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A review by spookshow
One Dark Night by Tom Bale
3.0
You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Bookouture, and the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating of 3.5 stars.
There may be mild spoilers ahead, continue at your own risk.
Adam and Katy Parr are on their way home after a wonderful Sunday outing with their two children, Dylan - aged 7 and Freya - aged 9. As they're travelling, a car nearly sideswipes them as it flies out of another road, missing them barely, however it manages to throw up a stone which smashed the lens of their headlight. Infuriated by such recklessness and thinking of how much worse it could have been had the other vehicle struck their car instead of just breaking a headlight, Adam pursues the vehicle, flashing his lights in an attempt to get the vehicle to stop. What Adam doesn't realise is, this one act, borne out of rage will have a lasting impact upon him, and his family, as they get dragged into a situation that they were seriously not prepared for. Becoming embroiled in an international scheme, the Parr family are in for a terrible ride. And all because Adam couldn't just let a broken headlight go.
I've been putting off reading this book in my netgalley backlog, I'm not entirely sure why either, I guess it's just one of those titles that keeps getting overlooked for more "interesting" sounding stories. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, after reading a few reviews for it on different occasions, I wasn't holding out terribly high hopes for it, but I was pleasantly surprised. You're probably wondering "then why only the 3.5 star rating on it?" I did enjoy it, the story telling was fine, the story line itself was fine, but that's just it, everything was just fine. Nothing really stood out for me as amazing or gave me that WOW factor that I really look for in books. It was fine.
I liked the cast of characters that we were introduced to in this story. Adam and Katy have an imperfect marriage just like the majority of the rest of the human race, there's been secrets, lies, worry that they wouldn't make it. And I think that really added to the anxiety inducing story line. They were just normal people, a normal family out for a normal day of adventure on a Sunday, heading home to their normal house. When all of a sudden this totally abnormal situation arises and they find themselves involved in something actually quite huge. I found the characters to be well rounded. We can't help but feel empathy for some of the more unsavoury ones which just proves that they were written as real people. They had some redeeming qualities. Though you could also feel the danger that went along with them. I have to admit, I really sympathised with Katy when everything hit the fan. I was so irritated at Adam for having to be the big man in this situation over a headlight. It really hits home that in this day and age, road rage is even more dangerous because you have absolutely NO IDEA who is driving that other vehicle. You don't know if they carry weapons with them, you don't know how many people you're about to face, you don't know their mental state, YOU JUST DON'T KNOW! Yes it may be incredibly frustrating and it may make you angry, but do you really want to take that chance?
The story itself was interesting, I was wondering how the story could be made to last for 400 pages, but there's a whole other dimension to the story after the incident, and I felt that is was told really well. At first I didn't know if I was liking the story, it made me feel anxious, and that's when I realised, no, it is good, and stuck with it. When a story can invoke emotions in you even if they make you feel uncomfortable but that's what they're meant to do. So I felt that the story was entertaining. It was well thought out and executed. The POV jumps between many of the characters which gives us another look at a side of the story which was done well too. Sometimes this can become confusing, but not in this case.
I really enjoyed that we got to see what happened after the incident. I did however feel that at one certain point Adam was a total dickhead for not disclosing something to Katy, but I guess the story wouldn't have played out how it did it he had, so I can forgive that.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Bookouture, and the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating of 3.5 stars.
There may be mild spoilers ahead, continue at your own risk.
Adam and Katy Parr are on their way home after a wonderful Sunday outing with their two children, Dylan - aged 7 and Freya - aged 9. As they're travelling, a car nearly sideswipes them as it flies out of another road, missing them barely, however it manages to throw up a stone which smashed the lens of their headlight. Infuriated by such recklessness and thinking of how much worse it could have been had the other vehicle struck their car instead of just breaking a headlight, Adam pursues the vehicle, flashing his lights in an attempt to get the vehicle to stop. What Adam doesn't realise is, this one act, borne out of rage will have a lasting impact upon him, and his family, as they get dragged into a situation that they were seriously not prepared for. Becoming embroiled in an international scheme, the Parr family are in for a terrible ride. And all because Adam couldn't just let a broken headlight go.
I've been putting off reading this book in my netgalley backlog, I'm not entirely sure why either, I guess it's just one of those titles that keeps getting overlooked for more "interesting" sounding stories. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, after reading a few reviews for it on different occasions, I wasn't holding out terribly high hopes for it, but I was pleasantly surprised. You're probably wondering "then why only the 3.5 star rating on it?" I did enjoy it, the story telling was fine, the story line itself was fine, but that's just it, everything was just fine. Nothing really stood out for me as amazing or gave me that WOW factor that I really look for in books. It was fine.
I liked the cast of characters that we were introduced to in this story. Adam and Katy have an imperfect marriage just like the majority of the rest of the human race, there's been secrets, lies, worry that they wouldn't make it. And I think that really added to the anxiety inducing story line. They were just normal people, a normal family out for a normal day of adventure on a Sunday, heading home to their normal house. When all of a sudden this totally abnormal situation arises and they find themselves involved in something actually quite huge. I found the characters to be well rounded. We can't help but feel empathy for some of the more unsavoury ones which just proves that they were written as real people. They had some redeeming qualities. Though you could also feel the danger that went along with them. I have to admit, I really sympathised with Katy when everything hit the fan. I was so irritated at Adam for having to be the big man in this situation over a headlight. It really hits home that in this day and age, road rage is even more dangerous because you have absolutely NO IDEA who is driving that other vehicle. You don't know if they carry weapons with them, you don't know how many people you're about to face, you don't know their mental state, YOU JUST DON'T KNOW! Yes it may be incredibly frustrating and it may make you angry, but do you really want to take that chance?
The story itself was interesting, I was wondering how the story could be made to last for 400 pages, but there's a whole other dimension to the story after the incident, and I felt that is was told really well. At first I didn't know if I was liking the story, it made me feel anxious, and that's when I realised, no, it is good, and stuck with it. When a story can invoke emotions in you even if they make you feel uncomfortable but that's what they're meant to do. So I felt that the story was entertaining. It was well thought out and executed. The POV jumps between many of the characters which gives us another look at a side of the story which was done well too. Sometimes this can become confusing, but not in this case.
I really enjoyed that we got to see what happened after the incident. I did however feel that at one certain point Adam was a total dickhead for not disclosing something to Katy, but I guess the story wouldn't have played out how it did it he had, so I can forgive that.