I did not finish this book, just unable to get into the plot or enjoy the characters enough.I do wish that the summary had a mention or hint to the sci fi genre of the book.

I feel like the synopsis and marketing for this story were a little off. It definitely should have been listed as a sci-fi story. I even went back and checked and did not see anything referencing to aliens. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t immerse myself into the story as I was unable to relate with the main character due to….aliens lol

I wasn’t able to finish this book. Because of this, it is my policy not to review the book on my site or on Goodreads/Amazon. I also didn’t mark it DNF.

I couldn’t get into this book. I tried multiple times and it just didn’t grab my attention. I skimmed through hoping something would grab me but nothing ever did.

Eh? Fun sci-fi suspense novel. It's got no real mystery to it because you'll quickly put the pieces together, but it sure has a lot of body horror and gore. Also, f/f pairing!

I don't know if I can actually review this book because I read an ARC that was just short of 300 pages compared to the final version's 352 pages. I'm well aware that plenty about books can change between the ARCs folks like me get and the hardcovers/ebooks put up for sale, but there's usually not so much change that the page count gets upped by 50. Anything I have to say may have been rendered moot by the significant amount of added content. This isn't a dilemma I've faced before.

<i>*This book was given to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review*</i>

Disturbing and immersive, had no idea how much I would enjoy this historical horror.

3 stars

Wanted a horror, got more of a sci fi. It was an ok book just not what I was expecting.

(Sorry for the late review, I’m finally getting around to writing reviews for books I read forever ago!)

Monster type horror has been really hit or miss for me, and Lukavics has been mostly miss. Bypassing this book in favor of others as they seem not to my preferences.

:At seventeen, June Hardie is everything a young woman in 1951 shouldn’t be—independent, rebellious, a dreamer.:

-If you love horror, or rather YA horror this is the book for you! Love the authors writing, It's beautiful and creepy, keeps you on your toes! I don't like giving too much away in my reviews, But this book will keep you going back and forth and really make you double guess whats going on!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I just couldn’t bring myself to finish this book and I rarely DNF titles. The synopsis seemed interesting , but the writing and characters were not for me, and I found the plot to be poorly structured and too out there for my tastes.

June is an aspiring writer, though her parents are determined to make her the perfect wife. It's the 1950s and women could never have a successful writing career, they can only become housewives, or that is what June's fiance believes. June has been working on a gruesome story about aliens and has decided that she is going to apply for a college level writing program, leaving out that she is a women, to see if she has what it takes to be a writer. However, along the way, June is sent to a mental hospital, for reasons the reader has yet to learn. Is June really losing her mind, or are she and the other patients being held for devious purposes?

Unreliable narrators are always a struggle for me. I had some issues with the fact that mental health and illness are used as a device to create momentum for the plot. I think if you like some of the old school Twilight Zone vibes, you may find yourself liking this book. I don't think that this book brought anything new to the table, especially after reading books by Robin Talley. While Talley doesn't tend to incorporate horror elements into her historical fiction, these books do have similar vibes.

Amy Lukavics is one of my favorite horror writers. All of Lukavics's books are a little odd (in the best way), but NIGHTINGALE takes the cake for weirdness (again, in the best way). Set in 1951, June is everything society doesn't like in young women: outspoken, bold, independent, and a writer. When her dreams and desires come to an ultimate clash against her parents's wishes, she is sent to an asylum. There, she finds horror, mystery, and a sinister plot.

What I love most about NIGHTINGALE is the setting. Historical horror can be such a specific type of horror, and Lukavics expertly combines the horror of 1950s society sexism with psychological (and maybe even a touch of speculative) horror. This book is so immersive and creepy that you'll want to read with the lights fully on. I can't talk too much about the plot without giving away spoilers, but I will say it manages to combine some of the most unexpected elements into a way that makes complete sense.

If you enjoyed AHS: Asylum but wished it was queerer, NIGHTINGALE is the perfect read for you.

I love Amy Lukavics, her books are always very refreshing and enjoyable. Nightingale was no exception, I immediately got the creepy factor which didn't escalate as much as I expected to compared to her other books. But nevertheless, this book did satisfy the scare factor.

