I wish that book publishers and their publicity teams would be more careful about comparisons between books. This book suffered by being compared to Where The Crawdads Sing.

Waiting for the Night Song has a good story, if a bit repetitive. There were some memorable characters -- especially Sal, the teenage daughter of one of the "best friends" at the heart of the story. It's interesting that Sal is the character I liked best, since the entire book had the feel of a YA novel to me.

I liked the fact that the issues of climate change and immigration were so passionately portrayed; but often it felt sort of didactic, as in "Let's fit in the academic foundation for this character's passion -- quick, so we don't lose the readers." If so, it wasn't always successful.

The murder mystery that had such a profound, damaging effect on the two families often seemed rehashed. All in all, I think a tighter editing and condensation would have elevated this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Forge Books for anadvance readers copy.

Beautifully written with wonderful descriptive details of the New Hampshire countryside. Contains dual timelines “ That summer “ and “ Present day” exploring many themes, friendship, the environment, together with a murder mystery and undocumented immigrants. As children Cadie and Daniela are neighbours and best friends who spent “ that summer “ outdoors in a small boat and picking blueberries to sell in town. When a tragedy occurs that will haunt them both Cadie moves away and they lose touch with each other. Present day Cadie, now an entomologist, receives a phone call from Daniela, now a single mum, and realises their long buried secrets are about to be exposed. This starts a sequence of events that will have a lasting effect on them both, their families and the local community. Would definitely recommend.

Waiting for the Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton was a moving story about the innocence of childhood lost and the secrets that refuse to stay hidden. I have heard this story compared to Where the Crawdads Sing because of the main character, Cadie’s, isolated lifestyle and her passion for nature. She spends her life as a forestry researcher trying to help identify potential threats that could make forests more vulnerable to wildfires. Admittedly, the descriptions of the beauty of the forest and lake were somewhat lost on me since I am not much of an outdoors person. I am going to share this book with my friend who is a National Park Ranger and amatuer entomologist. I am sure she would find the descriptions of nature and wildlife to be like poetry. Cadie is forced to come home when she gets a call from her estranged childhood friend, Daniela. A body has been discovered in their hometown and they need to talk to get their stories straight about what they heard/did that summer. This book is similar to Crawdads because it also revolves around a murder. Who had the most to gain by his murder? Who else can be implicated in the crime? But this book is different because it incorporates controversial perspectives on immigration and global warming. Cadie also has choices, unlike the main character from Crawdads. Will she come forward with what she knows or will she protect the people she loves? Will anyone believe her about the very real threats she uncovered from her research? A slow burn at times, that keeps you engaged once things start to unravel. Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC. Excellent debut novel!

While this story ended up not being what I was expecting, I greatly enjoyed it. The author handles a sensitive issue in a realistic and positive manner.

This story is about people hurting each other because of their legality and being there for each other when they are needed most. About friendships that are sacred and deep yet also surrounded by a few lies. Lies to protect and lies that could and do hurt. Lies that are meant to protect. Friendships will be put to the ultimate test. Can they survive after all these years or will they break a childhood friendship? This is a very touching and heartfelt story.

This line was my favorite from this book: "Why do you love that bird so much?" Daniela whispered. "Because no one else notices it. You hear the day sone all the time. Most people don't even know it sings at night sometimes," Cadie said.

This is the story of two young girls, barely teens, and one boy. The summer that changed all of their lives forever. It's so well written and so full of nature. The things that pull me to a story. The descriptions are beautiful. From the forest, the beetles, the lake, the sky. It's all written in a way that makes you feel like you are there. Even the smoke from the fire. It's a great story filled with such emotion. You will laugh in parts and cry in others. Hold your breath and hope for the best in a few. But in the end you will be happy you read this one. It's that good.

Cadie and Daniela became best friends during a summer filled with so much. Boating around a lake, picking blueberries to sell and in a way befriending the Garrett. Garrett is a boy who they call the boy on the pier. Quote from the book: The boy on the pier in the ratty lawn chair. The kid who cherished her books as much as she did. The author of her first love letters. Cadie pushed down the ache swelling in her chest as they walked up the stairs to the police station side by side.

I love this line from the end in the acknowledgments: And, lastly, to the real-life Summer Kid-the boy who sat alone on the end of his pier reading, fishing, and daydreaming-I have no idea who you are or what your name is, but as I paddled by your pier, summer after summer, you inspired a story in my mind that took on a life of its own. I hope your world is rich and full of the adventure I imagined you to be dreaming of.

This is a beautiful story. Even with all the bad, the good outweighs it. The good things are so good. There are a couple of stories going on in this book. There is the before and the present. What happened during that summer and what happened many years later. This is a book you need to read.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #Macmillion-tor/forge, #JulieCarrickDalton, for this ARC. These are my own true thoughts about this book.

5/5 stars and a very high recommendation!

Well written with a good plot and character dynamics. This is just not the book for me. I received an advance ebook from the publisher and Netgalley and this is my unbiased review.

Waiting for the Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton is a novel about friendships and secrets. Cadie and Daniela were childhood best friends, but now they are grown up and facing the consequences of secrets they have kept. Dalton does an amazing job including many interesting scientific details about Cadie's job as an entomologist studying the effects of a certain beetle and wildfires. Dalton's writing is also lovely to read, and I enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I started out enjoying this book but to be honest it fell short for me in the middle.. From there on I struggled with it...

As a young teen, Cadie moved away from the small town of Maple Crest, New Hampshire where her family had a lakeside home. She has many fond childhood memories of swimming in the lake and exploring the forest. As an adult, she comes back to Maple Crest after more than a decade away as part of her research of beetles that are killing off trees. She reconnects with her old best friend Daniela with whom she had made a bond and an oath that she has never broken. But old secrets, in the form of a dead body, have been unburied and Cadie must determine if she will keep old secrets or reveal what she knows.

