Book Review: A Night Twice as Long

Book Review: A Night Twice as Long
by Andrew Simonet
Pub Date: 01 Jun 2021

read courtesy of http://netgalley.com

Andrew Simonet represented what it is like to live with a sibling who has autism in a genuinely authentic way. We learn much about the main character, Alex, through her interactions with and thoughts about her non-verbal brother, Georgie, in comparison with how the people around her respond to him. It make her both a likable character and a character with depth. Through Alex we get the perspective of the "Normies," people without disabilities who are strange in their own ways, and of the progression of an autistic child as he grows up and figures out how to "impose his will." 

But that's only part of the story... Alex and her neighbor/best friend/boyfriend, Anthony, and from what they can tell, the entire United States, are in an electrical blackout from an unknown origin. They don't know how long it will last, either. Anthony's mother is in the military, and he hasn't seen her in a while, so when he gets word that someone actually has a working telephone, he jumps at the chance to try to connect with his mom. But without transportation (gas pumps don't work), he'll have to walk to another town to find the person with the phone. He cajoles Alex into taking the trek with him, and what they encounter on their journey makes for great reading. 

Complicating their journey beyond transportation is the fact that Alex's mother told her she couldn't go (she does anyway), and Alex is white, while Anthony is black. On top of that, Alex decided to chop off all of her hair and is often mistaken for a boy.

The author provides vivid descriptions that help the reader picture what's going on; my favorite was a descriptively interesting way of describing hair at one point. Simonet also gives great onomatopoeia.  

⭐⭐⭐⭐