not an easy subject to read so despite all of its positive attributes it was really not a happy reading experience. Had I realised before requesting the novel I would have avoided it like the plague. Stories like this do need to be told I suppose - I just prefer to avoid them.

I really enjoyed reading this book. My only qualm with it is that it ended too soon. I wanted to know more of what happens to Nora at the end.

The last thing Nora would have thought the face meant was a breakdown. A brain tumor? Sure. Cancer? Bring it on. A breakdown? But I'm not crazy! The one thing that Nora feels will cripple people's opinions of her.

Once she figures out the reason behind the breakdowns she becomes even more stubborn. Especially when it comes time to tell her family what is going on. She's so afraid of their reactions that she will risk making progress in her own treatment.

An emotional ride that will have you looking at mental health from a different angle.

‘The Night Child’ by Anna Quinn caught me by surprise and took off racing from the first page so that I read half the book at my first sitting. But it is not a thriller, it was simply that I didn’t want to stop reading. I confess to selecting the book on my Kindle having forgotten the book blurb; perhaps I should do that more often.
Nora Brown teaches teenagers about Shakespeare and poetry; so she knows about the imagination, imagery and dreams. Then one day at work, floating in front of her she sees the face of a blue-eyed girl, a face without a body. Quinn writes about Nora’s fear, panic, guilt, shame, with an insight into the private mind and this made me believe Nora from page one. Seeking answers, she talks to a psychiatrist and so starts an unravelling of Nora’s past, a past buried so deep she had no idea of its existence. As the revelations pick up pace, she must deal with a damaged teenager at school, decide whether to confront her unfaithful husband Paul, and reassure her six-year-old daughter Fiona. Stress layered on top of stress, which makes the child’s face appear more often. Soon she hears the accompanying voice too.
Why have Nora’s difficulties started now? Is there a connection with Fiona, who has just celebrated her sixth birthday? Is the trigger to do with Nora’s own sixth birthday? At the root of it all, perhaps not surprisingly, is the death of her mother and the subsequent abandonment by her father. The only constant in her life is her younger brother James. Raised by their grandfather in Ireland, Irish myths and Catholic saints are woven throughout Nora’s story. The present day action takes place between Thanksgiving in November 1996 and February 1997.
This is the sort of book which makes you think ‘please not that’ and turn the page to see if you have guessed correctly. The subject is not new but Quinn approaches it from a fresh angle which shows how the impact of childhood unhappiness can be repressed only to reappear with a vengeance decades later. I liked Nora. She is not a victim. At first she is afraid she is going ‘crazy’. Her primal instinct is to protect her own child, she constantly reassures Fiona that she loves her ‘beyond the stars and back’. But as the memories begin to return thick and fast in her sessions with psychiatrist David, things also unravel at home as Paul accuses her of being ‘a zombie’. David reminds her that she is in control but to ‘be careful not to scare yourself’. Where will the memories lead her and will she be able to cope?
I really enjoyed this book. It came as a bolt out of the blue after having read a series of historical novels. It is a powerful and sensitive portrayal of emotional damage and a person’s capacity to face it and recover. This is a debut, but I would never have guessed, it is written with a steady hand and full heart. The juxtaposition of Quinn’s beautiful prose, and her subject matter, is startling.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Night Child.
When Nora Brown, a high school English teacher, unexpectedly sees a child's face floating in her high school classroom, I was hooked to this thrill ride of a novel by Anna Quinn. After another visit from this ghostly child, Nora seeks the help of a psychiatrist who assists her as she delves into secrets that she has kept even from herself. The discovery of these long buried secrets and the impact this has on Nora and her family are heartbreaking. Readers experience this painful discovery along with Nora in and out of the psychiatrist's office as the past and present collide and fracture life as Nora knew it. The Night Child is a powerful and heartbreaking story that will leave readers thinking long after they have finished reading.

“The arms and legs, hips and hands, neck and mouth of her mother crashing down the basement stairs, the glass shattering. And now a green olive—the green olive alive, moving fast and wild, announcing the falling body, bouncing and coming next to the black part of Nora’s left shoe. And then, a final thud. For a long while, Nora waits stock-still in the dead silence , staring at the motionless body, the belly and breasts flattened, the head turned unnaturally to the side, tangled auburn hair obscuring eyes, nothing moving at all. Finally, Nora stands up and steps over the green olive and walks to the phone and dials “O”. She gasps to the operator, “My mother, it’s my mother.”
The text above speaks for itself. The novel is full of deep rich text which pries emotion both out of the character and the reader. The author’s finger hooked, motioning, come on, keep reading, its going to get even better. A gripping novel you will not be able to put down.

Well written and fast paced. Slightly disturbing subject matter and definitely not for everyone! Thanks for the Advanced readers copy!

How much can the mind overcome to get over childhood traumas? This book will have you questioning everything your brain is capable of.

