The Longest Night

by Lauren Carter

Genres: Horror

312 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2025

About the author

Lauren Carter is the author of five books: the forthcoming short story collection Places Like These, the novel This Has Nothing to Do with You, winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, and her debut novel Swarm, which was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, as well as the poetry collections Following Sea and Lichen Bright, longlisted for the ReLit Award. Her work has also appeared in anthologies, including 15: Best Canadian Stories (edited by John Metcalf) and Voicing Suicide (Ekstasis Editions). She has been published in a wide variety of periodicals including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, National Geographic Traveler, and the literary journals Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire and Grain. Longlisted multiple times for the CBC literary awards in both fiction and poetry, she's also been nominated for the Journey and Giller Prizes. A transplanted Ontarian, she currently lives near Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband, Jason, and rescue animals Merlin and Mo.

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Longest Night by Lauren Carter
✅ purchased by me

This book only has 25 ratings on Goodreads right now, which feels almost criminal since it’s also sporting one of the most beautiful eye catching covers I’ve seen in a long time. More people should be picking this up for that alone!

An eerie, sometimes fever-dream suspense about a young woman who gets locked out of her house one night in the dead of winter, finds her way to her closest neighbour’s thinking she’s saved only to become imprisoned there in an incredibly bizarre verging on absurd way.

This book starts out SO STRONG, I was instantly hooked but between being unnecessarily long in the middle with tedious sections meant to emphasize her helplessness and the way even full blown horrors can get a hazy monotonous routine feel to them, it still seemed to drag on a bit.

Of course half way through the book it takes a bit of a time travel, Groundhog Day turn, which I was so excited for… but it got a little confusing (and the romance central to the book, her being in love with her best friend’s dad, a little gross imo) and then the mechanics of the time travel never really get explained in a way I found satisfying.

Despite its incredible start, this ended up a fine, average read for me. But I am critical about time travel related books because I love them so much and read so many of them. The premise for this one was so good, and it almost got there for me. The first half was really compelling and then it just lost momentum and started floundering a bit.

I think if you like uncanny valley kinda slow books I didn’t love such as I Who Have Never Known Men or time travel stories that don’t make complete sense but have great atmosphere like The Unmaking of June Farrow this might really work for you too.

I liked it, didn’t love it. And felt a little let down that the end didn’t live up to the strong beginning. Time travel is hard though! And I will keep reading every one I find.

[Zilla Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four days after finishing this book, I am still reeling. This was one of my favourite reads of 2025 and a wonderful way to end the year of reading. Lauren Carter is such a talented writer. Her use of language is thrilling. Her characterization is so realistic. She’s in command of every aspect of her craft. This book is described as genre bending, but more than that, it is mind bending. It plays with the typical time travel tips that a time traveller should not do anything to alter time. The protagonist, Ash Hayes, does the opposite and even coexists with her past self at times.

What is so brilliant about this book is that it takes what we know about trauma in the clinical sense and weaves it into the structure of a novel to show us this impact without ever being didactic. No one delivers dialogue or internal monologue informing the reader that after experiencing a traumatic event, the brain often gets caught in a loop of revisiting it over and over again. But we see this happening in the plot and understand the message. There is both the individual trauma of sexual and other forms of abuse, child loss and addiction, and the collective trauma of things like 9/11, systemic racism and Black Lives Matter, and the current state of affairs in the US. The interaction between the two forms of trauma is really interesting. The US reacted to 9/11 in a way that drew them into a foreign war that damaged its participants, while ignoring racial problems within its own borders. Again, Carter shows all this without ever lecturing the reader.

I also loved the focus on the 18 year old protagonist’s relationship with her best friend, Leigh. Though we see very little of Leigh in real time, we get to know her through flashbacks. This is a true and genuine friendship that grounds the narrative and injects hope and warmth even when the topic is something very difficult.

I cannot say enough good things about this book.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind-bending, psychologically disturbing, and utterly captivating! I loved this book!

One forty-below December night, 18-year-old Ash Hayes finds herself locked out of her home in rural Minnesota. She seeks shelter from the freezing cold with neighbours she hasn’t yet met. The next morning, everything is off-kilter – the house has no mirrors or modern technology, and all the windows are blocked. When Ash tries to call her parents, their numbers are disconnected. One of the strange inhabitants is a doctor, who offers Ash a terrible form of help and won’t take no for an answer. In her efforts to get out of the house, Ash finds herself transported to an even stranger place and time, setting off a chain of events that connect with (and alter) her past and her future.

I don't even know where to begin with this genre-twisting story! There were elements of suspense and horror along with time travel and magical realism and some seriously wild twists. I was slightly confused at the beginning with Ash's altered reality, but then the pieces started coming together and I was completely caught up in this gripping story. I had no idea where it was going but I was along for the ride and even though it broke my heart a little, I loved the ending.

This is a book I will be recommending to everyone!

[Shirley Hay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating novel of mind bending time travel that will keep you guessing where it's going from the very beginning. It's full of astute social commentary about the psychological effects of trauma, what it means to face it, and how far-reaching these effects can be.

I rarely read speculative fiction, but this novel had the exact right combination of the supernatural intermixed with real world settings and events to keep me fully engaged.

[Graisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s rare to find a novel which has anti natalism positively depicted. Though it’s not a main part of this one, the book is worth a read if you like speculative thrillers which incorporate a bit of occultism, feature multiple strong female characters, and focus more on psychology and less on supernatural elements.

[Hadassah Houben · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was just not it for me

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a never ending story but it came to a cool ending. I didn't see the twist coming.