The Night Mark

by Tiffany Reisz

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
The Night Mark deals with hope - how we need hope to move forward. To get out of bed in the morning. To care for ourselves and others. To care for our planet.



The Night Mark has a magical feel to it, and a lot of that comes from Reisz's excellent writing. It's like a novel in a poem with a fantastical story in which realistic characters live their lives to the best of their abilities. Hope and love are strong themes, and I had to wipe away a few tears at the ending, because it was so sweet and tender, and I wanted to stay with the characters a little longer. I think what I love the most every single time I pick up a Reisz novel is that I am in a bookgasm for the duration. Her writing is very well done, there's something more to it, that draws me in and makes me utterly a part of the story alongside the characters. Another thing I love is the characters, who are so life-like I feel like I could close my eyes, reach out and touch them. And of course, through her lyrical writing, she always brings me the feels! Every single time!

The romance aspect of The Night Mark was in the background, there, but not the most important part of the story. Love, however, was important, and so was hope. Faye had lost all hope, and I found it ironically sweet that in the past, her name was Faith. I think it's difficult to have faith if you don't have hope, and it appeared that Faye found that in 1921, after having abandoned all hope in 2015. Of course, there is some very pertinent quotes about religion, and I always enjoy how Reisz seamlessly include those in some of her stories, almost like an afterthought, but always right on spot. The beauty of the story lies in the writing, though. And the characters who move the story forward through their hopes, their dreams, and their actions.

The Night Mark intrigued me, it kept me wondering, and it also filled me with a kind of longing I don't feel that often when reading a book. The way Faye dealt with her grief, her divorce, and her new lease on life touched me deeply. And how Fay happened to find herself in 1921, and the lengths to which she was willing to go to in order to stay there were astounding. Love conquers all, they say, and Faye proved that saying beautifully. The way she tried to find solutions to her problems both in the 21st and in the 20th century is partly why I loved her story so much. When she made her choice about where, or rather when she wanted to be, I felt both elated for her and sad for her all at the same time.

Carrick and Pat are very important characters in The Night Mark as well, and I have to admit I have a very soft spot for Pat. He is the town's retired priest, and what he did for Faye to help her get things in order was nothing short of amazing. Written in third person point of view, past tense and mostly from Faye's perspective, I was so completely immersed in the story from start to finish it was difficult to get back to the real world. As I was reading through some of my highlights to include quotes for my review, I got all teary-eyed, and I know that this story will be one of the very few that I will re-read. Reisz and her beautiful writing and life-like characters just do something to me each time I read one of her stories.



Now that she didn't have to think of anyone's needs but her own, she'd discovered just how little she needed.

She should have been afraid, but she wasn't. Supposedly she'd lost "everything" in the divorce and had been left with almost nothing. Turned out almost nothing was exactly what she wanted.

But she understood the temptation to live in the past better than anyone. When people lost hope, they looked in the last place they remembered having it, and it was in the past.

Hope was other people, no matter what the philosophers said.