Today on Tales of the Ravenous Reader, I am happy to be a part of JACQUELYN MITCHARD'S BLOG TOUR. Jacquelyn has just released WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT, a story about a girl and her fatal allergy to sunlight. This book explores old relationships she has along with a new and thrilling relationship that puts them all in the wrong place at the wrong time. EEEEP!!!  This novel is a must read for those that enjoy a little but romance, excitement and mystery in their reads.

So, please say a bit and enjoy the excerpt of WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT along with a little extra information from Jacquelyn.
 

CLICK ON BOOK COVER FOR AN EXCERPT

WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT by Jacquelyn Mitchard

 

Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.”

On a random summer night, the trio catches a glimpse of what appears to be murder. Allie alone takes it upon herself to investigate, and the truth comes at an unthinkable price. Navigating the shadowy world of specialized XP care, extreme sports, and forbidden love, Allie ultimately uncovers a secret that upends everything she believes about the people she trusts the most.

New York Times bestseller Jacquelyn Mitchard's novels include The Deep End of the Ocean, Twelve Times Blessed, and The Breakdown Lane. She is also the author of The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, a collection of her newspaper columns. She lives with her husband and six children in Madison, Wisconsin. 


There's a line from this old song they sang once on 'Glee,' from the Broadway show 'Pippin.' It says, "Cats fit on the windowsill/Children fit in the snow/Why is it I don't fit in anywhere I go?"

That about describes me in high school.

I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. But the popular girls wanted to be cheerleaders. You literally couldn't be both. Cheerleading was a class, and so was Journalism. As a sophomore, I made nerd history by actually making the cheerleading squad, which was high prestige, but giving it up to be on the newspaper—in other words, social suicide.

It was as though a translucent curtain divided the smart, super ambitious kids from the cool, popular kids. Even though, then as now, there was always so much overlap between the smart and the popular. You could see through the curtain, but you couldn't necessarily walk through it at will. You weren't ever supposed to have friends on both sides. You had to choose; if you didn’t, the smart, geeky people would hate you, and the cool, popular kids would ruin your life. It was very frustrating, because I wanted the impossible. I wanted to walk through the curtain at will. I knew the rules: if you were smart, you had to hide it, or at least pretend not to care. And you had to choose.

Then, when I was a senior, I stumbled into student government, and, completely by chance, at the same time, I became queen of this or that. And this meant nothing, except that all of a sudden I could go back and forth through that curtain. I could say: “This hipster guy, I like him. He should be on the student council, and my gay friend, she should, too.” Once we were all in the same room, it was easy to see how much we actually had in common.  It was pure joy.

All three best friends in WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT are outsiders. Being outsiders defines their very lives. They literally can’t participate in most of daily life, because their lives take place entirely at night (and no, they’re not vampires; but they do have Xeroderma Pigmentosum, a deadly allergy to sunlight). Allie Kim fears that she'll die without ever really having lived—totally missing out on the things everyone else takes for granted. Her social "circle" is a triangle of three—just Allie and her best friend Juliet, and one other friend, Rob. They all have XP, and it first seems like all they have in common is being freaks. Then, Juliet gets Allie into Parkour, and suddenly their outsider status seems to give them an edge over the "Daytimers" they've envied all their lives. They have a secret. They're cool and strong. Although they're about to get a horrifying reality check, they get to experience the amazing jolt of being part of something. Instead of life kicking them out, it pulls them into a fierce embrace.

It was like that for me in high school for that one season.

No matter what have going for you, or what you don't, being young is just hard. There are times when you feel as though you're alone on the earth. But all it takes is one person who's on your side … and suddenly, you're a tribe, and the world is yours.