Night Speed - Chris Howard | Book Review

Night Speed

Chris Howard

Reviewed 2/27/25 

Rating: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Probably more of a 2 1/2, in hindsight

Premise:

Only those young enough can survive the pulse-pounding rush of tetra, a dangerous and addictive new drug that fuels a nine-minute burst of superhuman strength and speed. Alana West has been trained to use the drug so she can pursue the young criminals who abuse its power--criminals like the breakneck who nearly killed her kid brother.

Supported only by her strong and steady handler, Tucker, Alana goes undercover, infiltrating an elite gang of breaknecks to stop the supply of their drug. But when Alana gets trapped on the wrong side of the law, she learns the breaknecks are not quite what they seem. With her own dependency on tetra increasing, Alana must decide where her loyalties lie before the rush ends. Forever.

Review (NO spoilers): 

I didn’t really like the characters, although the premise is quite interesting. It managed to be full of action yet somehow completely failed to hold my attention. Some people might enjoy it; this was not the sci-fi story for me.

Scroll down for review with SPOILERS

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Review (SPOILERS):

I expected the book to focus more on Alana’s blatantly obvious drug addiction, but it flipped around and ended up being about government corruption?? The ending was weird, and not in a good way. It made no sense for the Big Baddies to just spill their entire plan to her, and she really almost got in that helicopter and took the deal… not that it wasn’t really out of character, considering her addiction, but her mental train was not what I would’ve expected in that situation. Girl, you cannot trust them. Please use your braincells.

Her relationships with the people around her were interesting when it came to her brother and the other breaknecks, but not so much with Ethan and Tucker. The entire book was focused on Alana’s feelings towards the breakneck that crippled her brother, and it was super obvious that it was going to be the center of the twist. 

I may have been annoyed by it, but I wanted to see Alana’s dilemma! This guy has been the person getting you through life after your brother was hurt, has been with you through everything, and you started falling in love with him… but as soon as he gets any sort of character depth... 

...he DIES. Seriously? Way to avoid writing interesting emotional turmoil! Left me wanting a lot more than I got.