What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

by:  Jacquelyn Mitchard
published by:  Soho Teen
publish date:  January 8, 2013

Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.”

What We Saw At Night seems like a book about kids suffering from "XP", but it's not really.  It's not even really about Parkour.  It's more about sociopaths and serial killers. 

Allie and her friends stumble upon a killer in their midst and he seems to be preying on one of their own.  At first Allie everyone is making Allie feel like she's the crazy one, but eventually they come to understand that's she's telling the truth and that she really is seeing dead people.

I felt like there was a lot missing from this book.  I understood how the Parkour tied into the story.  The trio stumbled upon this killer and his handy work through their Parkour running and that made sense.  However, it felt like there was supposed to be more to the XP thing.  Like it was all a conspiracy, they never had it or they all had it because of some scandalous reasons I kept expecting to be revealed.  It just felt like there was a dangling hook.  Maybe I read too many dystopians and always expect the absolute worst.

It was an ok book.  It's one that should probably be gently nudged towards the older YAs because of some mature themes regarding sex and sexual abuse.