Trying to Survive the Storm: A Review of The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

I got another great review for you this week. You’re in for a treat. I got another thriller for ya today. A locked room mystery to be exact. Complete with a healthy dose of family drama. Today’s read is a doozy.

And today’s read is brought to you by Penguin Group Dutton; they aren’t paying me for my review, they just sent me the book for free. Thank you very much to them for gifting me a copy. It means the world to me every time I get offered books. Thank you again very much.

So what am I reviewing today? What book was I so kindly sent? Please give a warm welcome to The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh! The Night of the Storm is set to release January 16, 2024.

Let’s crack into it. As always, a spoiler alert is in order. This is your one and only warning. If you’ve read any other review by me then you know I love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. I also must issue a content and trigger warning. The Night of the Storm deals with sexual harassment. This topic is relevant to the plot and cannot be avoided. There are also some allusions to physical abuse, but I will gladly spoil some things here and say there is actually no physical abuse in this book. I will not be talking about either aspect in my review. Now let’s get to the synopsis.

Hurricane Harvey is about to hit Huston, Texas hard. Jia Shah’s apartment building has been evacuated and the only place she and her 12-year-old son, Ishaan, can go is to her sister’s, Seema, fancy modern mansion. Jia is not excited about this prospect. Not only is she recently divorced, she moved her son cross country to get away from her ex, Ishaan is getting into fights at school, she’s struggling to make ends meet, her ex-husband now wants custody of Ishaan and is ready to get into a messy legal battle, oh, and Seema’s husband, Vipul, has been a little too friendly towards Jia as of late.

It has been ages since I've used this. I've missed it.

The last issue is the real reason Jia doesn’t want to bunk down in Seema’s cozy, safe house. Who could blame her? Sadly, Seema’s home is the best place to stay safe during the hurricane. Also staying in the mansion this night are Vipul’s mother, his brother Raj, Raj’s wife Lisa, and new neighbor Rafael.

With the hurricane raging outside, tensions are brewing inside. It seems everyone in the house is keeping a secret; some far worse than others. Seema and Vipul, for example, knew their house was under an evacuation order but told their families to stay the night anyway. Another big secret is someone in the house is a murderer. One member of the party isn’t going to make it through the night. With a killer on the loose inside the house and the storm getting worse outside, no one is safe. Fingers are being pointed every which way. No one is above suspicion. Who will make it out alive? Will the killer claim everyone’s lives before the storm gets to them first? Find out in The Night of the Storm.

This book did it for me. The family drama is top tier. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had secrets and I was desperate to learn them all. The secrets and intricate family drama were probably the best part of the book. Not to say the other aspects were bad, they too were good, but the secrets and the complex issues truly got me. Seriously, you’ve got bitter custody battles, cheating, strained family dynamics; you’ve got the works. These are what drove this book forward.

I love the family drama.

Thankfully, they are tied into the murder mystery plot. I haven’t forgotten that this is a mystery novel. The mystery works well. Since everyone has some pretty dark secrets and are involved in quite a few major problems, anyone in the house could be the killer. This causes things to get borderline explosive in the house. It greatly adds to the tension and suspense.

The dynamics between the characters are hands down the best part of this novel. Nishita Parekh has done a phenomenal job with them. She expertly dives into these dynamics and the commentary she provides. Specifically the commentary on family roles and the hierarchies within Indian households. These characters and their intricate drama are a ten-out-of-ten.

Road of applause for Nishita Parekh.

Truly my only issue with this book are it’s transitions, and in turn, the flow of the novel. I feel the author could work on her transitions. This issue mainly occurs between chapters, but it does also rear its head with the few flashbacks that are included. It’s clunky. And when those flashbacks occur, they really slow down the novel. This did take me out of the story a few times. Again, this is truly my only issue with The Night of the Storm, it simply needs a little ironing out and I think this book would be perfect.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this read. I’m writing this post in December, and let me just tell you, it was a great read to end my year with. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this is a great book to begin the year with too. I will say I found the murder mystery aspect, which I now realize I didn’t even touch on in my review, to be predictable but the family drama and chaos that ensues certainly makes up for the mystery’s predictability. This is a good one.

Thank you once again to Penguin Group Dutton for kindly sending me this read. It truly means a lot to me that someone out there wants to send me books. Thank you so much.

And with that, I must bid you all adieu. Again, The Night of the Storm releases January 16, 2024. I will see you all again next week another great ps. A post that’s not about a mystery read. I’m gonna shake things up next week.

Until then, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!