The Night Fox

After a really bad breakup, Eli shuts down and doesn't even want to leave her room. She doesn't talk to anyway either and no longer has friends. Not knowing what else to do, Eli's mother brings her to a teenage retreat called Raeth. They specialize in mental health issues and give teens the support they need to heal. But Eli doesn't want to heal. She feels like nobody understands her and how hard she loves. It isn't something she can just forget.

At Raeth, Eli faces the challenges of meeting new people, like the sweet Gale, when she no longer feels like herself. She questions her religion and blames God for the reason her relationship ended. She didn't pray enough or want it enough, even though she did everything she could. To others, her relationship was just her first love, but to Eli, it was the very breath in her lungs. While she doesn't see it, Raeth is her path to healing and opens her eyes to the other things life has to offer even when she would rather just end hers.

THE NIGHT FOX is a contemporary read that delves into the raw feelings of grief and the impact religion can have in life. Eli uses poetry to help cope and explain to others how she feels. In her text, she often uses a fox as a symbol and I like those metaphors. While I love the idea of this story, I feel like religion played the biggest role in her life instead of the grief. It's like religion was the root of everything.


Final Verdict: There are a lot of trigger warnings for this book that involve mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and suicide. I would recommend this to fans of Christian fiction, emotional contemporaries, and sensitive themes involving mental health.