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Night Objects
In this “vivid and immersive” (Liz Moore) debut, Eli Raphael conjures the windswept coast of Washington State and a boarding school steeped in privilege and deadly secrets—a remarkable story of grief, power, and the dangerous price of belonging.
It is true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy.
Lenny Winter is fifteen years old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest's elite, where wealth and tradition rule.
Blanchard is dazzling, insular–and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school's greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lenny’s choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoning—and a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming. Sweeping, suspenseful, and deeply moving, Bright Work is both a gripping mystery and a profound coming-of-age story—asking what we risk, what we become, and who we hold dear, when the need to belong eclipses everything else.
It is true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy.
Lenny Winter is fifteen years old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest's elite, where wealth and tradition rule.
Blanchard is dazzling, insular–and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school's greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lenny’s choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoning—and a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming. Sweeping, suspenseful, and deeply moving, Bright Work is both a gripping mystery and a profound coming-of-age story—asking what we risk, what we become, and who we hold dear, when the need to belong eclipses everything else.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 26, 2026
About the author
Eli Raphael
1 book75 followersEli Raphael grew up in Miami, Florida, and now lives in rural Washington State. This is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 196 reviews
May 8, 2026
This was a really good book. I could not put it down. I had to know what was going to happen. I loved the characters and the storyline. I thought it was well written. I will look for other books by this author. I would definitely recommend this book.
June 3, 2026
2.5 STARS rated down because MC showed little growth
After Lennie’s mother dies, her stepfather Yip sends her to boarding school. Lennie, a mix-raced fifteen year old is tapped by not-so-secret society as a “diversity” choice, which she’s told and seems not to mind.
Other reviewers say NIGHT OBJECTS is a story of grief and depression. I disagree although both are present likely played into Lennie’s choices. Lennie’s near nonexistent sense of self-worth was the biggest factor in her inability to make wise decisions whether that be choosing uplifting friends or learning from her experiences.
I really wanted to like and champion Lennie because I understand her feelings of abandonment, grief and low self esteem fueled her behavior. As in life, that gets old. Growth occurs incrementally. I would have liked to have seen greater progress as she looked back on her life as an adult.
Eli Raphael prose was at times poetic, her word-building often beautiful, though sometimes heavy-handed. More than one simile in multiple sentences made reading clunky.
After Lennie’s mother dies, her stepfather Yip sends her to boarding school. Lennie, a mix-raced fifteen year old is tapped by not-so-secret society as a “diversity” choice, which she’s told and seems not to mind.
Other reviewers say NIGHT OBJECTS is a story of grief and depression. I disagree although both are present likely played into Lennie’s choices. Lennie’s near nonexistent sense of self-worth was the biggest factor in her inability to make wise decisions whether that be choosing uplifting friends or learning from her experiences.
I really wanted to like and champion Lennie because I understand her feelings of abandonment, grief and low self esteem fueled her behavior. As in life, that gets old. Growth occurs incrementally. I would have liked to have seen greater progress as she looked back on her life as an adult.
Eli Raphael prose was at times poetic, her word-building often beautiful, though sometimes heavy-handed. More than one simile in multiple sentences made reading clunky.
May 30, 2026
I hope that everyone who needs to finds this book because it was tremendous!
Read
May 17, 2026It's hard to write dark academia after The Secret History, but this very impressive debut is a great addition to the subgenre! A friend/frenemy group at an elite institution with a secret society, and one ends up dead!
Narrated by a grief-stricken fifteen year old girl sent to boarding school after the sudden and traumatic loss of her mother (more content advisory below) is a murder mystery wrapped in a coming of age story wrapped in a parable about the dark side of privilege.
Alena "Lenny" Winter watched her astronomer mother die in front of her, and when her stepfather suggests she follow through with her mother's plan that she attend boarding school on Salish Island near Seattle, she agrees.
The Blanchard school is an interesting blend of tradition and a neo-hippy dippy PNW feel. As a longtime reader of YA (which this book is not) the fifteen year old narrator and her assessment of the kids and adults around her felt authentic. It reminded me a little of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, which also had a teen narrator but a completely different vibe.
Lenny is a scholarship student and learning the ways of the jaded nepo baby school population is a lot. She's recently been through a horrible trauma and could really use more therapy than she gets. She can never really be sure if she can trust any of the other students, but she does keep in touch with Sara, a friend from home. When Sara has a money-making idea to get both of them out of less than ideal situations, Lenny agrees. And that's when things get even darker...
Content advisory: sexual assault, death of a parent, descriptions of hazing. And a murder.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
Narrated by a grief-stricken fifteen year old girl sent to boarding school after the sudden and traumatic loss of her mother (more content advisory below) is a murder mystery wrapped in a coming of age story wrapped in a parable about the dark side of privilege.
