This short and quick novel about a near-future, set around the remains of Detroit, is more a collection of dream-like vignettes and peppered with sweeping descriptions of a time and people not unlike our own.

TBH, the subject was not what I had expected when I began reading, but over time the characters and the plotlines are just about interesting enough to get me to the last page.

Not bad writing, not bad at all. But what it seemed to be missing - more than anything else - is a compelling storyline and a central idea. Wish that were not the case, for the writing is good, and evocative in a good way.

Night Roll is an urban fantasy about new single mother Aileen, who with no friends or family lives in Detroit.
A neighbour, Virgil, borrows her bike and then disappears only for Aileen to hear rumours of him taking part in night bike rides alongside a timeless being known as the Elf. Aileen is now determined to get her life together and take part in the bike ride to find what has happened to Virgil and to discover the truth about the Elf.

This was a dnf for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing, and the pacing, nor did I really l know what was going on.

I am so sorry but this was not for me. I couldn’t get passed the writing style which felt too fragmented for my taste making it hard to follow and continue reading the book. Sadly, it was not a good choice for me but that is purely personal. I did appreciated the premise of the story to begin with but not enough to want to find out what will happen which is why I have this 2 stars in the end.

Thank you Netgalley for the eArc in exchange for an honest review and Happy Publication Day tomorrow!

It's not the book, it's literally me who didn't fully enjoy it. The story is relatively short, and while I did initially like the concept of who the main character was pushing to live her own life and care for her young baby, I felt like the story was still dull. I didn't find anything to connect with from the character's side. There's just a bare minimum of the impact that I recalled when I finished this. Actually if it weren't for the fact that this was a short story, I would've DNF some part along the way. I'd still like to thank NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic urban fantasy set in near-future Detroit, Night Roll envelops the reader in Aileen's struggle to navigate new motherhood in a new city on her own, and to find her own freedom while she does it.

Aileen's partner, Andrew, left upon finding she was pregnant, choosing his career and his independence over her and their child. Aileen's neighbor, Virgil, was helping her get acclimated to her new environment until one day he asked to borrow her bike to join the Night Roll and never returned. The Night Roll is a monthly event that brings community members together for a group ride, taking place every full moon. It has a fantastical freeing quality to it, where one joins with the very essence and soul of the city. With encouragement from her new friends Morris and Omar, Aileen becomes set on joining the Night Roll as well, despite having given birth very recently and still being in no condition to ride a bike.

As Aileen learns more about her new community, she picks up tales of the Rebellion, known to most outside the city as the riots of '67, a racial uprising prompted by the fatal shooting of a Black 4-year-old. She learns about the Red Elf, or just the Elf, a larger-than-life mythical figure engrained in the very being of the city, who fought in the Rebellion and rides in the Night Rolls. She even thinks she saw him once--or was that even real? Throughout the novella, Aileen begins to dream again, for the first time since moving to Detroit and giving birth to Christian, and it is then that she feels most like herself. In these dreams, she catches glimpse of the child Christian grows up to be, while at the same time recognizing that Christian is in charge of who they become and things could turn out very differently. This half-dream haze of magic and mystery really made this book stand out to me.

There were two things about Night Roll that knocked it down a star for me:

1. I wish there were more cultural worldbuilding. I like the light touch of the technological worldbuilding -- it's near-future enough that it is easy to understand references to self-driving cars, eBikes, etc. But the pieces about the Rebellion and her status as a climate refugee were sometimes confusing to put together or understand.

2. I was really thrown off by the whole part about Andrew's boss offering Aileen $50k and Andrew back to sacrifice Christian to the Elf in order to grant the boss eternal life. It seemed out of character with who I was understanding the Elf to be, and it just seemed entirely random. Yes, there are moments of foreshadowing that she is struggling with the responsibilities of being a mother and once sees Christian vanish in a dream and feels relieved, so I guess this was supposed to be a moment where she actively chooses Christian and gains closure from Andrew leaving? Similarly, I guess I get that it's a manifestation of Aileen blaming Andrew's boss and job for him leaving and that confrontation allowing her to shift the blame to Andrew himself, but the idea that the boss took Andrew from her and could just return him seemed...simplistic? That whole part just seemed very separate from the rest of the novella was confusing to me. I think I get the idea behind it, and I like it, it just didn't seem well-executed at all.

