Book Review: What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Book: What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Genre: YA
Rating:★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
For: Review
From: NetGalley ARC (released today January 8, 2013)

I was browsing through NetGalley's stuff awhile back and when I saw this book which caught my eye because it said it was about parkour. I figured I had to read it since this parkour craze has hit our house big time!

But first a bit about the book. There's three teenagers, and they have that disease where they can't be exposed to sunlight at all, so they spend a lot of time together hanging out at night. One night, one of the girls shows them an amazing thing when she ran and jumped from one rooftop to another. She started teaching them the parkour moves and pretty soon, they were all hooked.

Then, shortly after on another night, while they were out practicing, they saw a very suspicious thing going on in a neighboring apartment. That made them wonder what was going on, but it got worse when several nights later, our heroine, Allie, sees even more strange things, but this time, she's the only one who does. Now her friends think she might be losing her mind.

Well, anyway, the relationship between these three friends is a bit complicated. They really rely on on each other a lot and when any of them have an issue then it sort of messes up the dynamic. We are brought into their story when they are all having issues! And then to add to this is the strange thing that appears to be going on which one of them may or may not be tied up in, the plot gets thicker and thicker! :)

This was a fun book with the bit of mystery that needed solving and many suspenseful moments that had me quite glued to the page. There were some choices made that I frowned on and I felt these kids had a much too loose of a reign, but that's the protective mom coming out in me I guess!

Then there was the ending! I felt it was very abrupt with not much closure at all and I guess that's once again to led us into the next book. I know, it's getting old. But you know, I'm okay with cliff hangers, they are actually quite fun, but to not really finish off the current book's story? Bugs me.

But back to parkour! So my son has been doing this for several months now. I had no idea it was a "thing" but I guess it's a "real" sport (an ultimate one they say) and has been around for several years. When someone asks him what it is, he says "it's when you get to from point A to B the most efficient way possible." When I explain to someone I say, it's like doing gymnastics through an obstacle course with some pretty dangerous stunt feats thrown in. But the end result is very cool looking and the workout these guys get is pretty incredible.

I have a favorite video that shows some parkour, filmed here in my local Salt Lake City, but you might like this one better which has one of the famous parkour dudes talking a bit about it (complete with cute accent!) as he's jumping across the rooftops of Greece:



Anyway, so that's the sort of things these kids are doing at night, when they see something!

Bottom line: It was fun... though I would have liked a more definite ending to our mystery!

Other Reviews:

Jacquelyn Mitchard does a great job of joys and despairs of living the life they have to lead, and partners it with the excitement of nights of Parkour. From Bart's Bookshelf

I could not turn the page fast enough, filled with the sick feeling that Allie was trapped, in too deep to ever get out, through no real fault of her own. From Anna Reads

Much like the darkness in which the three friends live, What We Saw at Night is filled with secrets and unanswered questions. From That's What She Read