Alena "Lenny" Winter watched her astronomer mother die in front of her, and when her stepfather suggests she follow through with her mother's plan that she attend boarding school on Salish Island near Seattle, she agrees.
The Blanchard school is an interesting blend of tradition and a neo-hippy dippy PNW feel. As a longtime reader of YA (which this book is not) the fifteen year old narrator and her assessment of the kids and adults around her felt authentic. It reminded me a little of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, which also had a teen narrator but a completely different vibe.
Lenny is a scholarship student and learning the ways of the jaded nepo baby school population is a lot. She's recently been through a horrible trauma and could really use more therapy than she gets. She can never really be sure if she can trust any of the other students, but she does keep in touch with Sara, a friend from home. When Sara has a money-making idea to get both of them out of less than ideal situations, Lenny agrees. And that's when things get even darker...
Content advisory: sexual assault, death of a parent, descriptions of hazing. And a murder.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
June 11, 2026
This was one of those books that kept me interested the whole time but didn't click for me. I enjoyed the writing but there were a lot of parts that felt unnecessary. The PC thing was a little weird. But overall, it was a cool read. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Eli writes.
July 9, 2026
Night Objects is a gripping, thoughtful, and beautifully wrought novel that is at once fast-paced and haunting in the depths of its meditations on loss, relationships, class, and the liabilities that are love and trust. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book so quickly or felt so moved by the precision of many of its details. In these sometimes murky, mostly majestic northern settings, the way water smells and trees move and seasons change the weight of the air and patterns in the light render vivid, broad feeling; the minor characters are pitched so perfectly I felt like knew them; and the plot twists are teased wonderfully and yet remain surprises. Beyond all of this, I just enjoyed being in this world for a while. There is no doubt in my mind I’ll read her next book.
August 11, 2026
Within Night Objects there is a lovely coming-of-age story of mother loss, grief, female friendship, and making a family from those who love you. Unfortunately, that story is subsumed by an ungainly boarding school melodrama that rambles on, through drunken house parties and late-night forest raves. Raphael's writing is lovely and smart, although prone to improbable and overworked similes. A good editor could have untangled those but instead the energy was focused on slotting the novel into the popular "dark academia" genre, much to the detriment of its credibility.
A side rant: when you set a novel in a very specific geographic location, know that residents of that region will be particularly keen to read it. It's absolutely fine to make up locations, as the author did here with the setting of the boarding school. But please, when you move from exacting geography and real locations—the novel is also set in very real Port Angeles on the equally real Olympic Peninsula—to make-believe ones, don't abandon logic and common sense. Following the terrain as it's outlined would have Blanchard on an impossible island in the Pacific Ocean. And the Tacoma Narrows Bridge does not, in fact, lead travelers into Seattle. It transports them to—believe it or not—Tacoma.
A side rant: when you set a novel in a very specific geographic location, know that residents of that region will be particularly keen to read it. It's absolutely fine to make up locations, as the author did here with the setting of the boarding school. But please, when you move from exacting geography and real locations—the novel is also set in very real Port Angeles on the equally real Olympic Peninsula—to make-believe ones, don't abandon logic and common sense. Following the terrain as it's outlined would have Blanchard on an impossible island in the Pacific Ocean. And the Tacoma Narrows Bridge does not, in fact, lead travelers into Seattle. It transports them to—believe it or not—Tacoma.
June 17, 2026
I absolutely don't buy that these five teenagers could keep a secret that they murdered someone. They don't even all like each other, and Vikram and Sloan in particular have no reason to maintain the story they came up with. I also don't buy that the case was just dropped because of the secret society connections, especially since didn't Henry's father also have connections and money? He for sure would have had private detectives on the case. And it's not like they covered their tracks well! There definitely would have been blood left on the beach, and the pictures that were taken of the constellations and recovered by the teenagers would have pinpointed to where they'd been so it's not like where they were directly before the murder should have been difficult to find out.
There were also the other witnesses in Seattle at the house that are never brought up. I have a hard time believing that Henry hadn't sent that video somewhere for safekeeping.
And why did none of the medical professionals question multiple teenagers that show up with fresh and healed brands after a supposed accident? I suppose this could be explained by the police are bad at solving crimes, but that wasn't explored as a theme so doesn't feel like it fits as an explanation.
It did end up making the whole book and story feel very juvenile. Then again, I don't read many mystery/thrillers, so maybe this is just how it is, but I was hoping for something a little deeper like Whidbey, The God of the Woods, or I Have Some Questions for You.
