Review: Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin

Night Will Find You

by Julia Heaberlin

Release Date: June 8, 2023

2023 Flatiron Books

Kindle Edition; 368 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250877079

ASIN: B0B9KW1FSS

Audiobook: B0BFFNYMQB

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

2 / 5 Stars

Summary

When she was ten, Vivvy Bouchet saved a boy’s life by making an impossible prediction. Ever since, she has been in a life-long battle between the urgent voices in her head and the science she loves. Now a brilliant young astrophysicist, she wants nothing more than to be left alone with the stars in the Big Bend country of Texas.

But the boy she saved, now a Fort Worth cop, is begging her to help solve the high-profile cold case of a little girl who disappeared in broad daylight from the kitchen of her old Victorian house. A body was never found, and her mother sits in prison still loudly proclaiming her innocence. Vivvy reluctantly agrees to try.

When a popular Texas conspiracy theorist podcaster named Bubba Guns finds out about her involvement, he spews conspiracy theories about the case and muddled truths about Vivvy’s murky past. As his listeners spin dangerously out of control, and with her career and the people she loves on the line, Vivvy decides to fight back.

 

My Thoughts

Night Will Find You had an interesting concept, but I think I would have liked this book a lot better if I didn't have a scientific background.  It did require you to suspend belief in certain things or just let things go, and while I tried, eventually it just became too much for me to ignore.  And while I did think the overall story line had potential, I wasn't necessarily a fan of the characters and the way it got there.

 

First of all, the overall plot in this book was actually interesting. Discovering what actually happened to that little girl was a fascinating story and if the plot had focused on that, my rating would probably have been a lot higher.  The twists and turns as well as the difficulties to the resolution of that mystery were fascinating and it made me pause and think about all the innocent people involved and the effect it would have on their lives once they discovered the truth.  I don't think the author went deep enough and explored the issues enough with regards to this plot line because of the secondary things that were going on which really distracted from the overall impact of the main story.

 

Vivvy is an astrophysicist as well as a psychic and she struggled with the idea that there are some things in this world that you just can't explain with scientific principles.  I'm not sure how much science background the author has, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes quite a few times whenever Vivvy got into her science mode as her take on it is rather annoying and not very realistic.  Honestly, scientists don't have to constantly look at ingredients in order to prove they have scientific backgrounds nor do they constantly read ingredients off packages to shame other people if they think they are using harmful items such as makeup and candles.  You learn to keep a lot of that knowledge to yourself because people get easily offended.  I didn't mind her struggles over being psychic however, as I could see how difficult this would be to accept, for anyone.  

 

I don't really feel like a lot of the secondary characters were very well developed and honestly, the issue between Mike, Vivvy, and her sister had me groaning in frustration.  She had this unhealthy obsession with this guy and when you read the book, you will understand why. I really wish the author hadn't gone there.

 

Verdict

Night Will Find You was a long-winded, rambling story that had many secondary plot lines instead of just focusing on the main story line. It did have some interesting moments, the plot moves along quickly, but the plot holes leave many questions unanswered asking the reader to simply suspend belief and just continue on reading.  If you like books about psychics helping out with police investigations, this one might be for you, but the inconsistent narrative and lack of character development was a disappointment.