The book jumps back and forth between present day and "that summer" when Cadie was a preteen and first started hanging out with Daniela. Cadie was a bookish girl who mostly kept to herself whereas Daniela was more daring and outgoing. Despite their differences the two became best friends.

This book established a great sense of place in the mountains and forests of New Hampshire and Cadie is clearly a character who has a love for nature and the forests of her youth. This was an enjoyable mystery that was also a love note to nature and the environment. The author also worked in the topic of migrant labor and undocumented Americans and the tension caused by Trump's "Build the Wall" policies. Daniela and her family are immigrants from El Salvador and feel tension from some of the people in the small town.

I recommend this to anyone looking for a "lighter" thriller (i.e. not ALL tension ALL the time). It was like taking a trip to NH, which is something I miss doing in this pandemic.

<b>What to listen to while reading...</b>
Remember When by Wallows
Lakehouse by Of Monsters and Men
Best Friend by Foster the People
Forest by Parks, Squares and Alleys
The Less I Know the Better by Tame Impala
Young Americans by David Bowie
I Need a Forest Fire by James Blake and Bon Iver

This book was okay for me. It was a bit repetitive for me, and did remind me of Crawdads, which I did not enjoy. There is a lot of focus on science and nature, which is wonderful and descriptive, but I found it to be too much at times.

There's a murder mystery that offers a fast-paced story, but the relationship between Cadie and Daniela seemed to go on and on. I didn't connect with either character, and I felt like we went over their issues again and again.. Again the repetition was a bit much.

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book had some interesting ideas with the mystery. The writing is OK if a little blunt at times, spilling out information which spoiled some surprises later on. The characters are not that engaging and quite strange at times.
An OK read.

This novel covers a lot of different issues that loom large in current society and news. I have mixed feelings about the book because some parts are beautifully written and really interesting, and other plot points were hard for me to accept. Perhaps the author has tried to do too much? That being said, I enjoyed the story of Daniela and Cadie's friendship. I also liked the slow unraveling of the story and the mystery. My problems were with some of the anti-immigration depictions as well as certain scenes that seemed rushed and unrealistic. Nevertheless, this is an ambitious debut novel with merit. I felt that the nature and environment discussions and descriptions were especially well done.

Waiting for the Night Song
by: Julie Carrick Dalton

Published: out now

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

When you combine various causes with a literary mystery.

What I liked:

Certain passages were very immersive.
The strength of writing was apparent.

I will explore other titles written by JCD in the future.

What I disliked:

I disliked the information dumping and much of the passages where it focused more on the issues and less on the suspense and mystery aspects of the storyline.

There were so many topics brought up and none were fully fleshed out.

For fans of:
⭐️ Jodi Picoult
⭐️ Barbara Kingsolver
⭐️ The Ugly and Wonderful Things

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

The comparisons to Where the Crawdads Sing made me so hyped for this book, so it saddens me to say I DNF’ed it around 40%. I’ve made it a 2021 goal to DNF a book if I’m not connecting with it by 100 pages.
I wasn’t a fan of the alternating timelines here, I felt like too much was revealed too early, and I ended up realizing I just didn’t care to stick around to see how the story played out.

This book had a really interesting start and I loved reading about the girls and the rowboat and picking blueberries. The references to the trees and climate change and immigration was a bit much. Somehow in the middle of the book it somehow lost its appeal and fell flat. While I did appreciate the issues, I found that it wasn’t keeping my interest to the end of the book.

Waiting for the Night Song opens on present-day Cadie Kessler collecting samples of an invasive beetle in the woods of New Hampshire. Cadie, now an entomologist, has done her best to leave the past behind her. But when she receives a desperate call from her childhood friend Daniela Garcia, she begrudgingly returns to her hometown of Maple Crest, NH. Now both adults, Cadie and Daniela are forced to revisit the events of that summer and how they changed the course of both their lives forever.

Alternating between the present and twenty-five years in the past, Waiting for the Night Song tackles immigration, climate change, and close friendship. Although Waiting for the Night Song is told from the third person, the focus is limited to Cadie’s perspective. I loved the climate change aspect of the plot. Cadie is an entomologist for the University of New Hampshire. Her primary goal is to trace the migration of an invasive beetle, which she believes is linked to the catastrophic fires spreading through the area.

I thought this was a beautiful story about secrets and what people will risk to keep them. The story carefully weaves immigration issues, climate change, murder, and friendship so seamlessly. Although this story is often classified as a thriller, I would disagree with that. Waiting for the Night Song is more contemporary or literary fiction. The book does include a bit of a mystery, but that’s only one component to the complex overall story.

Thank you to Forge and BookishFirst for the review copy! All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately this one just did not draw me in and I wasn't able to finish it. I appreciate you giving me the book but this one just wasn't for me.

I enjoyed this one a lot.

It's been compared to Where the Crawdads Sing, a book that I thought was amazing, and I can see why people feel that way. It had the same atmospheric, lush richness that Crawdads had. However, this book fell just a little short of greatness for me. It tackles some very relevant and heavy topics (climate change, illegal immigration, racism), and I felt it got a little "preachy" at times. I also had a few issues with Daniela and her mother. They just rubbed me the wrong way, so it was hard for me to care 100% about their situation.

That said, overall this was a fantastic read. Definitely worth your time and gets two strong thumbs up from yours truly. 👍👍🤷🤷🤷

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I'd heard good things about this book but wasn't quite sure what the expect going in. Ultimately the book fell a bit flat for me and seemed to attempt to cover too many bases. (romance, murder, immigration, climate control issues, etc.) I had trouble getting invested in the central mystery and the relationship dynamic between the characters just wasn't strong enough to keep me motivated to turn the pages.