sometimes_samantha_reads's Reviews (283)

The Night Ocean was a pleasant surprise to me! I had picked it up from the dollar store from a huge unorganized mess of books. It was something that was slightly out of my normal genre but I was intrigued. But I didn't pick it up until over a year later. That was a mistake! The story evoked so many of my emotions in a way that not many books I've read recently were able to do. 

The prose of Paul La Farge was beyond enjoyable. The book,  written in mostly internal monologs or incredibly realistic dialog, played so well to its intended imagery. At times I even forgot I was reading! His words played out so naturally it was hard to remember I was looking at words on a page rather than viewing the characters in flesh in front of me. 

The ONLY reservation I have about giving The Night Ocean a 5 star rating is the ending. It fit PERFECTLY with the rest of the story and was in no way lazy. It was very intentional but I wanted to know more! Maybe when I have time to process I'll come back and change it to 5 stars (haha) but I emphatically recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind a little bit of a psychological thriller.

This is one of the few books I could manage to read outside of the mountain of academic reading I've been assigned for undergrad work. This book had my heart racing, had me laughing, and had me cursing out loud. I loved the characters and world building, though some of the dialog could be cheesy and cliché at times. I can't wait to read the sequel! 

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the characters and the art was beautiful. I'm not sure if it was just a disconnect with me personally but the constant flash forwards and flash backwards had me confused at the beginning and left me feeling uncertain about it whether I really knew what was going on. I defintely understood everything by the ending, but the nagging feeling of "what is happening/ did I already learn about this or no?" when reading drew me away from some of the magic.