There were also the other witnesses in Seattle at the house that are never brought up. I have a hard time believing that Henry hadn't sent that video somewhere for safekeeping.
And why did none of the medical professionals question multiple teenagers that show up with fresh and healed brands after a supposed accident? I suppose this could be explained by the police are bad at solving crimes, but that wasn't explored as a theme so doesn't feel like it fits as an explanation.
It did end up making the whole book and story feel very juvenile. Then again, I don't read many mystery/thrillers, so maybe this is just how it is, but I was hoping for something a little deeper like Whidbey, The God of the Woods, or I Have Some Questions for You.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2026
Didn't really hate it, but didn't enjoy it either.
July 4, 2026
This book is categorized as adult fiction, but it feels very YA. It would likely benefit from a change in target audience.
May 28, 2026
Ooh, ooh, ooh!! I hate to say this because then expectations will be high, BUT I think we finally have a worthy dark academia successor to The Secret History! It has very similar vibes—boarding school, secret society, murder. I LOVED it!
Lenny is our fish out of water, a scholarship student at a fancy boarding school in Washington State, trying to find her way after the death of her mother. She is quickly befriended by two guys who seem on the perimeter of the social scene, Vikram and Nico, and just as quickly snubbed by Sloan, her snotty roommate. But then in woodworking class, she is teamed up with Henry, the alluring blond asshole straight from John Hughes central casting, and then she finds herself tapped to pledge the exclusive secret society on campus. Looks like just about everything is falling into place! Well, except not.
The setting here is fabulous and fabulously rendered. Forests and gray skies and the ever-present rain definitely add to the melancholic vibe. The author divides the chapters into Before and After, so we know something terrible has happened, but the details don't become clear until the end, teasing us with what we think we know.
A definite must read! Thanks so much to Grand Central Publishing, via NetGalley, for the ARC!
Lenny is our fish out of water, a scholarship student at a fancy boarding school in Washington State, trying to find her way after the death of her mother. She is quickly befriended by two guys who seem on the perimeter of the social scene, Vikram and Nico, and just as quickly snubbed by Sloan, her snotty roommate. But then in woodworking class, she is teamed up with Henry, the alluring blond asshole straight from John Hughes central casting, and then she finds herself tapped to pledge the exclusive secret society on campus. Looks like just about everything is falling into place! Well, except not.
The setting here is fabulous and fabulously rendered. Forests and gray skies and the ever-present rain definitely add to the melancholic vibe. The author divides the chapters into Before and After, so we know something terrible has happened, but the details don't become clear until the end, teasing us with what we think we know.
A definite must read! Thanks so much to Grand Central Publishing, via NetGalley, for the ARC!
July 25, 2026
This book was ok. I did think it was too long. And i did struggle with the MC and her decisions, so I had to keep reminding myself she was a 15 year old girl going through some really tough things. The story was told in the ‘before’ and ‘after’ format, so you know an outcome almost from the beginning, but not the why. Or even the how, really. I listened to the audiobook and I had one complaint about it, and this is the first time I’ve had this problem, but the sound was too low. I had to have the volume at the highest to hear the narrator and even still it was a struggle at times. So I’m not sure if there was an issue with the audiobook production but that was annoying.
Lenny is 15. Her mother is from Ukraine, her father (I can’t remember where he’s from) is black. Her father left when she was young and hasn’t been in her life much. Her mother remarried a man named Yip. he was a good man and a good stepfather. They lived in Miami but following a dream Yip had, they moved to Seattle to live on a houseboat they named Goodnight Moon. They had been there just a couple months when Lenny and her mother took the kayak to a remote place called The End of the World to do star gazing. (Astronomy was a huge passion of her mother’s). But they got in an argument. Her mother wasn’t feeling well and wanted to leave and Lenny was a huge brat about it. Even shoved her and her mother stumbled and fell. But they left. On the way back, Lenny realized her mother wasn’t paddling and realized she was unconscious. She didn’t get reception. She was terrified and it was night. She had to keep paddling until she finally got back and yip called for an ambulance. Her mother had had a stroke and she died.
She was guilty and blamed herself. And then Yip seemed to be pulling away and her fears were confirmed when he told her she was enrolled in boarding school. Her one acquaintance (not quite friend) Sara said she’d keep in touch.
At the school she was given a room with a senior girl named Sloane. Sloane seemed pissed to have a roommate and wasn’t very friendly to her. She met two guys named Vikram and Nico. Vikram was very outgoing and made her feel welcome. She was attracted to Nico. She signed up for shop class and was partnered with a senior named Henry. She quickly learned that he and Sloane had some kind of relationship going on.
