REVIEW + DISCUSSION | Night Owls by Jenn Bennett

Title: Night Owls (US title: The Anatomical Shape of a Heart)
Author: Jenn Bennet
Genres: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 272
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
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.

Review + Discussion: I wasn’t expecting too much when I started this book but wooooahhhhhnelly did I love it!

The first 100 pages of the book were pretty slow and it took me a while to get through them but by the end I was so connected to characters and invested in their future that I struggled to put it down.

We follow Beatrix in this novel, a girl who draws anatomical art. She meets Jack, a guy who has been covering San Fransisco in golden worlds, on the Owl which is San Fran’s night bus. They are drawn to each other, connected by art and what follows is a romance filled with secrets, family drama and self-discovery.

I loved these characters so much! I loved their connection and their passion, I loved their depth and the way the author portrayed them. I saw a lot of negative reviews about this book but I really liked it and the characters are a big part of why. I loved the world building, too. As I was reading I had such a vivd picture in my mind of the characters and their surroundings.

I became invested in the future of not just the characters as a couple but also as the characters by themselves. I wanted a happy ending for them! I was so connected to this book and I was feeling what they were feeling and I just don’t even have the words to describe it.

I love the focus of art in this book. I’ve never read a book with a character who enjoys creating anatomical art and I thought it was really interesting. I also loved Jack’s art and the reason behind it all.

I also really loved how this book dealt with sex. We all know what sex is like in YA fiction and this was such a refreshing change. It wasn’t a huge deal where the girl was losing her virginity to her super hot boyfriend right before the world ended. Though there was a virgin in this couple, it wasn’t a big huge deal brought on by something massive that would affect everything.

I felt so inspired after reading this book and I know Night Owls is going to stay with me for a long time. I definitely recommend it if you like cute contemporaries that deal with some not so fluffy issues.

★★★★★