a flood of family secrets

Jia Shah is struggling. Since her divorce, she has been trying her best to keep her and her teenaged son Ishaan afloat in a new city. Jia moved them to Houston to be closer to her sister Seema and her family, but Ishaan has been having trouble making friends at school, even getting into a fight and getting suspended. Jia wants to raise him to be a strong, thoughtful man, but her husband is now threatening to fight her for custody, ratcheting her anxiety up on top of all her other problems. She has been working on a statement that her sister could sign, to help show Jia as a good, caring mother.

And if that’s not enough to juggle, Harvey is coming. The hurricane is all over the news, with weatherpersons and government agencies and landlords suggesting that evacuating is the safest option, and then raising those suggestions to orders. Jia has to move herself and her son out of their apartment, but she doesn’t know where to go. When Seema invites them over, Jia decides to go there, barely beating the flood waters to get there safely.

Going into Seema’s house, Jia is reminded of how much more successful her sister is. It’s a beautiful house, and on higher ground than all the nearby houses. But as Jia looked around at the neighboring houses, she didn’t see many others on the street. There were almost no lights on, no cars in the streets, and it’s not until she sees Seema’s husband Vipul that she understands that everyone in their neighborhood also evacuated, and it was just Vipul’s ego that kept them there, acting like his house couldn’t be breached by the storm.

But Vipul is exactly the reason Jia didn’t want to go to Seema’s in the first place. He had started sending Jia inappropriate texts, and she does not want to be alone with him. He makes her uncomfortable, and she doesn’t need any extra drama in her life. She just wants to build a good life for her son and live the life she wants.

Vipul’s brother and sister-in-law also join them, and with Vipul’s mother living there and Seema and Vipul’s toddler daughter, it’s a full house. They keep a close eye on the news reports and watch as the rain comes down. They see a big tree get knocked over down the street and understand this storm is far more dangerous than any one of them has seen before. But they also think they see someone outside of their house. There are reports of burglars out in the storm, taking advantage of everyone Vipul refused to abandon his house and leave it vulnerable to thieves.

But as time goes by, Jia realizes just how vulnerable she is at Seema’s house. She has to keep an eye on Ishaan, to make sure he doesn’t make any mistakes in front of her family. She has to keep Seema on her side while keeping Seema’s husband at arm’s length. She also has to keep her and her son safe from the weather and from any strangers who may be trying to get in the house.

And later Jia realizes she also has to keep them safe from a murderer. Because there are no other people around, and someone in the house has ended up dead.

Will Jia be able to keep herself and her son safe through the storm, or will the flood of family secrets that finally breaches their walls take them all out?

The Night of the Storm is a debut thriller from author Nishita Parekh, and it is filled with anxious moments and domestic tension. Nothing goes right all night long, as lies and secrets keep family members in the dark while the hurricane makes escape impossible. The circumstances twist tighter and tighter, leaving readers in a vice, while making you care so much about these characters and root for their (well, most of their) survival.

I truly got sucked into this story from the beginning. There is a lot of information about Indian relationships, about the balance of power in a marriage and in the extended family, and all that informed the story, drawing me into these characters hearts and minds in a deeper way. This is one of the most surprising books I’ve read in quite a while, and I genuinely hope that lots of readers find it as well. Just read the first few pages and see if you can walk away. I could not. And I was so glad to ride out the storm with Jia and the other survivors.

Galleys for Night of the Storm were provided by Dutton, with many thanks.