The Night Child

Author: Anna Quinn

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Genre: Mystery, Fiction

Date of Release: 30th January 2017

Blurb (as on Goodreads):

Nora Brown teaches high school English and lives a quiet life in Seattle with her husband and six-year-old daughter. But one November day, moments after dismissing her class, a girl’s face appears above the students’ desks — ”a wild numinous face with startling blue eyes, a face floating on top of shapeless drapes of purples and blues where arms and legs should have been. Terror rushes through Nora’s body — the kind of raw terror you feel when there’s no way out, when every cell in your body, your entire body, is on fire — when you think you might die.”

Twenty-four hours later, while on Thanksgiving vacation, the face appears again. Shaken and unsteady, Nora meets with neurologists and eventually, a psychiatrist. As the story progresses, a terrible secret is discovered — a secret that pushes Nora toward an even deeper psychological breakdown.

This breathtaking debut novel examines the impact of traumatic childhood experiences and the fragile line between past and present. Exquisitely nuanced and profoundly intimate, The Night Child is a story of resilience, hope, and the capacity of the mind, body, and spirit to save itself despite all odds.

Nora Brown, a teacher of English literature finds herself having visions about a six-year-old girl, with blue eyes. Considering it as an outcome of stress and lack of sleep, Nora continues with her life, with her husband Paul and daughter, Fiona. When the visions keep coming and the little girl tells her about a ‘Valentine’s day dress’, she freaks out and decides to seek medical attention. That’s when she starts seeing the tiny details of her life- Paul getting detached and spending more time at work, and Fiona feeling like there’ something wrong with her mum and dad.

A woman who rates her marriage 3 out of 10, finds out that her true enemies lie in her mind. This little girl, Margaret, is a part of her six-year-old self and in the due course of time, grave secrets are revealed. Nora has had a very rough childhood and now it has come back to haunt her and reveal the secrets she was forced to bury years ago.

A story about abuse and how our mind tries to cope up in order to keep us away from the trauma. It’s all the tricks our brain has up its sleeves. I love the fact that this book wasn’t pretentious and there wasn’t anything forced or out of the way. The theme and the concept the book is based on is fairly common. Yet the message is loud and clear.

Overall, a compelling take on mental health and traumatic childhood experiences, The Night Child is a story about hope, and strength, and the fragile yet capable nature of our mind to protect us from all things bad.

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