(44) What We Saw at Night

Title: What We Saw At Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Publisher: Soho Teen
243
Genre: YA

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through netgalley.com - This title was released January 2013

Synopsis: The story of three outsiders, teens with a deadly allergy to sunlight that forces them to live a life opposite of everyone else in their small town. When they discover the extreme sport Parkour, it seems that they've finally found something uniquely theirs—even if leaping from buildings in the dark feels somewhat suicidal. Everything changes when they witness a horrible crime while practicing on an allegedly empty building. Worse: what they see, sees them, too.

Review: I've had this book on my list for a while I'm not sure why I just got around to it, but I'm actually quite glad since the 2nd book in this new series, What We Lost in the Dark , is due to be released December 17, 2013 so I have less time to wait!

What at first feels like a book about 3 teens doing Parkour actually turns into more of a coming of age, mystery novel.  One night while doing Parkour Allie looks in a window from a balcony and sees a man standing over the body of what looks like a beaten and dead woman.  When a series of ever more disturbing sightings and events start happening Allie is determined to find evidence against the guy who she things is hurting woman in their area but is protected by his high profile family.

Allie and her friends face death every day, not just when they do Parkour but with their diagnosis of XP or a deadly allergy to the sun. People with XP don't have full life expectancies so looking forward is often difficult and scary.  Mitchard does a good job of showing us the conflict in Allies head about learning to live for whatever amount of time she has and not letting anything hold her back.

I really enjoyed this book.  As I said in the beginning I can't wait for the second one.  It was full of suspense, teen romantic angst and really interesting characters.