Sloane told her that she had heard the dean and Darla (school counselor) talking and Yip was planning on giving custody of Lenny to her father. Lenny was devastated to hear this. So when Sara called and asked for her help to win an astronomy contest, she said yes. If they won they’d win $10K. Sara planned to use her half to move away and start a new life. She told Lenny she could come with her.
Lenny also learned that there was a secret society at the school. She was pretty sure Henry was the ‘grand master’. She was shocked when she was chosen to join it. Vikram was chosen, but Nico wasn’t. Nico was very dismissive of it and was disappointed in Lenny for accepting it. Nico was another scholarship kid like Lenny; all the other kids came from money. The society (Pascalianum Club or PC) seemed to involve them hanging out and drinking and doing drugs, and also revealing secrets they had heard about each other or other people. (Worst secret would have to pay). Lenny couldn’t even afford dues (and I don’t think this ever got addressed). They also had to share their phone locations with each other.
What bothered me about all this was that it was obvious to me that the people in the PC were fake to Lenny. Or were openly disdainful of her. I didn’t understand why she wanted to be with them when she could have just been with Nico. I never understood what she thought she was getting out of being part of this group. Nico was her first real kiss.
It all came down to initiation night which was being held at Henry’s family house in Seattle (his parents were away). But that was the same weekend she had to meet with Sara to compete in the contest. She figured she could do both. At Henry’s house the other girls gave Lenny a dress to wear and did her hair and makeup (the dress was short and revealing) but then Nico showed up. Vikram invited him and Lenny was upset, she knew this wouldn’t go over well. And it didn’t. Henry was furious but gave him a room to stay in. The rest of them got drunk and then began their ceremony. Heads you got branded. Tails you had a choice to refuse it. Lenny was the last to go, everyone before her accepted the brand. As the last one Henry told her she got a special brand (they got a triangle, hers had an X through it). She also got tails and though it made her feel sick she accepted the brand. She got more drunk afterward. She remembers being in the hall and looking in a room. Sloane was on the bed and Henry was fingering her (Sloane did not look like she was a willing participant) while pulling hard on her hair and then Sloane saw the camera filming her and was even more upset and told him to stop. They saw Lenny, and she left.
Nico found her in the hall. her head was bleeding and she was totally out of it. He took her back to his room. When she woke up she realized she had to go meet Sara. Nico insisted on going with her. Sara was pissed that Nico was with her (from her perspective she just didn’t want to split the prize up any more, so when he said he didn’t want the money she was fine with him). They tried to drive to the site but there had been mudslides. With no other option they took the kayak. (Lenny also realized she must have gotten her period early). But after awhile they realized the kayak had a hole and was filling with water. They couldn’t make it there or back. They had to stop. They were all upset.
And all of a sudden Vikram, Sloane, and Henry showed up. They used the app to track her down. She had stolen the telescope for the contest and Henry threatened to call the cops and report her if she didn’t tell them what she was doing. So begrudgingly they told the others of the contest. Henry said he could just borrow one of his father’s boats and take them. So they did. Sloane and Lenny had a moment to themselves and Lenny told Sloane what she saw. Sloane seemed upset.
They made it to The End of the World. Sara and Lenny got to work and soon started documenting the objects for the contest (I think they had to find and capture by camera 110 objects: galaxies, planets, etc). They gave themselves 7 minutes on each object and after a full night they were done at 4am. They hadn’t gotten them all but they were close. Lenny went for a pee break. Sloane followed. And then started talking. Nico showed up but Lenny signaled him to stay hidden and silent. Sloane told Lenny that it was her on the bed with Henry, not Sloane. She had been picked to be the sacrifice. That had been her purpose the entire time was so the rest of them wouldn’t have to suffer anything. But Sloane hadn’t known what Henry would do or that he would take it so far. She also learned that Vikram was Henry’s sidekick and would do whatever Henry told him to. Vikram had set her up from the start. Lenny and Nico were furious.
Nico punched Vikram. Henry boasted and showed the video of what he’d done to Lenny and she attacked him. She was hitting and scratching him but he overpowered her and then he was punching her in the head and kicking her. He standing over her, about to strike when he froze and went down. Sara was behind him, had hit him with the telescope. And he was dead.
For some reason (this was never really clear to me) they all agreed to cover this up. So they found a rock and hit him in the head with it and then got him on the boat to fake a boating accident that would get him torn up by the propellers. Also unclear to me, Lenny crashed the boat. I don’t think that was intentional, but unclear.
Lenny coming to after the boat crash is the beginning of the ‘after’ part we’re treated to from the beginning. There was an investigation and at first they were being looked at but then the case was dropped after the police were told to stand down (order came from the school’s alumni). Henry’s father was furious but I guess he didn’t have enough power to change this.
