Hard-hitting and fast paced; Vlautin's novel is full of grit, thrill and heart. Through Lynette's story the message delivered definitely hit home, especially regarding the different paths one could take, even if things do not seem to work out.

Willy Vlautin is an astonishingly good writer and this latest novel is well up to standard. It’s a vivid portrait of a young woman, Lynette, who is working so hard to grab her little portion of the American Dream, working as hard as is humanly possible to save enough money to buy the dilapidated house she is currently renting with her mother and disabled brother, and thus gain some financial security in their otherwise precarious existence. And then, heartbreakingly, just when the goal is in grasping distance, it’s snatched away from her and she has to embark on a desperate quest to maybe, just maybe, grab the dream back again. These are lives lived on the margin, where there is never enough money, where violence is commonplace, where one small false step can result in disaster, and it’s all told with Vlautin’s trademark empathy and insight. The compressed time frame adds to the urgency and tension of the narrative, and Lynette’s plight evokes a visceral reaction in the reader. For me this was almost a 5* rating, but what pulled it down a little was that sometimes Lynette’s experiences were perhaps just too brutal to be realistic, and on occasion her mother’s diatribes went on just a bit too long. Nevertheless, Vlautin remains one of my favourite writers and this moving and compelling book will haunt me for a long time.

Few authors can narrate the American dream viewed from the margins the way Willy Vlautin does.

Lynette is young, She has a troubled past, tries to study to become an accountant, takes care of her disabled brother, lives with her worn-out mother and works two jobs to save for her American dream: to buy the decrepit rented house they occupy on the outskirts of Portand. She is doing the best she can to pull things together. It is the last chance before the gentrification that has changed the suburbs so much sweeps them away. But when the time to sign the contract comes, Lynette’s mother goes out and buys a big car. She is so exhausted that she does not really care and just wants to pamper herself once in a lifetime. How can a mother endanger her family like this? Will Lynette manage to pull the money together?
She hops on her wrecked Mustang and embarks on a hellish journey through the night to make it happen.
This is a very tense novel with the fast pace of a thriller. Lynette embarks on a journey on which she will encounter a memorable gallery of drug dealers, petty criminals, pimps and prostitutes -- and ultimately the most rapacious side of humanity. The author’s precise, essential writing masterfully reveals the moral misery of his characters in just a few lines of dialogue, in a few gestures, or just by briefly sketching the objects they surround themselves with and the interiors they inhabit.
It is also full of empathy: Vlautin is a master at portraying the lives of those on the margins, what it is like to feel lonely and unloved, Lynette’s sense of vulnerability and her desire to make it up to her mother at all costs. Despite the bleakness, this is ultimately a redeeming novel in which the shattering of the American dream is inscribed on Lynette’s body but where we still manage to find hope and beauty amidst its broken shards. For me, one of those rare reads that crawls under your skin and stays with you.


I am grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book

This is the moving and emotional story of a young woman longing to escape to a better place, It is dark but it's totally worth it.

Bleak and brutal in a very compelling way. Although it's short and stylistically easy to read, the account of Lynette's experiences come together to paint a vivid picture of the lives and choices of people in difficult circumstances. It has some really valuable things to say about contemporary culture in terms of economic power imbalances and the way they work to keep some people permanently at arms length from their own ability to feel free. Immersive and insightful, but not for the faint-hearted in its heavy themes and straight-forward approach.

You can count on several things when reading a Willy Vlautin novel - incredible writing, unforgettable characters, and that you will get lost in the story and emerge blinking back in to the real world. This last one especially happened to me when reading The Night Always Comes. I read it over the course of one evening and night and was sort of sad when it ended.
I think this is slightly shorter than his previous novels, and it feels complete, but I honestly could have read so much more. Lynette is a character you will not forget and I was on the edge of my seat as she navigated this night and its dangers. This short book contains her whole life story up to now and feels so rich and full. The conversations between Lynette and her mother over the course of the novel are incredible - quiet and undramatic but I feel like they are the heart of the book. Especially her mothers soliloquies on money, credit, loans and what she feels she deserves. Alongside Ronald's speech on the dangers of credit and consumerism, the culture of wanting things now without earning it, and Lynettes desperation to own something of her own for her family, it gives a real insight into the financial desperation of so many.
I really loved this book and would highly recommend it to everyone.