Book Review: Night Road

This is a very emotionally engaging book that I couldn't put it down once I started. The story carried me into a very detailed and intimate examination of family dynamics, friendship, love, motherhood, and tragedy. I think the writer is a master in plotting. This is the second book I read from this author. At this point, I can see that she is a genius in elaborating daily events that happen around us, into such compelling and provoking works of fiction. She did a very good job in weaving the cause-and-effects into the problems that were posted throughout the story, be it the distant relationship between Jude and her mother, or Lexi's childhood, or Jude's way of handling her crisis. As I read through the book, I realized everything came in full-circle and were linked together, and yet, I wasn't recognizing it until I read on. Then at the end of the book, I got the full understanding and the satisfying closure. This book is not a thriller, but somehow it kept giving me subtle surprises here and there just when I thought, "well, nothing is really shocking, I'm kind of expecting this to come...". Like her last book I read, this story also has a very sentimental piece of trinket that carries a significant role in the story and anchors the memorable closure. At the end of the book, I had to exclaim, "Brilliant!"

I'm giving this book 4 stars out of 5 because I have very high expectation about this book after I read the author's last book that I really really love. I also have a hard time relating to the story's obsession about USC. As someone who lives in Los Angeles, I never thought about going to USC myself or to send my child there if I have one. I think the story will be perfect if California Institute of Technology, Standford, UC Berkeley or UCLA is used instead of USC. For whatever the obsession of USC has cost the characters in the story, it's just totally not worth it. For all that conflict, it even seems a little silly. I would be happily and proudly moving to Washington to attend U of Washington, if I have to choose to stay here in LA to attend USC or to go to U of Washington. USC is in a very bad neighborhood in Los Angeles and has a small campus that can't compare to the beautiful and sprawling campus in U of Washington. Also, all my friends who couldn't get in UCLA , they got into USC. UCLA is more competitive and will make more sense if this is the school that caused the tragic event in the story. USC is a good school, just not good enough for the bucks and the break up of a family or anything to attend. Just my take.

The following is an interview with the author about "Night Road":