the feelings of this book leaves you unsettled. the way you feel like something is going to creep up on you or you are in the middle of something bad and wrong is such a huge wave over you as a reader. this small town and serial killer vibe really was giving a doom feeling. we were watching this young girl in the middle of it too. where parents or adults know there is something wrong and how they might to wrong or right to protect for example their child. and this child is apart from that but not. because she is growing up in the middle of it all. and we watch her grow in years but somehow she felt like she had been cocooned in mind age. she seemed to be unaware, or not understanding of the adult world which felt really true to life. but then how she increases in age with more knowledge of what happening in her community felt a little stunted.
i really like the writing in this book. it really did carry me through and that smoothness some books have that make the read so nice and smooth was all here in this book.
at certain points in this book i felt i totally got it. but then id get to the end of the next bit and be a little unsure if i was heading where the author wanted me to.
the fear in this town seemed to mean something more too. there was men being killed in gruesome ways and there was hints as to what this all meant and who it might be. and the wrapping up of this felt really tight and clever. and so then i was like aha i did get it, i think?
watching Layla's point of view looking around to what was happening amongst the adult was a really smart touch. her immature ways of seeing things and walking through this community gave an even more important edge.
i got subtle and not subtle themes in this book and was left wondering long after id finished. this to me felt like one of those books that would be great to read as a group. it reminded me of one we used to do in school. and then the discussion because something brilliant and then how others and the teacher would explore and explain. because i wanted to know more and talk more of this book and that in itself is telling of my views on it. but sometimes i didnt know whether it was just me going on my own track or what the author wanted me to do from their story.

I feel a bit sad about this review but also happy I get to explain well what my thoughts are because numbers and star ratings can be so cold and not really convey how one really feels about a book. A 3 star rating isn’t bad. At all. But why is it a 3 and not a 5? That’s what I’ll try to explain.

The reason I picked up this book is that it promised to explore Arabic folklore. I feel like I know a fair amount about Arabic culture despite it not being my culture but I have a lot to learn. I enjoy stories based on folklore from cultures I don’t know much about because there is so much we can play with when it comes to writing. Folklore, myths, …some of the best stories ever told are there.
However, I don’t feel this book explored that in the way I expected. I was craving more details that made the story unique to that culture and didn’t get them. Or not as often as I hoped for. So that’s why I want to say that perhaps it was my own expectations that caused the slight disappointment with the book.

Because it’s a beautifully written book. We got two kind of narrators, I guess I could call them. It’s hard to explain without spoiling but one of those was what I wanted from the book and it was the part we didn’t visit as often. The story is mostly about Layla and her coming of age. There’s a lot of commentary about parenting and how it can affect children. These are extreme situations, sure. But we can all relate them to our personal experiences as children. We fall and barely hurt our arm and our parents decide we can’t play that game again. How is that fair? Don’t they understand we can learn from that small amount of pain? But also, it’s understandable that parents want to keep kids safe and might get it wrong while having the best intentions. So all that commentary was very interesting. But I wanted more of the action. More of the pure darkness of the story. That was more fast paced too and I felt the book was a bit slower and it took me way longer to read it than I originally expected. That frustrated me a little bit.

I also wanted to know more about those superstitions. It was interesting to see how some were told not to believe those old tales but we didn’t get much of an explanation as to what those tales are and it felt like a missed opportunity. It all felt a little surface level so perhaps if the book was a bit longer, that could have helped.

Again, I want to mention the book is very well written and I constantly thought about that while reading. The exploration of Layla’s life throughout the years was very good too. It built up to where the story ended really well.
And also, something else I personally loved was the perfume talk. As someone who’s also obsessed with scents, I really enjoyed that part. Maybe others find it redundant or that it went on for too long. It’s all a matter of personal taste after all. But scents are such an integral part of this story and so it being also a big part of Layla’s story makes all the sense. I could relate to her fascination with fragrances as well and I swear I could smell those perfumes Layla described.

So I think the best way to summarise my issues is I expected more of the folklore and more horror. Had I known it would be more of a coming of age story, I could have enjoyed it more. But I’d lie if I didn’t praise this book despite it not being my favourite read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at around 20% in. The premise sounded interesting, but I just wasn't vibing with the writing style. We're following the perspective of Layla, a young girl, as a serial killer stalks her town. Interestingly, it looks to be a female serial killer, and the men die in pretty gruesome ways. It feels like there's a supernatural twist to it, but you can't tell if it is supernatural or if everyone in town is just really religious.

Layla, as a young girl, is obviously pretty oblivious to this. My main issue with her is that she didn't read like her age. Maybe I don't know what kids are like, but she seemed much younger mentally than she was portrayed. As a result, I didn't really connect with her all that well and wasn't interested in the story.

This will suit some readers, but it wasn't enough for me. I don't mind horror or thrillers that are a bit confusing, but there was no suspense here.

I'll admit: The Night Is Not For You ended up not being what I thought it would be, by reading the synopsis. And my final thoughts are mixed.
I've enjoyed the setting, the ambience and the tropes (a creepy serial killer, a small town/community, a child as the protagonist) and I've also enjoyed the atmosphere. To me, all the right elements were there. But the execution failed to hold my attention. I did like the mystery around the 'serial killer', but as the story progresses, it gets weirder and weirder and what was once before realistic (up to a certain point) turned to be a very far-fetched scenario which lost me completely.
I'm not surprised by it. I knew there was a 'fantasy' element here, but I didn't expect to be portraited as it was.
But I gotta say: even though I didn't love this book, it's one that I won't easily forget about.
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC.

I do not know what to make of this book. I finished it because I kind of enjoyed the writing. Maybe I am missing something here because I really could not tell what it is about. The ingredients for a great story are there - a serial killer, a female protagonist, family, small town, etc but the disparate parts don’t just come together.