The Midnight Garden - YA for Adults

My Heart and Other Black Holes: Review + Giveaway

This isn’t really a Kim Book.* Although, to be fair, if Kim Books usually involve incredibly heartfelt portrayals of our deepest humanity infused with humor and hope then perhaps I am about that also. Maybe. Every once in awhile a book comes along that crawls right into your heart and rends your ventricles. This is one of those. [Okay so there are moments where I’ll get a bit meta and personal. In ways that don’t really flow with the review but are important if you’d like an auxiliary/personal touch so I’m putting them behind spoiler brackets. When you see spoiler brackets it’s me being personal.] This is the story of Aysel (like uh-zell, rhymes with gazelle) who has longed to escape from the shadow of her father’s horrific crime for years. And of Roman who is living with an unimaginable grief. Both live trapped in the mire of isolation and… Read more »

All the Bright Places: Review

I’m a black sheep with this one, you guys. (Baa.) But I was really underwhelmed by All The Bright Places. I suspect I will be in the minority here, so, you know, your mileage may (and probably will) vary. But this book features a number of things I don’t care for: most prominently, I don’t tend to like books where one character changes another character’s life (by being irrepressibly quirky, or by teaching them to see the boring old world around them with new eyes, or by being impossibly good) , leaving main character changed for good and with a renewed sense of hope and potential. You know – it’s where characters aren’t important in-and-of themselves but are important for the transformative effect they exert on other people’s lives. (Think of the manic pixie dream girl, something along these lines.) And … All the Bright Places was a bit like this for me. I… Read more »

A Love Letter to Sarah J. Maas + Giveaway

I’m so excited to be kicking off a brand new feature here at The Midnight Garden! Introducing: The Love Letter Series! In which we wax lyrical to our favorite authors. The ones that inspire us. The ones that keep us reading way past midnight. The ones that give us all the feeeeeeelings. Without further adieu, I suppose I will kick us off with a love letter to (C’mon, guys, it’s me. Who else would it be to?) Sarah J. Maas! Dearest Sarah J. Maas, It’s no secret how much I adore you. I hope by now I am well known for relentlessly pushing your books and for my inability to disengage the caps lock whenever your series are mentioned. I am really quite passionate about your writing. I shall elaborate! I love how you create such intricately fantastical worlds with seeming effortless ease. It’s so easy to escape into your… Read more »

The Darkest Part of the Forest: Review

This book. I love this book. That is the review. That is all. But, really. I was fairly sure I would love this book going in just because it was by Holly Black and it was about faeries. Holly Black will always hold a special place in my heart because Tithe was one of the first YA books I got really, really into. It was the first book I read that had girls who weren’t always (or even often) likable, gay characters, and faeries that were actually like, well, faeries. Her faerie books ruined me for all other faerie books because they were so perfect and dark and good. The Darkest Part of the Forest did not disappoint. It was all the best parts of her writing—dark, beautiful world-building straight out of a fairytale, interesting and flawed characters, and a plot that blended the magical and the reality perfectly. It… Read more »

The Stolen Moon: Review

I’m so glad I started the new year off right by reading The Stolen Moon. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this sequel ever since I devoured its predecessor, The Lost Planet, in one sitting last January. Well, I loved this installment even more. There are scenes of breathtaking action, as well as heart aching tenderness, against the backdrop of an ever expanding and politically complex universe. More please and thank you! We pick up not long after where we left Chase safely onboard the starship Kuyddestor and reunited with his sister Lilli. With still no memory of his old life, his parents, or how he got into this predicament, there are still plenty of answers to pursue. And as it turns out new danger is lurking just out of sight. As a reader who is largely driven by characters and how much I do or don’t connect with them this book was… Read more »

The Queen of the Tearling: Review

Have you read The Queen of the Tearling yet? If not: stop what you are doing immediately; do not pass Go; do not collect $200. Just go read The Queen of the Tearling. You will not regret it. I’m really bummed that I didn’t read it sooner. (And didn’t read it soon enough to count it among my 2014 favorites, because it definitely is, you guys.) It’s the sort of novel I’m predisposed to like because it features all of the following: lost princesses, a kingdom in turmoil, a tiny bit of romance, and ladies being badasses. And the underlying message is “this is why books are important, you guys.” So, this is all to say: if you like any of all of these things, please go read The Queen of the Tearling, and then join me in biting my nails, squealing like a ten year-old, and making grabby hands for… Read more »

The Ghosts of Heaven: visual tour + giveaway

There are a handful of authors who have an open invitation to come do anything they like here at The Midnight Garden, and today’s guest is one of them. I don’t think of the word “genius” much in conjunction with novelists, but it pops into my head often when I read Marcus Sedgwick’s books. He is the 2014 Printz-winning author of the glorious, bloody Midwinterblood and a favorite guest of ours. His newest book features 4 stories, which can be read in order or not, as the reader chooses. All are linked by spirals that appear again and again. What does it all mean? We’re pleased to be kicking off the official The Ghosts of Heaven blog tour with a visual tour of places that inspired portions of his newest book! Though really, don’t be surprised if you drop in one of these days and Marcus is just casually strumming… Read more »