Reviews with content warning for War - The Midnight Girls

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The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska

18 reviews

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was a nice YA fantasy! It was fast pace Polish inspired historical fantasy with monsters who fall in love with each other as they compete to consume the heart of a prince. It’s also a wlw story, which was nice to see in the YA sphere.

I think i would have liked this a bit more if I was more invested in the politics behind the scenes. It felt like it wanted to say more about the context in which these two women were in, but it was really only discussed in the last quarter of the book. Overall though, I liked the magic, the enemies to lovers trope, and strong female characters. The banter with the main characters, and the prince and the side characters was great.

I think that for a younger audience, this could be definitely a 5 star.

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wardenred's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

No matter how dark the night, a new day always dawned. The sun never, ever failed to rise.

Such an exciting wintry read! I absolutely loved the Polish-coded setting, the clear fictionalized ties to real historical events, and all the cultural details about the festivities, the food, the clothes—everything. All the descriptions were so engrossing and vivid, and I really felt transported into the story. I also really liked all the monstrous witchcraft lore that made this book the perfect scary fairytale for the dark part of the year.

Marinka quickly became my favorite character with her fiery competitiveness and strong spirit. I kind of expected to like Zosia more because her arc/inner conflict sounded like something I usually find quite interesting. Somehow though, while I didn't mind her and liked her dynamic with Marinka, her personality didn't particularly endear her to me, although she kept growing on me more and more as the story went on. I absolutely loved Beata and her friendship with Marinka. And that secondary romance with my absolute favorite flavor of friends-to-enemies-to-lovers dynamic? Perfect. Absolutely perfect. My favorite aspect of the book, really. Those two are going to live in my head rent-free for a long time.

There were some pacing issues in the first half of the story, and then some of the events in the second half felt rushed, which is the one reason this isn't a full five-star read for me. Otherwise, this is a great tale of chaotic villainous queers, and exactly the wintry read I needed.

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pey333's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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thecourtofreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

this was such a good enemies to lovers, i could really feel how much they hated each other and the confusion as to why they wanted to be around each other all the time. and it's gay too, so it's superior, AND they're witches? would honestly love a book two.

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nobeliumreads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

In the kingdom of Lechija is a prince with a pure heart. Consuming it gives one immeasurable power. Two monstrous girls, Zosia and Marynka, are willing to do anything to get it; the former for herself, the latter for her patron. But it’s not easy trying to kill a beloved prince during the festive Karnawal season, and as their rivalry heats up, so does the danger to both of their lives.

A fun and easy book I binge read in two days. Marynka and Zosia’s rivalry, the way they got so frustrated whilst also wanting to be sabotaged by the other was so entertaining to read.

I do admit that I liked Zosia more though, because at times Marynka did frustrate me. Beata, another servant girl to the witches, though predictable, was an unexpected addition and I personally think she deserves her own story after apparently third wheeling her entire life. However, I felt like we didn’t know much about the girls other than them being monsters or servants or rivals which made me feel a bit detached from them.

The writing is fine and the worldbuilding was really interesting, maybe too interesting because it ended up making me more intrigued in what was going on in the background instead of Marynka and Zosia; the political tension in Lechija, the budding revolution, whatever was going on between Józef and Kajetan. I would honestly love a second book about Józef and Kajetan. Another thing that I wish we’d seen more of were the witches; we spend the whole book being told how powerful and terrifying they are but they weren’t as big a threat as I expected them to be.

We never even see Black Jaga and considering how she’s apparently the most powerful of the witches, I expected a terrifying confrontation between her and the girls after finding out what Zosia did.

And although this is a personal preference, I would have loved to see more of Marynka and Zosia in the ending.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but couldn’t help but wish for more whilst reading it. My own expectations definitely influenced how I felt about the book, so that’s on me but objectively I think it’s still an enjoyable sapphic rivals to lovers book!

