JENN BENNETT’S A FAVORITE! ~ Night Owls by Jenn Bennett

TITLE: Night Owls
AUTHOR: Jenn Bennett

RELEASED: August 13, 2015
PUBLISHER: Simon and Schuster UK
FORMAT: Paperback

GENRE: YA Contemporary
GOODREADS RATING: 3.93

TRIGGERS: Small side character with past of selfharm / suicide attempt, disorganized schizophrenia, panic attacks, challenged homophobic remark by absent character in past
REPS: buddhist main character, LGBTQIA+ [side characters]

SYNOPSIS
Feeling alive is always worth the risk.

Meeting Jack on the Owl—San Francisco’s night bus—turns Beatrix’s world upside down. Jack is charming, wildly attractive…and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists.

But Jack is hiding a piece of himself. On midnight rides and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who this enigmatic boy really is.

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As you’ve been able to read in my previous reviews of Alex, Approximately and Starry Eyes, Jenn Bennett has become one of my favorite YA contemporary authors. So who am I to ignore the temptation of picking up another one of her books? Right, no one!

This first part consists of a spoiler – not a huge one – but I thought it important to mention since I absolutely love it and it should be present in more books. – Let me start off by shouting about the awkward conversation our main characters, Jack and Meg, had before having sex! Like. Okay, it’s a bit of a spoiler – unless you know contemporary and know there’s always some kind of fluff involved, most of the time – but.. It felt so real and genuine and I absolutely loved it. The actual scene was awkward as well, which made it all the more real to me. Thinking about it still has me jumping up and down of happiness since I hadn’t seen that kind of thing before and I’m so happy I have!

Okay. Serious business. The characters themselves! Meg has a thing with drawing bodies, cadavers if you will. She wants to be a medical illustrator after all. This was a bit morbid at first – especially one of the descriptions had me shivering – but that unique side of her made her unique.
As for Jack? Oh, Jack. As Meg, he has a lot to deal with. Even though we don’t get his POV – which I would’ve loved but okay -, it still feels as if you understand him well enough without needing to be in his head. At first he’s the broody, secretive type, but that soon changes and leaves us with a strong but sweet and women-respecting male. He’s so honest and pure, or at least tries his hardest to be.
Those two together had me swooning, to be honest. Not only that, but I loved their banter so much!

As for some of the characters, I mainly want to focus on Meg’s brother, Heath. He’s a metalhead – stole my heart the moment I found out – but, on top of that, he’s queer and it’s handled as if it’s the most normal thing ever.

The ending? Let’s just keep it at: it all got wrapped up in a real, neat and satisfying way. I’d honestly love to see Meg and Jack a couple of years later to see what they’ve been up to.

I definitely enjoyed Night Owls a lot. Although it isn’t my favorite Jenn Bennett-book, it’s definitely a very good one and, once again, it had its typical focus on creative characters – artists if you like.

I definitely enjoyed Night Owls a lot. Although it isn’t my favorite Jenn Bennett-book, it’s definitely a very good one and, once again, it had its typical focus on creative characters – artists if you like.

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