Night Road- Audiobook Review

Title: Night Road

Author: Kristin Hannah

Narrator: Kathleen McInerney

Genre: *Secular* Fiction

Audio Relase: March 22, 2011 by Brilliance Audio

Length: 14hrs 47min

About the Book:

Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone’s needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable. But senior year of high school brings unexpected dangers and one night, Jude’s worst fears are confirmed: there is an accident. In an instant, her idyllic life is shattered and her close-knit community is torn apart. People—and Jude—demand justice, and when the finger of blame is pointed, it lands solely on eighteen-year-old Lexi Baill. In a heartbeat, their love for each other will be shattered, the family broken. Lexi gives up everything that matters to her—the boy she loves, her place in the family, the best friend she ever had—while Jude loses even more.

When Lexi returns, older and wiser, she demands a reckoning. Long buried feelings will rise again, and Jude will finally have to face the woman she has become. She must decide whether to remain broken or try to forgive both Lexi…and herself.

Night Road is a vivid, emotionally complex novel that raises profound questions about motherhood, loss, identity, and forgiveness. It is an exquisite, heartbreaking novel that speaks to women everywhere about the things that matter most.

My Review:

Oh. My. WOW! Have you ever had a favorite stuff animal that was wounded, and the stuffing ended up all over the place, and then your mom tried to cram it all back in and sew it up but it was never the same again? That’s about what Kristin Hannah does to your heart in this book. To say I was hooked is an understatement. I would strongly recommend reading or listening in a private space unless you don’t care to have everyone around you watch you cry (yes, I listened to it at work and yes, I cried many tears and had to pause several times to compose myself).

This story touches on such a difficult but very real issue that touches the youth today. They don’t realize the consequences that can follow teen partying and then drinking and driving. But in the event of an accident… is the driver really the only one at fault? With heart-wrenching vulnerability this is one of the questions this book poses through the eyes of different people who feel a sense of personal responsibility.

I literally don’t want to share anything more in the storyline because I believe its too intentional to discover it all at just the right times as the story unfolds, but I assure you that this is a story that will stick with you for a very long time. It’s about such a very real problem today and and reveals how sometimes there are no simple answers or easy places to point the sole finger-of-blame. Have a box of tissues handy before you open this one but it is such an important read. I often say that I don’t mind crying while reading because it shows that a book can make you feel something–well this book has a whole lot of feeling! I don’t know that I’ve ever cried that long through a book. It’s not an easy read but one that desperately needs to be read by so many young people today who think that partying can have no life-long (or life-ending) consequences. Kristin Hannah is a master and this book is a masterpiece.

*Since almost all of the books I review on here are Christian I want to disclose that this is a secular fiction book. There is some cursing sprinkled throughout but I wouldn’t consider it excessive. There is some teen sex and drinking. There are also some intimate scenes involving married adults. I’d consider it more detailed than you’d see in a Christian piece, but not incredibly graphic either. So it’s not squeaky clean but I wouldn’t call it raunchy by any means either.*

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