The five of them stuck to their stories. Lenny had a serious concussion and a broken wrist (or sprained). Later Lenny learned that the counselor not only knew about what the PC was up to, she had been the sacrifice her year (she only had to drink sea water). So it does seem Henry had taken things to another level.
It also had turned out that Sloane had lied about Yip as well, he wasn’t planning on sending her back to her father. He was trying to get custody. So had she only talked to him that concern could have been alleviated. (I did think this whole plot line was pretty shitty. Yes they were both grieving but why wouldn’t Yip have just talked to her? He gave some BS reason that didn’t make sense to me). So at the end she got to stay with Yip. But she also stayed at the school.
Twelve years later they are still clear. Each have gone their own way. Nico and Sara and Lenny are still pretty close. The End
I know kids are cruel. I know people are cruel. I just didn’t understand how Lenny could be so naive to everything. She would immediately believe what Sloane told her, even though Sloane didn’t like her. I get she was lonely. I get that she wanted to belong. I didn’t get that she didn’t see what was really going on. But again, I’m not a 15 year old girl.
Lenny is 15. Her mother is from Ukraine, her father (I can’t remember where he’s from) is black. Her father left when she was young and hasn’t been in her life much. Her mother remarried a man named Yip. he was a good man and a good stepfather. They lived in Miami but following a dream Yip had, they moved to Seattle to live on a houseboat they named Goodnight Moon. They had been there just a couple months when Lenny and her mother took the kayak to a remote place called The End of the World to do star gazing. (Astronomy was a huge passion of her mother’s). But they got in an argument. Her mother wasn’t feeling well and wanted to leave and Lenny was a huge brat about it. Even shoved her and her mother stumbled and fell. But they left. On the way back, Lenny realized her mother wasn’t paddling and realized she was unconscious. She didn’t get reception. She was terrified and it was night. She had to keep paddling until she finally got back and yip called for an ambulance. Her mother had had a stroke and she died.
She was guilty and blamed herself. And then Yip seemed to be pulling away and her fears were confirmed when he told her she was enrolled in boarding school. Her one acquaintance (not quite friend) Sara said she’d keep in touch.
At the school she was given a room with a senior girl named Sloane. Sloane seemed pissed to have a roommate and wasn’t very friendly to her. She met two guys named Vikram and Nico. Vikram was very outgoing and made her feel welcome. She was attracted to Nico. She signed up for shop class and was partnered with a senior named Henry. She quickly learned that he and Sloane had some kind of relationship going on.
Sloane told her that she had heard the dean and Darla (school counselor) talking and Yip was planning on giving custody of Lenny to her father. Lenny was devastated to hear this. So when Sara called and asked for her help to win an astronomy contest, she said yes. If they won they’d win $10K. Sara planned to use her half to move away and start a new life. She told Lenny she could come with her.
Lenny also learned that there was a secret society at the school. She was pretty sure Henry was the ‘grand master’. She was shocked when she was chosen to join it. Vikram was chosen, but Nico wasn’t. Nico was very dismissive of it and was disappointed in Lenny for accepting it. Nico was another scholarship kid like Lenny; all the other kids came from money. The society (Pascalianum Club or PC) seemed to involve them hanging out and drinking and doing drugs, and also revealing secrets they had heard about each other or other people. (Worst secret would have to pay). Lenny couldn’t even afford dues (and I don’t think this ever got addressed). They also had to share their phone locations with each other.
What bothered me about all this was that it was obvious to me that the people in the PC were fake to Lenny. Or were openly disdainful of her. I didn’t understand why she wanted to be with them when she could have just been with Nico. I never understood what she thought she was getting out of being part of this group. Nico was her first real kiss.
It all came down to initiation night which was being held at Henry’s family house in Seattle (his parents were away). But that was the same weekend she had to meet with Sara to compete in the contest. She figured she could do both. At Henry’s house the other girls gave Lenny a dress to wear and did her hair and makeup (the dress was short and revealing) but then Nico showed up. Vikram invited him and Lenny was upset, she knew this wouldn’t go over well. And it didn’t. Henry was furious but gave him a room to stay in. The rest of them got drunk and then began their ceremony. Heads you got branded. Tails you had a choice to refuse it. Lenny was the last to go, everyone before her accepted the brand. As the last one Henry told her she got a special brand (they got a triangle, hers had an X through it). She also got tails and though it made her feel sick she accepted the brand. She got more drunk afterward. She remembers being in the hall and looking in a room. Sloane was on the bed and Henry was fingering her (Sloane did not look like she was a willing participant) while pulling hard on her hair and then Sloane saw the camera filming her and was even more upset and told him to stop. They saw Lenny, and she left.
