Face the Night: A Novel by Alan Lastufka

Perfectly serviceable doesn’t get the best rap and yet, it would be so apt here. There’s nothing really wrong with perfectly serviceable, it’s essentially the equivalent of conversational fine, as in “so, how’s that book?” “oh, it’s fine.”
I mean, it is fine, technically. It covers all the basis, the writing’s decent, the characters are decent…it’s just that nothing in this book ever gets above that level.
The plot of this supernaturally-themed thriller is a conglomeration of a number of genre themes – not a single original thing to be found here plot-wise. It’s one of those small town ghostly mysteries with the protagonist who sees dead people/premonitions/lake monsters. Does Adriana (Addie) make a compelling protagonist? Well, once again, she’s fine. Nothing special about her, got pregnant too young out of some teenage rebellion/stupidity, had a kid too young, now she’s living off her estranged father’s conditional largesse. The father, Bradley, is also the town’s longtime mayor and an all-around scumbag, who manipulates Addie and a bunch of other people for fun and gains.
Addie’s something of an artist, she draws, she does tattoos. Now, in order to maintain the custody of her kid, she has to get a proper job. And she does, but her dreams continue to be haunted by some terror rising out of a lake, so she begins to snoop around and finds out all sorts of disturbing but not-all-all-surprising truths about her father and other local potentates.
She scores some allies along the way, and, to his credit, the author does a good job with side characters. And then the story rolls down to its inevitable conclusion of justice and fairness for all, pretty much a happy ending.
Is it worth the almost 400 pages of getting there? Well, that’s a matter of personal preference. I’d say for an unoriginal story with nothing new to offer, featuring just average writing and just average characters, 371 pages might be a stretch. But then again, there’s nothing really objectionable about this book either. It’s that solidly committedly fine of a production. The realism of the narrative does its best to offset the tiresome convolutions of small-town politics and attitudes. Also stands to mention, this is a debut, so for a debut it’s decent, decently edited too. The author might get some original ideas down the road and step up his game. I mean, if the most negative thing one can say about the book is how meh, how bland, how plain it is…well, that’s actually ok, objectively. Especially, for a random debut. So, I'm going to round up my rating in a random display of uncharacteristic generosity. Reader mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.