The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen

Posted October 1, 2019 in review Tags:

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen
Pages: 273

Genres: Thriller
Setting: Tucker's Cove, Maine
Source: ARC

Goodreads

A woman trying to outrun her past is drawn to a quiet coastal town in Maine–and to a string of unsolved murders–in this haunting tale of romantic suspense from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.

Ava Collette is punishing herself for an unspeakable tragedy. So she flees Boston and rents an old home named Brodie’s Watch on a remote coastal peninsula of Maine, hoping to work on a cookbook inspired by New England cuisine that she’s been trying to finish for months. She immediately feels at peace in the isolated house–until she starts to hear strange noises.

Rumor has it that a sea captain named Brodie has haunted the house for decades. Then, one night, Ava is awakened to find herself face to face with an apparition who looks–and feels–all too real. Meanwhile, there’s been a series of accidental deaths nearby that don’t add up. And as Ava starts to check into the previous renter’s mysterious disappearance, she starts to realize that there’s a disturbing secret some in town are desperate to keep hidden.

Soon all of Ava’s waking hours are consumed by her investigation, and her nights are ignited by Captain Brodie’s ghostly visits. But even as she questions her own sanity, she knows she must uncover the truth before a killer strikes again.

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen has some beautiful writing! The book starts off with a seriously creepy vibe. If I were Ava, I would NOT have entered Brodie’s Watch. Nope, nope, nope. Throughout the story I was saying things like “Dumb white girl move” and “Are you kidding me-get the hell out! Don’t go investigate”!

Not gonna lie, the story takes a WEIRD turn. Think Ghost, but not a loved one. Ava has experienced a recent trauma and that is what led her to this creepy old house. But, this has also led her to drinking entire bottles of alcohol a night. So the ghostly visits could be real or imagined during a drunken stupor. But when Ava has bruises from her nightly visitor, she knows something is up. Ava is difficult to like as a protagonist. She did a terrible thing and she is dealing with it poorly. However, I think the story does a very unique way of making her atone. Honestly, I did NOT see it coming. As I was reading I was making mental connections to the characters in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn-I didn’t like any of them either and felt they all got EXACTLY what they deserved.

During the day, when Ava isn’t visited by her supernatural host, girls are turning up dead. Ava has become obsessed with learning all she can about the town and Brodie. This gives the story a sort of parallel vibe-the daylight events and the nighttime events. While the daytime events are more your typical murder mystery plot, the nighttime events are more supernatural/psychological plot lines. It was a very interesting parallel because they were so different, and I appreciated it, but it was just weird at times. The Shape of Night is certainly one of the most interesting and unique books I’ve read. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Perhaps thats the sign of a good book-one that leaves you wondering what the heck just happened?

POV: 1st
Trope: ghosts, small town
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »no; epilogue included « Hide Spoiler

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JD Robb, Gillian Flynn, Sandra Brown…then you will probably like The Shape of Night!

The Shape of Night

About Tess Gerritsen

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, "Adrift", which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess Gerritsen's first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), and The Bone Garden (2007). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.

As well as being a New York Times bestselling author, she has also been a #1 bestseller in both Germany and the UK. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon.) Critics around the world have praised her novels as "Pulse-pounding fun" (Philadelphia Inquirer), "Scary and brilliant" (Toronto Globe and Mail), and "Polished, riveting prose" (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the "medical suspense queen".

Now retired from medicine, Tess Gerritsen writes full time. She lives in Maine.