This book was okay but not great. It was as slow read, not because of complexity but because of how long it took me to push through this. We have two childhood friends who rekindle their friendship (and grows into much more) now that they are in their twenties. Instead of a nice, cotton candy romance we are left with an astrological focus with romance as a side plot.

I purchased this title for our library based on my reading of this galley. (Review is short because it's been a substantial period of time since I read this book, but I wanted to give feedback and thanks.)

June Hardie does not feel like she fits in in her mid-twentieth century life. She has no interest in cooking and cleaning, all the things her mother pushes her to do. She loves writing, but her family will not allow such a frivolous activity, and she is placed in an asylum until she agrees to follow "cultural norms."
This is where the book lost me. I was very interested to see where it was going, but it was so confusing! June is such an unreliable narrator, I had a hard time burying into her story.
I had really high hopes for this one, but was just....lost.

I must not have read the synopsis of this very carefully, it isn't a book I would normally pick up. While I am sure the horrific conditions of mental institutions was detailed well, I found it all very unsettling.

une Hardie is struggling to fit in. Too bad that her family starts to push for her to be more like other women in the time (1951) and the story weaves back and forth to a time before June was sent to an asylum to what takes place when she gets there.

I rooted for June, but thought most of the story was kind of a bore. Probably because going back and forth in the story didn't do a thing for me. Probably because I watched American Horror Story: Asylum an kept comparing that to this while reading. I also compared it a bit to Victor LaValle's "The Devil in Silver" since I thought his book just like this one had a pacing problem. Also, I chose this book for the horror elements, but this didn't really have a lot of that in this book. I like to read horror that scares me, this one was just okay. Also we get the unreliable narrator piece in this one and I just get tired of authors relying on that all of the time in these type of books.

The writing was okay, I just didn't really like the whole book within a book thing that was going on. I also thought the flow could be improved. Maybe going back and forth to tell the story was when things started to not read as well. Maybe if we just read everything leading up to why June was sent away, and then just focus on her at the asylum, it would have worked better.

It was interesting to set this in 1951. You do feel for June who wants to write, and doesn't just want to marry and have children. And you can see (sadly) why her parents reacted badly to this. But at times I didn't get June, when she gets mad at her mother telling her to have clean clothes? I mean, yes, you need to be clean.

I have read every single Amy Lukavics book, seriously not exaggerating. She is amazing with horror and suspense. This one absolutely gave me chills it was so good.

Nightingale by Amy Lukavics

3.5 stars

June Hardie is your typical seventeen-year-old girl living in 1951. She has a boyfriend, comes from a good wholesome family, goes to school, and is learning how to cook. Except nothing is as it seems and the truth is her boyfriend is just another ploy for her father to have a booming business, her family is stilted and she hates her mother as much as her mother seems to hate her, all she wants is to go to college, and cooking doesn’t please her. Writing is her passion. June loves to write about the aliens that are torturing and rearranging her heroine. June Hardie can’t stop writing her story. Everything went wrong one morning and she woke up to find her parents replaced. Her parents are her parents now she is trapped in the Institution alongside girls who all have seemed to have encounters as strange as June. The Institution doesn’t want to help June and the girls have no hope of getting out the easy way. Getting better doesn’t seem to be an option. That synopsis that I wrote is a lot and it’s not even half of this story. This story is wild and there is far too much going on. It can be a bit overwhelming at times, but that’s what I like about Lukavics she packs a lot of social commentaries into a horror setting (usually not present day). I’ve always been fascinated by the 1950s housewife. I’m a huge fan of Revolutionary Road and I’ve written countless essays on the topic for literature classes, so this was right up my alley. It is all very Virginia Wolff combined with Sylvia Plath thrown into an outrageous horror setting. Lukavics’ writing is palpable and addicting. She is a well-crafted horror writer who knows how to intrigue and shock the reader. I wasn’t able to put this book down and felt like I just had to know what was going to happen next. The problem, however, was that I wasn’t a fan of the ending or the conclusion. It was lackluster, but I’ll speak more about that towards the end of my review.



“June thought of the story she wrote, thought about the aliens, always taking people away and changing them and trying to put them back as if nothing had happened. But nobody was ever quite right after coming back.”

