The Night Pool is a book that’s full of brutality and horror, with the supernatural elements basically secondary to the tragedies and traumas mostly inflicted by white men during the Gold Rush in Conoma, California. Bringing light through this darkness are the female characters who reach out across ethno-cultural divides to support each other in sisterhood. In the end, there is comfort and strength to be found in this novel, despite the sad and terrible things that happen and that are done.
The two viewpoint female characters are Haloke, a shaman’s granddaughter whose land has been invaded and whose people have been devastated by smallpox and outright violence, and Clara Tice, recently arrived in the mining settlement with her harsh father, a blacksmith. Despite her anger and fear of the whites, Haloke saves Clara when she sees her drowning, and then they bond further when they witness something uncanny and horrific together at the Night Pool. Soon after that, mysterious and gruesome killings begin: Miners are found with their hearts ripped out. Violence spirals as the settlement seeks the killer, or at least scapegoats. Clara and Haloke try to figure out what’s happening, with the help of a few allies.
Most of the women are pretty kind to each other. Clementine, a town resident, gives a dress to Clara for a dance being held in town, although Clementine’s mother is unfriendly and later refuses to see the truth of what’s happening. Haloke’s mother and grandmother both scold her for perceived shortcomings, but they seem to want what they think is best for her. The town madam shelters Clara and Clementine after the terrible night. And Mei, a healer at the Chinese immigrant camp on the outskirts of town, gives herbs and counsel to Clara and Haloke, and accompanies them into danger.
Most of the men are awful. Clara’s father refuses to support her desire to become apprenticed to a doctor and study medicine, and he openly resents her for living when his favorite daughter, Levita, had died. Mei’s brother mostly focuses on acquiring gold. Liam is a charming liar who resorts to force when his wiles don’t work. The sheriff wants to “keep the peace” by making quick, easy arrests, and he stands aside when whites attack non-whites. The doctor is a drunkard. And although it’s understandable that the surviving warriors of Haloke’s people want to leave rather than seeking a probably futile revenge against the invading whites, they are not at all understanding toward Mei’s pleas.
The most complex male character is Will Fury. Allegedly the leader of a gang, he’s a gentleman toward Clara, and even sticks his neck out for her a few times. But he clearly has the capability for violence. It’s unclear for quite a while what his role will be, but it turns out to be significant.
I did like how things were resolved in the end. There were definite evil elements that needed to be addressed, and fighting necessarily happened, but the ultimate resolution was not a battle, but the moral decision that followed it. (Although both protagonists have a lot of trouble letting go of certain things.)
In an Author’s Note at the end, Smith (a short-story author and screenwriter, not the actress Lauren Lee Smith) talks about what she learned growing up in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, and in her more recent historical research. She says she wants to dispel the myth of the gold-seekers nobly taming the wilderness and share the perspective of those who were there first, as well as the Chinese immigrants who also helped make the West what it became. I’d say she certainly succeeds in that. But this book isn’t just a lecture; it’s a good and satisfying story.
The Night Pool, a debut novel by Lauren Lee Smith, will be published on Aug. 25, 2026, by Blackstone Publishing.
Content warnings: Rape, sexual assault, epidemic, body horror, legal injustice and corruption, murders, massacre, sexism and racism (both negatively portrayed), ecological destruction, possession?
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC for review of this novel from the publisher.