Nico found her in the hall. her head was bleeding and she was totally out of it. He took her back to his room. When she woke up she realized she had to go meet Sara. Nico insisted on going with her. Sara was pissed that Nico was with her (from her perspective she just didn’t want to split the prize up any more, so when he said he didn’t want the money she was fine with him). They tried to drive to the site but there had been mudslides. With no other option they took the kayak. (Lenny also realized she must have gotten her period early). But after awhile they realized the kayak had a hole and was filling with water. They couldn’t make it there or back. They had to stop. They were all upset.
And all of a sudden Vikram, Sloane, and Henry showed up. They used the app to track her down. She had stolen the telescope for the contest and Henry threatened to call the cops and report her if she didn’t tell them what she was doing. So begrudgingly they told the others of the contest. Henry said he could just borrow one of his father’s boats and take them. So they did. Sloane and Lenny had a moment to themselves and Lenny told Sloane what she saw. Sloane seemed upset.
They made it to The End of the World. Sara and Lenny got to work and soon started documenting the objects for the contest (I think they had to find and capture by camera 110 objects: galaxies, planets, etc). They gave themselves 7 minutes on each object and after a full night they were done at 4am. They hadn’t gotten them all but they were close. Lenny went for a pee break. Sloane followed. And then started talking. Nico showed up but Lenny signaled him to stay hidden and silent. Sloane told Lenny that it was her on the bed with Henry, not Sloane. She had been picked to be the sacrifice. That had been her purpose the entire time was so the rest of them wouldn’t have to suffer anything. But Sloane hadn’t known what Henry would do or that he would take it so far. She also learned that Vikram was Henry’s sidekick and would do whatever Henry told him to. Vikram had set her up from the start. Lenny and Nico were furious.
Nico punched Vikram. Henry boasted and showed the video of what he’d done to Lenny and she attacked him. She was hitting and scratching him but he overpowered her and then he was punching her in the head and kicking her. He standing over her, about to strike when he froze and went down. Sara was behind him, had hit him with the telescope. And he was dead.
For some reason (this was never really clear to me) they all agreed to cover this up. So they found a rock and hit him in the head with it and then got him on the boat to fake a boating accident that would get him torn up by the propellers. Also unclear to me, Lenny crashed the boat. I don’t think that was intentional, but unclear.
Lenny coming to after the boat crash is the beginning of the ‘after’ part we’re treated to from the beginning. There was an investigation and at first they were being looked at but then the case was dropped after the police were told to stand down (order came from the school’s alumni). Henry’s father was furious but I guess he didn’t have enough power to change this.
The five of them stuck to their stories. Lenny had a serious concussion and a broken wrist (or sprained). Later Lenny learned that the counselor not only knew about what the PC was up to, she had been the sacrifice her year (she only had to drink sea water). So it does seem Henry had taken things to another level.
It also had turned out that Sloane had lied about Yip as well, he wasn’t planning on sending her back to her father. He was trying to get custody. So had she only talked to him that concern could have been alleviated. (I did think this whole plot line was pretty shitty. Yes they were both grieving but why wouldn’t Yip have just talked to her? He gave some BS reason that didn’t make sense to me). So at the end she got to stay with Yip. But she also stayed at the school.
Twelve years later they are still clear. Each have gone their own way. Nico and Sara and Lenny are still pretty close. The End
I know kids are cruel. I know people are cruel. I just didn’t understand how Lenny could be so naive to everything. She would immediately believe what Sloane told her, even though Sloane didn’t like her. I get she was lonely. I get that she wanted to belong. I didn’t get that she didn’t see what was really going on. But again, I’m not a 15 year old girl.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2026
1 star--I didn't like it. Content warning for .
I was hoping for a secret society with creepy occult happenings, not just the usual privilege, wealth, and drinking/drugs. Very depressing, very navel-gazey, one-dimensional characters, and a narrator who annoyed me even while I felt sorry for her. Overlong and overwrought, and the was very distressing.
I was hoping for a secret society with creepy occult happenings, not just the usual privilege, wealth, and drinking/drugs. Very depressing, very navel-gazey, one-dimensional characters, and a narrator who annoyed me even while I felt sorry for her. Overlong and overwrought, and the was very distressing.
June 11, 2026
This was entirely too long and slow. I only finished this because I wanted to see how it ended and I should have DNF this. This is advertise as adult fiction with mystery but it's really YA.
June 9, 2026
I hated this book. Not sure why. I think it was compared to The Secret History, but it was nowhere close. Such a slog to get through. Only finished because I had paid for it on Audible.
