Review of Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski

After fourteen years of Day comes fourteen years of Night. Be sure not to get left in the dark.

On Marin's island, sunrise doesn't come every twenty-four hours - it comes every twenty-eight years. Now the sun is just a sliver of light on the horizon. The weather is turning cold. The shadows are growing long. The dark is rising. And soon it will be Night.

The eerie Evening sunset is causing the tide to begin its slow roll out hundreds of miles, and so Marin, along with her twin brother Kana and the rest of the islanders, must frantically begin preparations to sail south, where they will wait out the long Night. But first the house must be made ready for their departure. Locks must be taken off doors. Furniture must be arranged just so. Tables must be set as if for dinner. The rituals are bizzare - unnerving, even - but none of the adults will discuss why things must be this way. And then just as the ships are about to sail, the twins' friend Line goes missing. Marin and Kana know where he has gone, and that the only way to rescue him is to do it themselves. And surely the ships will wait?

Because Night is falling. Their island is changing. And something is stirring in the dark.

This Halloween I'm all about Creepy Books About Trees, so after Beware The Wild didn't quite creep me out enough, I thought this mysterious island would do it. Every 14 years, the entire entire packs up their belongings, cleans every house and leaves no trace of their existence. Nothing is discussed as to why everything has to be so exact, leaving the younger residents with a lot of questions that the adults refuse to answer.

"THE HOUSES MUST BE WITHOUT STAIN"

This has some good world building, even outside of the island itself is well described to Marin and the reader. Once the action starts and Marin, Line and Kana start piecing clues together as to why the islanders leave every 14 years, it just gets scarier. The story is kept fairly simple but what is going on is (kinda roughly) explained, which I appreciated.

“Night has fallen. And it will last for a very long time.”

The only thing that prevented me from rating this a full five stars was that it felt a little unfinished. There was a lot of unanswered questions about Marin, Line and Kana's life that warranted a sequel, likely set in 13/14 years from the point of view of their own children. I have no idea if this will ever be made.

Edit: The sequel is called Edgeland! It's not attached to this book so we can presume it's one of those "set in the same world but we don't call it a sequel" things.