This book was very personal to me, and I won't go into too many details, but suffice it to say that I *AM* Nora Brown, right down to having taught high school English. When she began to see the little girl, and agonized over why, I felt my own heart racing in sympathy. Absolutely must include trigger warnings for anyone struggling with mental health and/or who've suffered abuse, but definitely one for my shelves, to be read over and over, simply so Nora will not suffer alone.

The Night Child captivated me from start to end. I was super intrigued by the issues faced by Nora, a high school English teacher, and she deals with apparitions and issues from her past. The character was well-developed, as Quinn examines her role as a wife, mother, teacher, friend, daughter, and sister. I look forward to reading more works by Anna Quinn.

This powerful fictional book focuses on traumatic childhood experiences and the suppressed psychological impact that can emerge as a result of these at any time. It is articulated so well, so that the story captures you and holds you to the end, even when some parts are difficult to read. Yes it is a candid, no holds bar description of the abuse endured – because frankly it is what happens, but this is balanced by the beautifully woven, nuances that are poignant, moving and inspiring.

It centres on Nora Brown a teacher of high school English, who lives a quiet life in Seattle with her husband and six-year-old daughter. One day, a girl’s face appears above the students’ desks; a luminous face with startling blue eyes. Nora quickly dismisses the vision and attempts to disregard it. But it doesn’t really go away and is the start of a dissociation that transforms the way she lives; one which forces her to face up to her life and her past in order to be able to continue to move forward.

Whilst traumatic it has an underlying message of hope, endurance and the ability to heal – even if this may be a slow and unpredictable journey. It also embodies a story of resilience, hope, and the capacity of the mind, body, and spirit to save itself despite all odds. Emotional and bold, it deals with the experience of sexual abuse in a unique and insightful way. It will make you challenge how you feel about Nora as she traverses a roller-coaster of emotions and reactions and indeed it will make you stop and think long after the denouement. Definitely one to read.

Incredible book, page turner; very well written. A journey into the dark recesses of an abused woman's mind. Highly recommended!

I wasn’t sure what I was going to think about this book. The description made me think it might be a little too supernatural for my tastes, but I ended up like it. It was a fairly fast read and the author had a nice writing style. Probably a 3.5 from me.

When a little girl in a red dress appears in her empty classroom, Nora doesn’t know what to think. But this first appearance is just the beginning of what becomes an endless battle with insomnia and nightmares–episodes that Nora’s husband isn’t sure how to handle. To try and figure out what’s wrong, Nora begins to see a therapist who begins to take her back through her childhood in hopes of unraveling the mystery of Nora’s visions. Something deeper, more sinister must be at play here. She can’t just be going crazy. Right?

But what Nora has to handle is more than just trying to navigate this new onset of symptoms. Questions about her own family–about her husband–soon converge with the work Nora is doing with her therapist. Anna Quinn has carefully crafted the narrative of this story so that it leaves the reader guessing whether or not they can trust Nora, or any other character. Especially Nora’s husband: a man who has the power to take away Nora’s home, her daughter, and her freedom if her symptoms keep getting worse.

Quinn balances elements of Women’s Fiction with Domestic Thrillers, following a woman through a terrible experience while keeping the reader on the edge of their seats. Combined with beautiful, anxious prose that gives a unique look into Nora’s splintered mind, The Night Child is a must-read for fans of Mary Kubica and Karen Perry.

I finished The Night Child by Anna Quinn in one sitting over the holidays, and it was not at all what I was expecting. I didn’t read much about it before it was sent to me, but I was expecting a suspenseful thriller or some kind of supernatural mystery. 

What I actually experienced was the very emotional repercussions of a suppressed trauma that manifests years after the triggering events. And triggering they were, much like this book was, so be prepared. 

I feel like this must have been therapeutic to write, as the subject manner was dealt with in such an emotional and realistic way, coming from a place of deep knowledge and understanding.  I found this very moving and enlightening and I feel like anyone who has experienced trauma or is currently dealing with something similar can intimately relate to the feelings and thoughts that are described in this book.

It wasn’t so much a story, though. We don’t see much outside of the current events and there isn’t much character building outside of realizing and accepting the circumstances, but it is a strong snapshot of what it’s like dealing with a certain kind of repressed trauma and how it can have such a lasting impact on your life, even when you can’t seem to remember it’s there.

I didn’t necessarily enjoy the book or the characters, they didn’t feel very dimensional to me, but I felt the subject matter was described and dealt with in a very respectable and sensitive way and this topic is so difficult to talk about, so I admire anyone brave enough to write about it and write about it well. 

This of course won’t be for everyone and you might be surprised by what you get if you have misleading expectations going into it, but it is a very important look at these painfully traumatic experiences and I think that in itself is worth reading.

Debut novelist Anna Quinn does a fantastic job of presenting an engaging and realistic narrative of an adult coming to terms with the sexual abuse she suffered as a child and has repressed. Characterizations are strong, including the two children featured in the plot. I hope to see more from this author.