Read
May 23, 2026Bee fly dark past
presnt hunt rivir of blood
burn surviv
detrmen hunt truth
won burning flawr
bee open door of time
be me
fly as gd art
truth
presnt hunt rivir of blood
burn surviv
detrmen hunt truth
won burning flawr
bee open door of time
be me
fly as gd art
truth
July 7, 2026
I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately there were no likable characters, the middle was just boring, and the fact that the author wants us to believe that the characters felt justified in what they did is highly disturbing.
July 21, 2026
I can’t believe this is her first Novel. I didn’t want to put it down. I highly recommend!
June 9, 2026
Had to give this up after the third "she wasn't every good looking" said by the most boring obnoxious pick me ever
Did Not Finish
June 2, 2026Apologies, but I'm calling it quits.
The book's tone is very much YA, which isn't my thing. Had it been marketed as YA, as it should be, I wouldn't have chosen to read it.
We have lots of teenage angst. Lenny does stupid things in order to fit in. The school officials seem to let the kids be kids without much supervision. I was bored with the day-to-day teenage nonsense. This is a me thing. Readers who enjoy YA will probably love this one. I'm just not one of those readers.
DNF at 28%
*Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the free eARC, provided via NetGalley.*
The book's tone is very much YA, which isn't my thing. Had it been marketed as YA, as it should be, I wouldn't have chosen to read it.
We have lots of teenage angst. Lenny does stupid things in order to fit in. The school officials seem to let the kids be kids without much supervision. I was bored with the day-to-day teenage nonsense. This is a me thing. Readers who enjoy YA will probably love this one. I'm just not one of those readers.
DNF at 28%
*Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the free eARC, provided via NetGalley.*
August 10, 2026
It was just ok.
Lenny, a fairly unremarkable 15 year old girl moves from Miami to Port Angeles, WA to live on a rickety houseboat with her mother and step-dad. One night, she and her mother indulge their shared interest in astronomy and head out to do some stargazing in a clear evening. Tragedy strikes, her mother succumbs to a medical emergency, and Lenny is left adrift and blaming herself.
In the aftermath, Lenny ends up being sent to a prestigious boarding school with a secret society that everyone knows about. It’s not a secret at all; people talk openly about it with frustrating regularity. She makes a few friends and is quite obviously picked for her diversity/relative pauper status to be “tapped” (this word appears endlessly) to join said society, ending up in some rough situations that definitely could have been avoided had any basic questions been asked or conversations had along the way.
While some of the writing and atmosphere was lovely, wow could this book have been 20% shorter. At times I felt like I was mentally begging for it to just get to the conclusion. Things DO happen but we have to wade through so many conversations and brief encounters between a small handful of students with similar personalities to get there. It was also often difficult to understand the passage of time for me. Has it been hours, weeks or months between events?
I don’t mean this in a negative or snarky way, but this felt pretty YA to me. Interpersonal conflicts are handled with teen-level maturity, adults are largely clueless and disposable, and the complexity of the mystery element was lacking. It would have made more sense and felt more fulfilling if I went in with YA expectations. I think the marketing and classification of this book let it down a bit, which is a shame. 3 stars for this one.
Lenny, a fairly unremarkable 15 year old girl moves from Miami to Port Angeles, WA to live on a rickety houseboat with her mother and step-dad. One night, she and her mother indulge their shared interest in astronomy and head out to do some stargazing in a clear evening. Tragedy strikes, her mother succumbs to a medical emergency, and Lenny is left adrift and blaming herself.
In the aftermath, Lenny ends up being sent to a prestigious boarding school with a secret society that everyone knows about. It’s not a secret at all; people talk openly about it with frustrating regularity. She makes a few friends and is quite obviously picked for her diversity/relative pauper status to be “tapped” (this word appears endlessly) to join said society, ending up in some rough situations that definitely could have been avoided had any basic questions been asked or conversations had along the way.
While some of the writing and atmosphere was lovely, wow could this book have been 20% shorter. At times I felt like I was mentally begging for it to just get to the conclusion. Things DO happen but we have to wade through so many conversations and brief encounters between a small handful of students with similar personalities to get there. It was also often difficult to understand the passage of time for me. Has it been hours, weeks or months between events?
I don’t mean this in a negative or snarky way, but this felt pretty YA to me. Interpersonal conflicts are handled with teen-level maturity, adults are largely clueless and disposable, and the complexity of the mystery element was lacking. It would have made more sense and felt more fulfilling if I went in with YA expectations. I think the marketing and classification of this book let it down a bit, which is a shame. 3 stars for this one.