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livreads16's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

4.5

This book was good. This was a really fun story that kept your attention. The world building was a little confusing at times, but I really appreciate how they did most of the world building threw the plot. Like I hate books that will spent 50 pages at the beginning “setting the scene” like bro just tell the story you can set the scene as we go. Loved the two main characters. As I’ve said before “enemies to lovers” is gonna do it every time. The build up and the competition and the banter was very good. The plot was a little dragged out, like 2/3 through the book I was like okay can we start to wrap it up you’re stressing me out. I think the ending was good. I said I didn’t want a sequel… but if she wrote a sequel I would prob read it. I just really need more stand alone books these series are getting out of control. The fantastical eighteenth century Poland was actually amazing. I think it worked so so well. The dual POV story telling was also exceptional. Just all around well done book. Honestly I think the only flaw is that the

near death experiences didn’t really feel like they were near death. Like I’m sorry I’m just not buying that you’re gonna kill off marynka AND kajetan.. like come on. So the drama and the like “OH NO THERE GONNA DIE NO” wasn’t there and I kinda want that in a book, ya know? Also while we’re on the subject the prince and kajetan thing?? Come on you better not be queer baiting they are so obviously supposed to be a couple. Honestly? Now you gotta write another book.

but yeah much fun.

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shaipanda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book didn’t grab me for some reason but idk if that’s cause I genuinely didn’t enjoy it that much or because I just finished one of the best books I’ve ever read
I did love that it was gay tho cause obviously lol and I enjoyed it overall but it was still a kinda meh read for me

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tyler_hmac's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A sapphic fantasy where two women who work for witches and take hearts of princes, what more could you ask for?

Strongly recommend for anyone into more lighter fantasy books. This was really easy to read, and there was even a page telling you how their names were pronounced. It was lovely. The Polish history sprinkled in through the story was done so well and worked surprisingly well with the rest of the plot. With the romance there was such good tension between the rivals and soon blended into yearning and the realization that they might have been after each other’s heart. It was so good!!

Sapphic
Villain x Villain
Fairytale Magic
Pronunciation Guide
Angst with a Happy Ending

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I really, really wanted to like The Midnight Girls because I thought the magic/monster-driven concept at its center was wonderful. There are edges of fairytale to the story – the kind of fairytales that evoke gruesome images, not princesses and pumpkins. It’s not gory, but it is dark, and the trio of competing young women was compelling. Especially when we speak of stealing princes’s hearts… and not in the way you may think. That said, it felt Jasińska wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do with the story at times – some scenes are powerfully written, but the threads that tie them together are loose and tangled. It didn’t quite work for me.

We have a trio of servants who work for three witches in three forests – Beata is White Jaga’s servant in the Morning Forest, Marynka is Red Jaga’s servant in the Midday Forest, and Zosia is Black Jaga’s servant in the Midnight Forest. They are tasks with stealing hearts for princes for their witches to devour to make them stronger. Almost every time, Zosia “Midnight” wins the race and Marynka “Midday” hatesit. Beata “Morning” just does her best and accepts her place. The Midnight Girls is mostly Marynka’s story of hate and love and rivalry and frustration and finally peace. Zosia’s story is woven in as well, but at the heart, it’s Marynka’s tale. It’s a love story, mostly.

There are a lot of things going on in The Midnight Girls. There’s Karnawal – a winter Carnival festival – and there’s Price Józef’s story with Kajetan. There’s a lot of working relationships that Jasińska clearly wanted to develop, and none of them got quite enough attention, not even the sapphic romance between Zosia and Marynka. For the first two-thirds, I was bored and frustrated, save for the occasional vibrant scene (the ice maze!). The last third caught my interest but it moved so quickly that as soon as things seemed to be developing… they stopped. The book ended.

That said, there’s a lovely review on Goodreads from a Polish reader commenting on the magic, Polish-coded cast, and general setting. It’s a lovely, happy, enthusiastic review and a reminder that there are so many groups underrepresented in literature still, even if they don’t seem so obvious to the casual reader. The sheer joy in this review reminds me how often only the western-most European cultures get mention. While I found the world-building a little awkward (is this real? Fantasy? Magical realism? Jasińska seems to jump but I believe it’s intended to be fantasy intertwined in the real world), it’s clear this book is not for me and it’s made another so happy.

Criticism unrelated to the book itself or the author – this title feels like it was chosen by someone who didn’t read the book. Jasińska stated online that she didn’t title the book herself, so this is not on her. To be clear, there are no “midnight girls”. There is one girl affiliated with “midnight” (Zosia) and three girls who are monsters.

The Midnight Girls is a pass from me, although there are moments and pieces I appreciated. I think that to the right reader, this will be a wonderful read and I appreciate that it exists even if I read too deeply into things like the relationships and the world building and ruined it for myself. I celebrate that this is a YA book with well-represented Polish-coded characters, queer relationships, and dark, spooky sunset magic.

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