Review of NIGHT WATCH by Jayne Anne Phillips

NIGHT WATCH by Jayne Anne Phillips will be released on September 19, 2023 by Knopf.

 

When twelve-year old ConaLee's father rips her away from her secluded home in the mountains of West Virginia and drops her off at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum along with her mother, she must learn to adapt to her new environment while keeping an eye on her mother who is slowly responding to head doctor's form of "moral" treatment. The novel shifts between various points of view and jumps around in time from the pre-Civil War years to 1874 when ConaLee arrives at the lunatic asylum.

 

NIGHT WATCH was an interesting but confusing story. I just couldn't get into it. Depending on which characters' perspective for the chapter, the writing could be difficult to read and understand. My main reason for reading the novel was the setting—I visited the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum years ago and I jumped at the chance to read a novel set there while the asylum was in operation.

 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.