Finished reading five days ago and haven't stopped thinking about it since. I thought NIGHTWATCHING was going to be a white-knuckle survival thriller—which it was!—but I wasn't expecting the nuanced portrayal of trauma, the exploration of a complicated marriage, and the deep psychological dive into what it means not to be believed.

Genuinely frightening, and genuinely moving, this is surely going to be the biggest thriller of 2024.

This is a thriller you really don’t want to miss. It starts with six words you never want to read if you are alone at home and then it had me in it’s grip, heart racing, missing tube stops, up late to finish. Marvellous. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Very cleverly done, the start with the family hiding, hearing the intruder, was like a scary movie, and then as the story unfolds even I began to doubt if the intruder was real or imagined. But the suspense just keeps going until the final, doubts made real and heart rate returning back to normal. Definitely one I’d recommend, with thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for letting me read this.

A really gripping thriller. A mother and two children are stuck at home alone during a blizzard, or they think they are
Full of suspense and tension, this was a real page turner, with a totally shocking ending.

Th ank you to Net Galley, Penguin and Tracy Sierra for an advanced copy of this book

What an interesting book! I found it kept me going and I just wanted to know more. I enjoyed this book. Thank you to the writer, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review it.

This book starts with a mum home alone with her two children when she sees an intruder. I found this really easy to get into and didn't want to put it down! The descriptive writing really makes you feel like you are right there with them, super tense and nervewracking. Nightwatching switches from current day to the past, I did find myself speed reading the latter, eager to get back to the main story. It leaves you constantly questioning what is true and who, if anyone is lying! I loved the twists and felt really satisfied by the ending.
I can't wait to read more by this Author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an advance reader copy of this book.

The book starts suspensefully with a mother and her two children home at night when an intruder breaks into the house. Finding a hiding place in the remote old house, terror increases as the stranger purposefully searches and begins making threats.

The writer skilfully gets inside the main character, a mother desperately trying to protect her young children from the monster roaming her home. You feel her anguish as she tries to conceive plans to escape. There are flashbacks to her past which add depth to the story. Graphic descriptions of the old isolated house and its snowbound surroundings are gripping, ramping up the tension.

The first few chapters steadily outline the story, but it seemed a while before the plot moved on. And I would have felt more empathy if the characters had names, rather than being referred to as mother, husband, son, daughter. It was have made them seem more realistic.

However, this is a dark, gripping psychological thriller, making you question whether the mother is telling the truth, is someone watching the family, and what led to her husband’s passing. This debut novel is an incredibly compelling atmospheric thriller, well described, but too slow paced for me.

Absolutely terrifying, don’t read alone, or when it’s dark.
The atmosphere in this is beyond creepy, I actually didn’t want to read at night. There were a few spells when the plot and pace dip when she thinks back to the past, and to be honest I was anxious to get back to main event. I would absolutely read another book by this author

This book has you questioning what happened all the way through.
A widowed mother wakes in the night to a noise in the house, and knows she has an intruder. She is immobilised by fear but has to decide to run, hide or fight.
The following story then has the reader questioning how real the night's events are. There is no evidence and she has alcohol in her blood, a fact she denies.
I found this book very hard to read. there is a lot of internal dialogue which I felt didn't help the momentum of the story and detracted from the fear of the situation. It slowed down the reading and I found the lack of action uninteresting. This happens again during the police questioning once she is home.
However once the story unfolds in the last third of the book, I was hooked.

I wasn’t sure about this book at first, but by the end, just wow!

This book will have you second guessing yourself! At first I thought it was quite slow and boring, just setting the scene and not a lot really happening, but when you get halfway through! I was hooked, I couldn’t wait to find out what was happening and where this was heading.

I would recommend this to friends and family, time to get those cogs going!

This book follows a mum and her children through a burglary and what happens after. This book truly terrified me, as a step-mum and as a human who lives in a house!

You follow the main character through loss and grief and trauma. The potential of losing her children in multiple different ways really hits home when you have kids yourself.

I loved the descriptive writing, it really makes you feel like you’re sat next to them in the hidden place. (The formatting was a bit off for me but this is an ARC copy downloaded to my kindle so I quickly got over that!)

Nightwatching is a book you cannot explain to someone, only recommend that they read, because you cannot describe the twists and turns. The constant questioning of not only yourself and whether *you* know who did it or what’s happening, but also the character’s ability to do the same.

I can’t wait to see this book do so well upon release, and look forward to reading other titles by the author!

