Title: Night School
Author: C. J. Daugherty
Series: Night School (1)
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: 21 May 2013
Date Read: May 2013
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Allie's world is falling apart...
She hates her school. Her brother has run away. And she's just been arrested.
Again.
Now her parents are sending her away to a boarding school where she doesn't know a soul.
But instead of hating her new school, Allie finds she's happy there. She's making friends. And then there's Sylvain, a suave French student who openly flirts with her. And Carter, the brooding loner who seems to have her back.
Soon, though, Allie discovers Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Nothing there is as it seems. And her new friends are hiding dangerous secrets.
I got nothing of what I expected from Night School. It had a misleading title, misleading cover and a misleading synopsis.
I thought it was going to be the type of boarding school where select students are secretly paranormal/supernatural. The main character doesn't know she's got some special blood in her, a little romance on the side and something that makes it stand up against all the other YA novels out there.
Allie is shipped off to the middle-of-nowhere-boarding school Cimmeria Academy after being arrested one too many times. Her parents are hoping this strict private school will straighten her out. No internet, no cellphones, no tv, no going out, no life that exists outside of the Cimmeria walls.
I found the first few weeks of Allie's new life interesting to read about. She's focusing hard on her studies, making new friends, real friends and a couple of maybe-more-than-friends friends. I thought it was really good exposition, and the story and characters are being set up nicely. I was having fun. That is, until I realized the whole book was going to be a big set up for God knows what. It went on and on and on, Dear God, and on and on. Daugherty tried to go the 'mysterious plot unfolding' route but it just did not work. I don't even understand what the whole point, the real story of Night School is. After chapters filled with nothing but teenage woes, what we've got is a generic Evil Guy willing to do Anything to get Whatever He Wants. What exactly is it that he wants? I don't freaking know, something the Good Guys won't hand over to him. Why does he want it? I don't freaking know, because he's a big baby throwing a tantrum? Oh, and for Some Reason, Allie is special (of course she is) and she is integral to Evil Guy's plan. Why is she special? I don't freaking know. I don't know why the attention is all on her. She's got no interesting personality and boring as watching paint dry.
The romance was filled with such annoying tropes. There was a love triangle with Golden Boy on one side and the Troublemaker on the other. Allie knew she should be attracted to Golden Boy, and she is (he's smoking hot) but she just can't stop thinking about that Troublemaker whom she made eye contact with that one time. She tried to keep him out of her mind by going out with Golden Boy but it all kind of went to shit after he tried to rape her. Troublemaker to the rescue and now they're in love. Later on, Allie finds out that Troublemaker has been watching her in the beginning, looking in her window to 'keep an eye' on her because he didn't trust her.
Doesn't this book sound like just about every other crappy YA novel out there?
But you know what? I'm over it. I'm over Night School. I'm angry and disappointed and I don't care anymore.
