BOOK REVIEW: Night School: Legacy by CJ Daugherty

Night School: Legacy by CJ Daugherty is the second book in the Night School Series. Night School is a YA Suspense series that started with the first book in the series Night School (paperback 1^st published on 5 January 2012). The ISBN is 1907411224 and the novel was published on 3 January 2013 by Atom. I purchased this book in paperback.

PLOT

In the last year, Allie's survived three arrests, two breakups and one family breakdown. The only bright point has been her new life at Cimmeria Academy. It's the one place she's felt she belongs. And the fact that it's brought the dreamy Carter West into her life hasn't hurt. . .

But far from being a safe haven, the cloistered walls of Cimmeria are proving more dangerous than Allie could've imagined. The students, and faculty, are under threat and Allie's family - from her mysterious grandma to her runaway brother - are at the centre of the storm.

Allie is going to have to choose between protecting her family and trusting her friends. But secrets have a way of ripping even the strongest relationships apart . . .

WHY I BOUGHT IT

The first book really spoke to me even if it wasn’t what I expected. From the cover and the blurb at the back it screamed paranormal but it turns out this is an example of the somewhat less known genre of YA thriller.

WHAT I THOUGHT

This book continues on the riveting story from the first book in the series and we see Allie change in some ways but stay the same in others. There are things I like about this book and things I dislike but the book keeps me coming back and I think it is safe to say that I will be sticking around until the end of the series unless the quality of the writing falls off a cliff.

For all of us that read a large number of books that are part of a series we know that the problem with the first instalments in many of them that the plot has to be established and that characterisation especially of the supporting cast really suffers, this doesn’t happen every time but it does happen a great deal.

Night School: Legacy gives us a greater insight into some of the other students of the Cimmeria Academy and the series is improved as a result, we start to see into the motivations of characters like Carter and Jo which for me made me give them a little slack and makes me less hostile to them. This helped me with my enjoyment of the book for sure and let me concentrate on trying to figure out who could be trusted.

We have to talk about Allie at the beginning of this novel I can understand her reasons for losing it and we know this is how she deals with trauma but the almost instant turnaround that happens came across as incredibly hard to believe at first but as the book goes on we see that Allie does love to flip flop on major decisions.

PROS: The suspense is palpable and the way that the story moves between Allie’s battle to survive the perils of school and the far greater conspiracy that lies behind Cimmeria Academy.

CONS: It is difficult to root for or even tolerate either of the two love interests because when you look at it really you have a date rapist who admitted to doing the same in the past and a guy who can best be described as self-destructive.

CONCLUSION

Despite that controversial aspect of the series I am still happy to recommend that people read this series as they will get sucked in to the intrigue and the burning desire that you along with Allie can learn the truth. If you’ve taken the splash with the rather long opening book in the series then this is more of the same thankfully with a few answers too.