Definitely a good read overall, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes that light magical feel in their storytelling.

Thanks to NetGalley and Stelliform press for the eARC in exchange for the review.

Night Roll is an urban fantasy about new single mother Aileen, who with no friends or family lives in Detroit.
A neighbour, Virgil, borrows her bike and then disappears only for Aileen to hear rumours of him taking part in night bike rides alongside a timeless being known as the Elf. Aileen is now determined to get her life together and take part in the bike ride to find what has happened to Virgil and to discover the truth about the Elf.
This is a good novella with some good ideas and characters who you easily engage with. Definitely recommended as a good way to spend a few hours reading.

I don’t really know what to make of this book. I can’t say I didn’t like it but I also can’t say I enjoyed it. I think it has huge potential but it needs expanding. I needed more background about everything.

With that bit more background information I think I would enjoy it a lot more. I felt a bit lost throughout the whole book unfortunately.

Quite a strange and confusing storyline linked with the post industrialized Detroit and urban myth. Lots of characters made the storyline a bit tangled due to lack of character development and story building. The language and writing style are somewhere I felt a bit awkward with unnecessary added things in some long sentences. It was a short read, you can give this a read.
Thank you Netgalley and Stelliform press for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had to DNF this one at 25%, not my cuppa. The writing is really strange and the prose needs more proof-reading. Also, what is "clearer than pre-pre-predawn sky"? Like I said, the writing felt pretentious, bordering on awkward, to me. I liked the cover though, it's what drew me into giving this a go. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

<i>Night Roll</i> is a futuristic urban-fantasy novella about post-industrial Detroit. The protagonist Aileen is caught up in child rearing as a single mom and must find a way to re-enter a world with the support her friends who will help her cope with the evolving city around her. This is a debut novella by the short fiction writer Michael J. DeLuca.

Aileen has been abandoned by her partner, Andrew. Her neighbour, Virgil, becomes her connection to the real world that exists beyond providing for her baby’s needs. But then Virgil borrows Aileen’s prized bike and disappears. While searching for Virgil, Aileen makes a new group of friends and hears stories of the Elf, a timeless being who has always fought the colonizers and capitalists of Detroit, and now leads the Night Roll on a race through the city’s streets. Aileen must join the Night Roll if she wants to bring Virgil back. At the same time she must consider the needs of her baby, Christian, while dealing with dangers of coping with an every evolving city.

I find the story itself a little strange and outside my interest. DeLuca, however, does an excellent job of describing characters that are committed to helping Aileen adjust to world around her. DeLuca’s writing style also makes the story easy to read.

Although I find the book an easy read, I do not know enough about Detroit to follow the various threads within the story. I give this book a 3 on 5. I want to thank NetGalley and Stelliform Press for providing me with a digital copy of the novella in exchange for a fair review.

It starts when her neighbor asks her if he could borrow her bike to join the Night Roll and never comes back.

We have a young mother, a single mother, who just moved to Detroit and doesn't really know anybody, apart from Virgil, her neighbor who comes to share gossip and keep company - until he doesn't. He never returns from the bike tour, and Aileen tries to gather information which finally makes her go out and make some friends.

I liked this one. We only have a few pages, but there still is a plot, worldbuilding, character developement. I have no idea about the urban myths of Detroit, if there is the story of the Elf, but I might look into it one day. Today, I have too much left to read to venture there.

If you want a short bit of magic in an urban setting, look no further.

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

Quite an engrossing story of a new single mother trying to form a life in future Detroit. A magical story with appealing characters, Night Roll also brings in references to Detriot's history, which were unfamiliar to me, but it made me want to learn more about the city. Thank you to Stelliform Press for providing the ARC.