Prasetya Nababan

The Midnight Girls

Book by Alicia Jasinska

DETAILS

Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire (November 1, 2022) Language : English Paperback : 352 pages ISBN-10 : 172825793X ISBN-13 : 978-1728257938 Reading age : 14 - 18 years Lexile measure : HL790L Grade level : 8 - 12 , "Within a fiercely beautiful, cruel world, three young servants of three deadly witches change each other's lives forever. Alicia Jasinska's lush, darkly romantic The Midnight Girls is the subversive sapphic monster girl fantasy you've been waiting for."―Maya Gittelman, Tor.com In a snow-cloaked kingdom, two wicked rivals secretly compete for the pure heart of a prince, only to discover they might be falling for each other. Karnawal season is a time for mischief and revelry. For the next few weeks, all will be wintry balls, glittery disguises, and nightly torch-lit sleigh-parties. Unbeknownst to the merrymakers, two uninvited girls join the fun. Zosia and Marynka are drawn to each other the moment they meet, until they discover they're rivals, who both have their sights set on the prince's heart. If one consumes a pure heart, she'll gain immeasurable power. Marynka plans to bring the prince's back to her patron in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own. Their ambition turns into a magical contest with both girls vying to keep the prince out of the other's grasp, even as their attraction to one another grows. But their attempts on his life draws the attention of the city that would die for him, and suddenly their escalating rivalry might cost them not just their love for each other, but both their lives. Perfect for fans of: The Wicked Deep and A Curse So Dark and Lonely Killing Eve and Witcher Witchy tales Dark fantasy fiction LGBTQ books Enemies to lovers romance Praise for The Dark Tide : "Striking the perfect balance, The Dark Tide demands to be read in one held breath as its tide bears down on all."― Foreword , Starred Review "A dark scenic adventure, sensitively written for romantics, Jasinska's debut novel is a fantasy of promises, betrayal, unrequited love, and black magic. "― School Library Journal , Starred Review " The Dark Tide is the dark, queer fantasy of your dreams that's part beauty and the beast, part something entirely new and original... a lush world that begs to be lived in... It's beautiful, and fast paced, and everything I ever want from a fairy tale."―Cat VanOrder, Bookmarks (Winston-Salem, NC) "Fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope will be ecstatic with this book... The Dark Tide offers an exciting and immersive story with a strong feminist slant that subverts common YA tropes and forges its own original path."― The Nerd Daily Read more

REVIEW

It's currently the Karnawa season - a season marked with lots of balls, parties, and disguises. Unknown to the partygoers, among their ranks are two monsters. Their goal? To obtain the heart of Prince Jozef. Zosia and Marynka have been at odds with each other for years, though they have never met. Known to each other as Midnight and Mid-Day, respectively, each girl is apprenticed to an older woman they call grandmother, and it is for their grandmothers that they must obtain the prince's heart. Up to this point, Zosia has seemed to beat Marynka to each previous heart, so Marynka is determined to win this time. She wants to bring the heart back to prove to her grandmother that she is worthy. Zosia, on the other hand, has plans to betray her own grandmother and consume the heart herself. For monsters like Zosia and Marynka, consuming the heart of a prince imbues the consumer with immeasurable power. What neither expects, when they finally meet in this battle for the prince's heart, is that they will end up losing their own hearts...to each other. I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was narrated by Emily Ellet. Ellet did a good job with this narration, and there was nothing technically wrong with the performance. Though this is the first book I have heard narrated by her, looking through the other books she's narrated, it's clear that she is a talented narrator. For that reason, I am somewhat sad that this book was such a slog to get through - to the point that I was having to go back and listen to whole chapters over again because my attention had wandered and I had no idea what had been happening. Since I can safely assume the reason for that is not the narrator's skill, I am left to assume it lies with the story itself, which is also disappointing. I was excited to read this book. The book has an interesting premise, and I also appreciate the growing library of LGBTQ+ representation in stories. Plus, the cover art is beautiful. If there was ever an example of not judging a book by its cover, it would be this book. The three main characters, with codenames of Morning, Mid-Day, and Midnight - yes, really - are stereotypically the good girl who follows all the rules, the fiery and passionate one, and the bad girl characterized by shadows, respectively. It comes as no surprise to us all that Midday, aka Marynka, and Midnight, aka Zosia, will go from enemies to lovers. Unfortunately, I just didn't buy their relationship. The more compelling relationship, to me, was that of Prince Jozef and his friend Kajetan, and it was more of a minor plot point. While there is some action, the first part of the book is slow going, and it takes a while to get to the action. I honestly couldn't tell you what happened during that part. As the pace picked up, we do see some interference from the third monster, Morning, aka some name that started with a B but I'm not sure what it is. She is the quintessential good girl who knows she's being kept in a proverbial cage but doesn't challenge that. To quote her, "a cage isn't so bad if you don't throw yourself against the bars" which, while possibly being technically correct, is so disheartening I wanted to just shake her out of that idiotic thinking. Finally, though my understanding is that this is a standalone novel, there is quite a lot left unresolved at the end. Even the epilogue didn't answer any of the questions left unanswered. I don't know if that was intentional and the author intends to release a sequel at some point, or whether the author really thought this was a good place to end the story. If it's the former, that's annoying but understandable. If it's the latter, that is a major disservice to readers. There is a chance that the medium of consumption is what led to my lack of enjoyment of this book, especially since the narrator is new to me. I do have another book narrated by Ellet in my TBR list that I was planning to read in the next couple of months, so I can use that as a bit of comparison. However, as I said above, I don't really think it was the narrator. There is still a chance that I might pay better attention if I read the book myself, so I might - MIGHT - try a reread in a few months to see if my experience is any better. But I'm not going to go out of my way to test that hypothesis, as I have plenty of other books on my TBR list that I could devote my attention to.

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