2 stars
I came across this in the Lending Library. I liked the odd title and the gorgeous cover and the fact that I had really no idea what it was about.
When I started reading it, I was instantly conflicted. I really liked the poetic narration. However, the characters were two-dimensional cardboard cutouts you can find in any teen book. They aren’t unique or fully-formed or even that interesting.
Also, the loose plot that is strung through the book didn’t interest me. It just kind of went along without any real story, just the boring, annoying characters describing their lives with oddly similar narration styles. Also, Midnight’s sections were so long that I just ended up hating him. I would go days without reading this if I was on Midnight’s section or would just put it down partway through his dull narration because I had no interest in it.
My main problem with the book was that I just didn’t care about any of the characters. The whole time you’re supposed to be trying to determine who is the hero, who is the villain, and who is the liar. However, from the start, it’s pretty obvious it’s not going to be as clear-cut as presented. The book didn’t make me feel invested in anyone so whenever something actually happened, I just kind of shrugged and moved on.
Once the big reveal comes about, it didn’t even affect me because of this lack of investment. I was mostly just annoyed because it felt like the author was just trying to “trick” you with unreliable narrators, rather than coming up with an interesting twist.
Despite my initial excitement, I was left feeling dissatisfied when I finally finished this. Nothing happened, the message was fairly obvious, and any of the unpredictable twists just didn’t seem to matter because the characters just felt like shadows on a page.
However, the narration was quite lovely at times with beautiful lyricism and interesting descriptions. I did enjoy the writing style overall. It was almost like reading a really long poem. I may check out more by this author, but I am definitely going to need a more interesting plot and more compelling characters.