Reviews with content warning for Violence - Midnight on Beacon Street

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Midnight on Beacon Street by Emily Ruth Verona

9 reviews

michelle_mightbereading's review

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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bookishchaos's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I was expecting some kind of crazy plot twist but no, the story ends with zero explaintion as to what happened. The time jumps were confusing at first but I got used to it. This book is full of plot holes, like why does our 17-18 year old main character think like a 30 year old? And wtf was that ending?

What was the purpose of Sadie trying to unalive Amy? None of the flashblacks implied that she was unstable, just lively and a bit reckless. It would've been a really cool twist if Sadie was just a figment of Amy's imagination.

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slimepuppy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Slow, repetitive, uninteresting. I had high hopes for this book, but it only let me down. The non linear narrative felt unnecessary, the plot was fairly predictable and none of the characters felt special. The main character is just anxious, that's it, that's the character!

Some of the beginning of the book was actually a little creepy, though - before the plot started happening.

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queenginger's review

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emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was eager for this one and sadly it fell flat for me.

Categorized as a thriller/horror I was curious to see what that meant.
The thriller element completely missed the mark. Things don’t speed up until the last 30 pages or so. Even within those moments I found myself skimming the paragraphs to get to the end.

Horror? The only element of that is the ode to classic slashers. There are others stories that have pulled off that trope in a more successful lens. It felt as though this idea needed to be fleshed out a bit more.

The strongest element of the book was the dialogue between characters. Especially between Amy and the children. I loved the energy of Mira and her sassy quips. Bens character was okay, but I just don’t jive much with young kids overall.

The POV and time jumping was almost nauseating. I couldn’t keep my head straight and not in a good, pay-off sort of way. The six year jump back felt unnecessary.

Lots of folks mentioned the overall writing felt very Y.A. — and I couldn’t agree more.

It was alright. I didn’t hate it. I’d be curious to see more from this author in the future.

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lattelibrarian's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

LOVED this book. It's a clear homage to classic horror movies, especially Halloween what with the plot: a babysitter sits two children and her boyfriend and friends crash her working night. A neighbor knocks on the door, there's a ghost, and LOTS of sibling drama. I spent half the book wondering whether anything horrific was going to happen or not or if we were just going to sit in trope-y suspense which was AWESOME. The suspense is really what makes horror.

I also enjoyed how this book jumped between perspectives and timeline--it allowed for some dramas to be explained further, to hear from different perspectives, and gain more context for why some aspects of this book are scarier than others.

Just, so good.

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cammaleahh's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

Thank you Netgalley, HarperCollins, and One More Chapter for the eARC!

What a debut from Verona! This was a quick read with good pacing. As the synopsis promises, Midnight on Beacon Street is a love letter to horror/slasher films. The story is told through switching POVs between Amy and Ben with each chapter progressing in different ways (Amy’s moves towards midnight up to the climax while Ben starts at midnight with the climax-without revealing anything of course-but then moves backwards). It was a unique and interesting way to tell the story!

The writing could sometimes be too repetitive and descriptive, especially in Ben’s chapters. I preferred Amy’s since Ben’s had a lot more telling instead of showing.

The twists were predictable, I wasn’t really surprised by any of them and guessed them a few chapters before it was revealed. But I did appreciate how the story unraveled!

Despite the predictability and telling over showing, it was an enjoyable read and one that I didn’t want to put down! Highly recommend if you want a quick, entertaining thriller. I’m excited to see what Verona writes next ❤️

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halfwaytosanity's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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bb_zhigaag's review

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