Book Review: In Daylight by Caroline Flarity

Book Blurb

In Daylight is a sci-fi psychological thriller offering a chilling and intimate take on a phenomenon of global—and cosmic—reach.

It was the reunion she longed for. Then she lost herself.

Mika’s sister Naomi delivered a terrifying and cryptic warning the day she severed ties with Mika and the entire Crane family.

When her ailing father tracks Naomi down in New York City almost two decades later, Mika decides to confront her sister about the damage she left behind and unravel the mystery of her departure.

After a tense reunion, the two women reconnect, until Naomi shares the secret behind her disappearance—an otherworldly revelation that leaves Mika questioning her sister’s state of mind.

Determined to bring Naomi home, Mika follows her into an increasingly bizarre and shadowy world that threatens to shatter her own reality. A world she might never escape.

Overall Analysis of In Daylight

In Daylight by Caroline Flarity is a gripping science-fiction, psychological thriller, with a sprinkling of horror, about a woman, centered around Mika Crane, a woman born into a family steeped in a rich and controversial history, and her journey to reconnect with her long-lost sister, Naomi. A word of caution: This review contains minor spoilers, as it’s challenging to analyze the novel without doing a deep dive.

Flarity does an incredible job at developing attachment to her characters almost instantaneously. The Crane family is full of unique, multi-dimensionally characters with complex backgrounds, but none more so than the main character Mika, an insomniac and survivor of a near drowning at the hands of her sister. Mika’s struggles throughout the novel are visceral, and I could sense the anxiety through the pages. Even the seemingly minor characters, like the members of the New York “walking club,” are vividly distinct. Flarity’s ability to make readers deeply invested in her characters (especially so quickly) is a rare skill, one that not many authors can achieve.

The transition from family drama to psychological thriller to science-fiction is quick yet somehow fluid. Flarity shifts gears with the grace of a Formula 1 driver. Despite the chaos this story descends into, she approached the subject of mental illness with a great amount of thought and care. Flarity did a great job at framing Mika as an unreliable narrator, so I was constantly questioning what was real or fabricated. This novel definitely kept me on my toes.

One particular thing that stuck out with me during this book was Naomi’s description of her first encounter with the alien abductors. Her describing how she tried to fight them off, going so far as to try to break their necks only to find out they were practically made of rubber, sent a chill down my spine.

If I had to offer one critique, it’s that the start of the book is very fast-paced. I know this is on purpose as the juicy bits of the story begin somewhere around 40% in, but some scenes I believe were glossed over or not fully explored. Namely, a breakup scene between Mika and her boyfriend, Callum, seems to end nearly as quickly as it spawned. Also, the reunion between the sisters comes sudden and fast, and their exchange seems too familiar. (Though, I wonder if this is on purpose due to their otherworldly link.)

Final Thoughts

What a wild ride! This novel did not end up how I expected at all. I will attribute some of that to the fact that I did not read the full book blurb before jumping in and wasn’t aware of the sci-fi elements. It had a satisfying ending that left just enough unknowns to allow readers to develop their own interpretations of Mika’s fate. This genre-bending tale is one that I would recommend to any fan of psychological thrillers or science-fiction. Although I haven’t read the book in a while, it was reminiscent of Slaughterhouse-Five to me.