TL;DR a human girl gets wrapped up in fantasy-creature politics
TBR #1108, added Nov 14 2014
finished 5/29/16
I had a little bit of a hard time sitting down to read The Girl at Midnight at first. I think it was because of the third person narration, which didn't feel as action-y as Stitching Snow's did. TGaM's narration was beautiful, but I've been busier than I was during school these past couple weeks and didn't have the attention span the book deserved. (Stitching Snow also starts out with some pretty big action, while TGaM sets up the story a little more before jumping in.)
Once I got some good down time I made my way through the book without any issue. I think it's one of those books that demands more of your attention, rather than being able to read it in short bursts. The world and the history / lore are intricate and nuanced and I wish I had paid more attention in the beginning. I really loved seeing how the Avicen and the Drakharin interacted with our own world.
I liked all of the main characters, and I'm glad Dorian, Ivy, and Jasper had their own backstories and character development that was independent of Echo and Caius (as much as they could get, at least). I thought Echo and Caius's relationship was a little too fast, but there was also enough foreshadowing that I can see the reasoning behind it. I'm also glad for the focus on Dorian and Jasper and I'm hoping to see more of it in The Shadow Hour.
The foreshadowing was done really well overall, imo. I had my "what if" guesses by about halfway through the book, and I was surprised that I was right about one of them! There was another that I wasn't anticipating, but I think it was led up to with the right amount of subtlety.
Towards the end of the book I realized that it has the same aesthetic / general overall idea as the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series (ie two fantasy races fighting each other, interactions with the human world, and a human girl as the main character). I think The Girl at Midnight is a great book if you're looking for something to read after finishing Karou's story. It's also a little smaller than the DoSaB books averaged.
I probably can't get my hands on The Shadow Hour until at least August due to the library system, but I'm looking forward to continuing Echo's story!
TL;DR this is a great book for long stretches of reading and I highly recommend it if you liked Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
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