I read Midnight is the Darkest Hour for The Literally Dead Book Club. I’m going to be upfront here. I did not like this book. However, I am going to try and figure out what kind of reader would like this book. If you read this and liked it, please leave a comment explaining what you enjoyed so other readers can see that.

Welcome, or Welcome back! My name is Amanda and this is where I share spoiler-free book reviews and other bookish things. Thanks for visiting. Let’s get Smitten For Fiction.

“Where The Crawdads Sing meets Twilight meets Thelma and Louise in this brilliantly realized, totally original thriller. Absolutely sensational—I couldn’t put it down.” — Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author

About The Book 📚

Title: Midnight is the Darkest Hour

Author: Ashley Winstead

Narrated by: Sarah Welborn

Hoopla

12h 7m

Publication Date: October 2023

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction, Psychological

Pages: 400

Content Warnings: child abuse, religious bigotry, murder, abuse, alcoholism, sexual assault, rape, misogyny, pedophilia, animal death, grief, gun violence, panic attacks

About The Author

“Ashley Winstead is the author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, The Last Housewife, Midnight is the Darkest Hour, Fool Me Once, and The Boyfriend Candidate. Her books have been Library Read picks, Loan Star picks, Best of Amazon picks, and Best of Apple Books picks, and have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, and Library Journal…Ashley holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature and lives in Houston.” https://www.ashleywinstead.com/about

My Review

› Let’s start on a positive note. I love the cover for Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead. The waning crescent moon is the last of the moon phases right before the new moon. It portrays a sense of surrender or time of reflection. This is considered the time to reflect on your thoughts and experiences. And I guess you could say the main character did spend time reflecting on her life.

› The blurb is not an accurate description of this book. It gave me the impression that this was going to be a serious and scary story about “the Low Man” and vampires. I was thinking Salem’s Lot vibes and I loved that book. But it is not serious. It’s an over-the-top, small-town-drama, romantic, slightly suspenseful Twilight fanfiction. I’ve seen some reviewers mention this is gothic – I don’t consider this gothic. Gothic fiction includes books like Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Fall of the House of Usher. According to Audible, “this literary style is marked by vivid images of foreboding castles and mansions with secret alcoves and shadowy rooms.” Audible classifies Midnight is the Darkest Hour as Women’s Fiction and psychological.

“When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar—and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town’s secret underbelly in search of true evil.”

› Ruth, a librarian in a small Louisiana town called Bottom Springs, has always felt she doesn’t fit in. Her father is a preacher at a Holy Fire Baptist church and he’s convinced the town to believe in the devil and demons and “the Low Man”. They say he’s a vampire figure who will capture and kill sinners. The discovery of a bashed-in skull leads to the first homicide investigation in twenty years. People start to suspect Ruth’s friend from the past, Everett – a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. With a six-year gap dual timeline, we learn all about Ruth’s relationship with Everett as she tries to uncover the truth.

“Once again, a person has been claimed by the swamp.”

› I attended Catholic school from kindergarten to grade 10 and attended Catholic and Anglican churches. I can relate to Ruth and I understand why she would want to use Twilight to escape the trauma she’s experienced in her life. It would have been fine if it was mentioned a few times, but it just felt like it was mentioned so many times and it made this book feel like fanfiction.

› Characters: 2
To me, the characters were boring and forgettable.

› Atmosphere: 3
There is a lack of description and world-building. I didn’t feel the appropriate emotions, however, I do feel like the author was successful in setting the mood.

› Writing Style: 3
“My body is on fire”: What? like, how?
“A spark in my chest”: ummm…okay.
“A whisp of a girl”: what does that even mean?!
There is a better way to write these sentiments. This kind of writing feels lazy and immature.
“Godless heathen”: I wish I had the e-book so I could search those words because it felt like they were repeated twenty times.

› Plot: 3
One hour into this audiobook I was already not having a good time and knew I wasn’t going to end up liking it. There is a lot of fluff – words that aren’t moving the plot forward. At the same time, there was way too much going on.

› Intrigue: 2
I didn’t want to keep reading.

› Logic: 1
I felt extremely confused many times and had to re-listen to chapters. There was too much going on.

› Enjoyment: 2
Overall I did not enjoy reading this book. I didn’t feel anything. Just wasn’t a good fit for me.

Average 2.3

My Rating ★

Average Story Graph Rating 3.54

Average Goodreads Rating 3.46
49% of Goodreads users gave this book 4 or 5 stars.
33% gave it 3 stars
16% gave it 1 or 2 stars

› Final Thoughts
• Midnight is the Darkest Hour is a sombre, mysterious, and dramatic novel good for readers wanting a twisted murder story set in a small southern town. I think fans of Colleen Hoover would like this book and maybe fans of The Vampire Diaries. I’d like to try a different book by Ashley Winstead. I’m thinking maybe In My Dreams I Hold a Knife. What do you think?

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I want to acknowledge that I am on the traditional territories of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, and Mississauga. https://native-land.ca/