Pages: 400
Published: May 21st 2013 by Katherine Tegan Books
Series: Night School #1
Source: HarperCollins Children via Edelweiss
Allie’s world is falling apart…She hates her school. Her brother has run away. And she’s just been arrested.
Again.
Now her parents are sending her away to a boarding school where she doesn’t know a soul.
But instead of hating her new school, Allie finds she’s happy there. She’s making friends. And then there’s Sylvain, a suave French student who openly flirts with her. And Carter, the brooding loner who seems to have her back.
Soon, though, Allie discovers Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Nothing there is as it seems. And her new friends are hiding dangerous secrets.
Allie is a troublemaker. Ever since her brother disappeared she has been getting arrested and making a ton of trouble for herself. After her parents are forced to remove her from another school she is sent to Cimmeria Academy. Cimmeria Academy is a posh boarding school for academically inclined teens, set in the middle of nowhere and has a ton of its own secrets. Allie starts to make friends there and with the strict rules she is actually in a good place. Then strange things start to happen, dangerous things. Allie and her friends are on a race with time to figure out what is happening before it’s too late.
I have to put this out there for anyone that may be thinking the same thing: this is not a paranormal book. I went into this thinking it was a paranormal boarding school; it’s not. Goodreads may have led me astray. I spent approximately 75% of the book assuming some paranormal twist was going to happen… it’s not. Contemporary folks, don’t be confused like me 😛
I really enjoyed the main character, Allie. I thought she was pretty intriguing. She had a lot on her plate, with her brothers disappearance and mixed with her parents standoffish attitudes, so she rebelled. I think this is pretty true to real life situations(while not necessarily the situations but the reactions) so it made her an extremely believable character. She was put into such a different environment and it was really interesting to see her feel her way out, learn who she could and couldn’t trust.. oh yah, and get mixed up with some boys 🙂 I really loved Carter as well. I thought he was a great character and he really intrigued me the entire time. I think there is going to be something revealed about him later on in the series, he just has this mysterious air. While I really enjoyed a lot of the characters I didn’t necessarily love them. The entire book is based on suspense and mystery so I was constantly suspicious of everyone. The character building is great though and a lot of the characters are strong. I really enjoyed that there were such a huge amount of secondary characters that played important parts. Secondary characters are usually my favorites.
The mystery and intrigue in Night School was fantastic. I did not want to stop reading. As I mentioned above, I was extremely suspicious of nearly every character and determined to figure out who(or what… in my case) was doing these awful things to the students at Cimmeria. Now that being said, the pacing is slow. This is a pretty large book, at 400 pages, and nothing… absolutely NOTHING is revealed before 75%. There is a lot of build up, and you can tell it’s coming but it just took so long. If it wasn’t for the intrigue that surrounds the story I’m certain I would have thrown the book down. That’s the one problem I had with Night School and unfortunately it caused me to not love it entirely.
That all being said, it’s a great read and I will definitely be continuing the series. There is quite a big cliffhanger at the end so it basically forces you to read the next book. I’m dying to figure out how everything will play out and I have to admit I’m a bit interested to see where the love triangle will go.
If you enjoy boarding schools, mystery and suspense I absolutely recommend Night School. While the pacing is slow the suspense will keep you pulled in!
Happy Reading!
xo Lauren
Thank goodness you let us know that it’s not paranormal! I totally thought that it was!!! That really affects my opinion of a book sometimes so good to know!
Sounds interesting! Good to know that it’s kind of slow for… well, most of the book haha. I still do want to give it a shot and I’ll know not quit 🙂
I can’t wait to see your review Brittany! I think that fact changed my opinion too… I was dumbfounded when I realized it wasn’t paranormal because I totally expected it. Perhaps you will like it more now that you know 😀
This one sounds really interesting! I love boarding school books for some reason, haha. That + suspense + mystery = a book I think I’d like! It’s good to know it can be slow going though.
Oh boy, I have when you get genres mixed up and are waiting for something that could never have happened, but I’m glad despite not getting the paranormal twist you were waiting for, that you enjoyed this one!
I love boarding school book too! It really is a good read, super suspenseful just a bit slow. And I think the fact I was waiting on something that never came really didn’t help lol.
I can handle, and even really enjoy slow books as long as I know going in that I need to wait for a good pay off 🙂
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I have been wanting to read these! I’m bummed that its not paranormal! I too thought they were. I love anything with boarding schools though so ill definitely read!
It really is a good book, especially when you are aware that it’s not paranormal. I just kept WAITING and then it didn’t come so it felt disappointing! Thanks for stopping by Michelle 🙂