Sam the Night Person is a unique supernatural fantasy novel written by Lisa Ruszcyk. It follows the story of Sam and Azzy.
Azzy has been having some very weird dreams, dreams about a man she has never met. They are so vivid and real that she feels like she knows him. These dreams, however, are having a negative effect on her life so she sets off to track down this mysterious man and find out if he is real.
This is where Sam comes into the story. Sam has no idea why Azzy is dreaming of him and is slightly freaked out that she knows the most personal details of his life. Not that Sam can say much about being different, Sam is a night person.
What is a night person you may ask? Is that like a vampire? Not in the slightest. Night people thrive on moonlight and they can use it to their advantage, such as making lightening bolts and freezing the earth.
There are also day people. Want to guess what they can do? Yup, that’s right. Day people thrive on sunlight. Both the night and day people hide their gift from society as normal people just wouldn’t understand. They live in a private world with their own government and they like it that way.
Too bad for Sam that he and Azzy get stuck in a snowstorm together, they take refuge in a cabin and wait it out, getting to know each other in person and slowly, but surely, falling in love.
Azzy knows that she and Sam are meant to be together, but once they leave the cabin, Sam shuns Azzy and tells her he never wants to see her again. Azzy is heartbroken. She soon realises that Sam is lying.. but why? She is determined to find out. Little does she know, she is about to embark on one dangerous journey through a world of day and night people, water spirits, seoli and seoliu.
What is a night person? They thrive by moonlight, spreading lightening bolts and freezing the earth. They hide their powers from society.
Sam stays up all night, drinks coffee without pause, chain smokes cigarettes and secretly talks to the moon. Azzy knows it, but doesn-t know why or how.
Azzy has been having a series of obsessive daydreams about a young man named Sam. He seems to be a magician of sorts. All she knows is that she can-t eat, sleep, drive or work. All she can do is think of Sam. She is in love, and she must find him.
She follows a daydream to a Colorado lodge where she has seen Sam in her mind. To her astonishment, he appears there the very next day. He doesn't believe her, but who would? Is she crazy?
Sam and Azzy have a connection. Where did it come from? And who is behind it all? Of course, there-s always a reason for everything. Azzy's daydreams were no accident.
Will they be able to withstand the man behind the torment? After years being apart, they find themselves facing the most destructive man of water magic they have ever known. He threatens their love. Together in heart and apart by necessity, they must find a way to stop him.
Sam the Night person was an interesting story. Ruszcyk has definitely created her own world of characters and mythology which I believe is much needed right now in the vampire drenched book market. This story was very original and creative, which are points that I really respect in any novel.
This novel was written in a way that would appeal to an audience younger than myself. I think that girls ages 11-16 would love this book and I am sure they would literally swoon over Azzy and Sam’s relationship. The only negative is that this novel has copious amounts of cigarette smoking in it which would probably make it inappropriate for younger readers. It basically makes cigarette smoking look GOOD, which I am sure most parents would not condone. It is a shame that this was included, as Ruszcyk could have reached a much larger audience if this part was omitted.
Both Azzy and Sam are endearing characters and I really wanted things to work out for them. This novel is built on characterisation and Ruszcyk does a great job of bringing both Sam and Azzy alive. Characterisation is most definitely Ruszcyks strong point and I am interested to see how this progresses in future novels.
The moon mythology in this book was interesting and I liked the inclusion of Azzy’s research into the night people, it explained a lot, however, I did get a little confused at times as I felt that the reasoning behind a lot of the characters supernatural powers could have been explained a bit more. I also got confused when new characters were suddenly introduced near the end of the novel, but not fleshed out, they were just put there to serve their purpose and then left.
One thing that I enjoyed about this book was the first part, when Azzy and Sam were snowed it, and they read a lot. Being an avid reader I LOVE literary reference in books and characters that I can relate to when it comes to a love of books. Both Azzy and Sam fulfilled this for me. I enjoyed their conversations about literature.
I did find the conversations in this book a little hard to follow at times, sometimes there were nearly whole pages of talking that was spread out across the page (formatting) and I got lost at times as to who was saying what and I needed to go back and re-read to get a handle on things. This is an issue that can be easily fixed in future editions thought with some format editing.
This novel was easy to read and had a fast pace. The plot did a good job of building up to an explosive and unexpected climax! I was hanging on the edge of my seat to see what happened when it played out!
If you like young adult fantasy fiction and the paranormal then you may like this book.
Rating 3/5
- I was sent a copy of this book by the author to review and have done so according to my review policy.