June 16, 2026
4.5. a goooorgeously written and often extremely poignant book that tried to bite off a bit more than it could chew. the protagonist felt incredibly real; her grief and how it affected her life, and affected the life of everyone she came to know, was a study that was simultaneously beautiful and devastating. for this reason, I do feel the plot with the club was necessary. it allowed you to see just how desperate she was for approval and love.
but the club stuff is also why I'm not giving Night Objects five stars. this book is what I'd call a literary thriller, which means it's leading to a pretty dramatic climax along with some twists. and while this book did need an "explosion" of some kind, what Raphael went with was like the most obvious choice, complete with a villain giving an Evil Monologue in their last minutes. I'm genuinely not even sure why like the one big twist happened other than padding the page count.
but overall, this book is an insanely impressive debut. the writing is stunning and the character work is, again with the exception of the Evil Monologuer, incredibly well done. like you get why people do what they do, even if the behavior often ranges from "flawed" to "downright horrendous Lenny girl get outta there." there were a bunch of moments that were so beautifully written and/or emotional that I had to put the book down for a bit. and man, do I want to go visit the PNW again. I will be on the lookout for more by this author.
(also just glancing at the front page reviews... can an author write any book about a school and not have it compared to The Secret History? ffs)
but the club stuff is also why I'm not giving Night Objects five stars. this book is what I'd call a literary thriller, which means it's leading to a pretty dramatic climax along with some twists. and while this book did need an "explosion" of some kind, what Raphael went with was like the most obvious choice, complete with a villain giving an Evil Monologue in their last minutes. I'm genuinely not even sure why like the one big twist happened other than padding the page count.
but overall, this book is an insanely impressive debut. the writing is stunning and the character work is, again with the exception of the Evil Monologuer, incredibly well done. like you get why people do what they do, even if the behavior often ranges from "flawed" to "downright horrendous Lenny girl get outta there." there were a bunch of moments that were so beautifully written and/or emotional that I had to put the book down for a bit. and man, do I want to go visit the PNW again. I will be on the lookout for more by this author.
(also just glancing at the front page reviews... can an author write any book about a school and not have it compared to The Secret History? ffs)
June 23, 2026
⭐️⭐️
Eli Raphael’s debut has real strengths: the Pacific Northwest setting is rendered with genuine atmosphere, and the central mystery surrounding Lenny Winter’s time at the elite Blanchard School has an intriguing premise — grief, class tension, and a secretive club that pulls a grieving teenager into something dangerous. The bones of a compelling story are here, and Raphael’s prose has moments that land.
Where the book lost me was in its structure. The dual timeline, jumping between Lenny’s past at Blanchard and her present-day reflections, never built the momentum it seemed to be reaching for. Instead of generating suspense, the back-and-forth made the pacing feel scattered, and small details that should have moved quickly were drawn out far longer than they needed to be. By the midpoint, the slow-burn approach had tipped into sluggish, and I found myself trudging through chapters rather than getting pulled forward.
There’s clearly talent here, and readers who enjoy a more meditative, character-driven mystery may have more patience for the pacing than I did. But for me, the payoff didn’t match the effort it took to get through it; solid ideas undercut by a structure that worked against the story rather than for it.
Eli Raphael’s debut has real strengths: the Pacific Northwest setting is rendered with genuine atmosphere, and the central mystery surrounding Lenny Winter’s time at the elite Blanchard School has an intriguing premise — grief, class tension, and a secretive club that pulls a grieving teenager into something dangerous. The bones of a compelling story are here, and Raphael’s prose has moments that land.
Where the book lost me was in its structure. The dual timeline, jumping between Lenny’s past at Blanchard and her present-day reflections, never built the momentum it seemed to be reaching for. Instead of generating suspense, the back-and-forth made the pacing feel scattered, and small details that should have moved quickly were drawn out far longer than they needed to be. By the midpoint, the slow-burn approach had tipped into sluggish, and I found myself trudging through chapters rather than getting pulled forward.
There’s clearly talent here, and readers who enjoy a more meditative, character-driven mystery may have more patience for the pacing than I did. But for me, the payoff didn’t match the effort it took to get through it; solid ideas undercut by a structure that worked against the story rather than for it.
August 6, 2026
Not your typical murder mystery. The back and forth between events leading up to the “accident” and her comments about her adult life, let you know the hero ends up “ok” in the long run. Spoiled boarding school kids, a secret society and wanting to fit in drivers the story.
June 16, 2026
i did really enjoy this. i thought it was beautifully written, and very gothic in many ways. just found myself becoming frustrated, and i kept putting it down because of that
June 25, 2026
The vibes- immaculate👌🏼 I devoured this book! Will be keeping an eye out for more books by this author. I can’t believe this was a debut book.
July 27, 2026
3.5 rounded up. companion read: Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown.
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