Blog Tour- A Night Twice As Long by Andrew Simonet

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for A Night Twice As Long by Andrew Simonet. This tour is being hosted by Xpresso Book Tours and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. You can find the ful tour schedule here.

About the Book

Goodreads B&N Amazon

A Night Twice as Long by Andrew Simonet
on June 1, 2021
Pages: 320
Goodreads

What do you call the difference between what you should feel and what you do feel? Life?
The blackout has been going on for three weeks. But Alex feels like she's been living in the dark for a year, ever since her brother, who has autism, was removed from the house, something Alex blames herself for. So when her best friend, Anthony, asks her to trek to another town to figure out the truth about the blackout, Alex says yes.
On a journey that ultimately takes all day and night, Alex's relationships with Anthony, her brother, and herself will transform in ways that change them all forever.
In this honest and gripping young adult novel, Andrew Simonet spins a propulsive tale about what it means to turn on the lights and look at what's real.

About the Author

Andrew Simonet is a choreographer and writer in Philadelphia. His first novel, Wilder, published in 2018. He co-directed Headlong Dance Theater for twenty years and founded Artists U, an incubator for helping artists make sustainable lives. He lives in West Philadelphia with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two sons, Jesse Tiger and Nico Wolf.

Website. Goodreads Twitter

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Thoughts

A Night Twice As Long is a character driven contemporary with a strong post-apocolyptic feel as a blackout has plunged the entire country into a world of darkness.

Our main character is Alexandra, who the reader gets to know intimately throughout the course of the novel. In the opening pages, Alexandra is invited by her best friend Anthony to traverse the woods to go to Bethany and call his mother who is deployed in the Navy, out in the Pacific.

But wait there’s more!

A major point of the novel deals with Alexandra’s autistic brother Georgie. Over a year before the novel’s opening, Georgie was taken by CPS to live with a family better equiped to take care of him. Throughout the novel, the reader is given glimpses into what living with and looking after Georgie is like. Both the struggles and the triumphs. As someone who was considered special needs for the first seven years of my life, this part of the novel deeply resonated with me.

I also really enjoyed Anthony and Alexandra’s relationship and how it develops through the course of the story. Anthony is a black boy and so, the reader is privvy to how Anthony experiences the world in the form of racist comments about Anthony which are made to Alexandra. I thought this aspect of the novel was important and appreciated the author drawing attention to it.

All that aside, the book was just too slow and winding for me. It meandered the way Alexandra and Anthony meander to their destination. I was just left waiting for some thing exciting to happen and I think some of my disappointment is on me for expecting a more fast paced novel

As someone who prefers plot driven books it was some times difficult for me to be interested in the small going ons that made up the plot of A Night Twice As Long. Overall, I gave the book 3? and would recommend it to anyone who likes slower paced, character driven stories.

What About You?

Have you read A Night Twice As Long? What did you think of it? What did you think of my review? Let me know in the comments!