Nightwatching

On the snowy night, in the creepy old house, a mother wakes up to the noise of haevy footsteps. There is a stranger inside, someone lurking in the darkness. Despite paralysing fear, she needs to protect her two small children. Will she run, hide, or fight?

This book is such a wild ride. Very dark, tense, and creepy. I loved the suspense, twists, and turns of the plot. The writing style was so vivid and detailed that I could easily pictured myself being trapped in the house with a stranger creeping around.
I found a few motives a bit repetitive and overstretched ie police multiple times dismissing protagonists' claims or her father-in-law attitude.
It was a great read overall, and I'm going to be on the lookout for more of Tracy Sierra' books.

A mother is in her remote house with her 2 small children but she is convinced she is not alone. Who is there with them? Is her daughter really seeing a man in her room or is it a nightmare? I initially gave up on this book as I was not a big fan of the short sentences and found it hard to get into. However, I read a few reviews and decided to give it another go. I'd describe it as a psychological thriller. It was very tense at times and I really could not see where this was going. Is she mad, Does "Corner" exist? Is she instilling fear into her children and there is no such intruder? She is not treated very sympathetically by the police although the "young one" shows compassion. I read this quite quickly and really was not expecting the twist at the end. I got an ARC from NetGalley for this book.

Terrifying yet beautiful, this is a triumph of a thriller. Not only is it gripping and full of twists, but it’s also incredibly cleverly and tenderly written. Kudos to the author. I can heartily recommend this book!

A mother wakes to find an intruder in her home intent on taking her daughter. This is a terrifying story and I was gripped straight away by the desperate situation that the mother found herself in. My only negative is that some chapters felt like unnecessary filler so distracted from the tension built in the rest of the story. I was so frustrated by the behaviour of the police and her father in law and really felt like she was alone with no oje to help her. Writing this review, I realise that none of the characters had names and I'm not sure what to make of that! 8/10 solid page turner. Would definitely read more from this author.

I could NOT put this down and read it in one day!
Utterly brilliant and breathtaking, twists, chills, scares and trickery make this the perfect read for a dark and rainy night!
Just keeps you guessing and stressing!
I could not have ever imagined that perfect ending!
LOVED this and it certainly comes with a 5 Star recommendation.
Get it now!

OMG this was brilliant but terrifying! Written to absorb you into the story and feel terrified throughout as though you were in the midst. But is it all real?!

Wow. This is, without a doubt, the most terrifyingly emotive book I have read in a long time. Perhaps as a new mother myself I really should’ve waited a while before reading such a terrifying ordeal…!

Initially I wondered how the author would make the ‘intruder’ scenario last a whole novel since the opening chapter literally has you on the edge of your seat and heart pounding. I expected this to be climax of the novel but it was the opening gambit! However, the remainder of the novel did not disappoint.

I really enjoyed the way the author’s style meant that you were there with the protagonist, living every neurotic thought and desperate decision, as well as feeling the injustice of the actions of some characters.

If I could recommend only one book for anyone to read this year, it would be this one.

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

Shrouded in the shadows, she sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway.

This is literally my worst nightmare! My heart was pounding reading the opening chapter and it didn't stop pounding until the last page! This book will take you on a rollercoaster of twists and turns and make you second guess everything. The writing is so sharp and atmospheric and the tension is palpable. Ticked all of the boxes for me, I absolutely loved it. I fully recommend going in blind and be prepared to check every corner of the house before you go to sleep 👀👣

Nightwatching is a heart stopping, gripping psychological thriller that you won't be able to put down.
A suberb debut, I look forward to what this author does next. 5🌟

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for the arc in exchange for an honest review ✨️

A woman, alone with her two young children in a remote old house during a blizzard, hears footsteps on the stairs and sees an intruder. As he threatens them and tries to coax her children out, she hides them in a secret room behind a wall. As she starts to understand who he is and what he wants, she tries to decide what to do to save them all- but her ordeal is just beginning. What starts off as a tense psychological thriller becomes something deeper as the past is revealed and we eventually understand what has really happened. Sierra examines ssues such as how people react to physical difference, the will to endure and survive, the love of a parent and the damage a bad one can do, how we judge the actions of others and the effects of grief. I could not stop reading and the complex but satisfying unravelling of the plot get me gripped.

I lasted 12 chapters and gave up. It started off exciting, there’s someone in the house and they go off to hide but for 12 chapters with nothing really happening, I gave up.
It could have been good, something additional needed to happen but I couldn’t carry on with the same situation for another 12+ chapters.
It’s a no from me sadly.