Whimsical Writing Scale: 3.75

The main female character is June. I’ve noticed a pattern with Lukavics’ main heroines. I can’t stand them. They are usually very contrived women who are appealing to my inner feminist in the sense of me being like, “YAS, girl! Down with the patriarchy and the stifling confines of society, but also can you stop creeping me out?” The last heroine I encounter from her in Daughters Unto Devils was demon-possessed and wanted to murder her siblings. This girl wants to murder everyone and some point “satisfyingly” taints her family’s homecooked meal with her blood. It was weird, y’all. She has a lot of weird imaginings where she sees herself in the most horrifying and gruesome visions and she enjoys them. It’s a little too weird for my liking and she just feels skeevy. I felt like I was encountering a psychopath (and I kind of was, but no spoilers because it’s not that simple). She wasn’t a horrible character, but I wasn’t rooting for her. I just wanted to know what the heck was going on and why she was in this weird situation in the first place.


“She loved stories like that, the ones that made you realize how very created our ideas of safety and basic rights were.”

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 3

There is some girl group power in the Institution, but I didn’t really buy any of their friendships as a group dynamic. Everyone kind of seemed to be doing their own thing and was out for themselves. Eleanor is June’s roommate and she is one of the major characters in the Institution and is eventually June’s lover. I honestly wasn’t buying the romance because it all of a sudden happened, but it was different to see a lesbian romance in a horror story outside of American Horror Story. I just wasn’t buying it and also, that ending. How cliché. June’s family was a lot to take in. I didn’t like them and I’m not supposed to, but I kind of wished that their dynamic wasn’t so tainted. Also, the plot with her brother, Fred, escalated. I was supposed to believe he was this evil man, but really he was just a stand in for defeating the patriarchy in familial situations, which I’m not against, but I would have preferred more character development to get me to hate him.


“This wasn’t supposed to be a nightmare house, it was supposed to be a place built to make people feel better.”

Character Scale: 3.5

The Villain- Joya… Nurse Joya. She is like Sister Mary Eunice minus the nun costume and she’s less demonic and more Lovecraftian. This was all very Lovecraftian and I wasn’t against it because intergalactic feuds are interesting, but also, I know nothing about anything. I have more questions than answers.



“She savored her gift from the land of stars and voids.”

Villain Scale: 3.5

So, this horror novel is incredibly feminist and I loved that. It has a lot of wonderful commentary on the 1950s, suburbia, women writers, mental health treatment, hysteria, lobotomies, and family confines and expectations. I love all these things and it was a treat to read, but I have to talk about that ending and how I can’t really wrap my head around it, so here’s a quote that references Virginia Wolff and I’ll leave you with that before I give spoilers.


“Maybe having to exist in a single room forever wouldn’t be too awful of a thing.”

TAGGED UNDER SPOILERS All along June’s story was about herself and her own alien abduction at ten-years-old. Which makes sense to me because I suspected that must be the case because she knew too well how she wanted her character to be tortured and she just kind of was able to get it all down at unearthly speed. I don’t know anything about the aliens who abducted her or why. Then the whole thing about Joya and the other nurses being one entity and race that eats people to survive – they are basically earth bottom feeders and the aliens want to destroy them. It’s all very all over the place. The showdown was kind of cool and different from what I expected. But the ending, June has all these powers from her abductions (mind control, manipulation, healing, etc.) and she manipulates her fiancée into being her slave forever and then murdered her brother because he ruined her chance to go write and he had to go because reasons? It was just weird. I was unfulfilled and just felt kind of knocked off my rocker a bit by where the story decided to go. I just don't know exactly how I feel. Do I like this or hate it? No, but I am confused on processing my thoughts.END SPOILERS

Overall, I really enjoyed Nightingale and it has a lot of interesting facets that make it stand out from the horror YA genre. It’s not my favorite by Lukavics, but I do think it’ll find its fans. Especially those who love aliens and feminism and maybe Lovecraftian weirdness. This is one I definitely recommend!


Plotastic Scale: 3.25

Cover Thoughts: I live for this cover. The colors. The creepiness

Thank you, Netgalley and Harlequin Teen, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.