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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
What a wonderful surprise! I didn't know what to expect from The Midnight Girls -- I picked it because of the beautiful covers and I'd heard it had a sapphic romance. This little book is magical.
Marynka, Zosia, and Beata are wonderful, fully-drawn characters and I loved the Poland-inspired, wintery world full of magic and monsters. The Midnight Girls is unique and refreshing in a genre where YA fantasy can feel repetitive. It's a great cozy read to curl up with in the cold long evenings of winter.
Marynka, Zosia, and Beata are wonderful, fully-drawn characters and I loved the Poland-inspired, wintery world full of magic and monsters. The Midnight Girls is unique and refreshing in a genre where YA fantasy can feel repetitive. It's a great cozy read to curl up with in the cold long evenings of winter.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really really wanted to like this book more, but the more I read the more I just wanted it to be over. I love the Polish aspect of this book. It’s so well researched and the pictures the author painted were incredible. I loved the characters, who doesn’t love sapphic witchy vibes? However, these girls were suppose to be monster and terrifying. They rarely actually accomplished anything! It got tiresome quick. I think I would enjoy a sequel if the author ever decides to write one, but this book left me wanting.
HIGHLIGHTS
~gloriously monstrous monster girls
~you don’t need to eat your heart out, they’ll do it for you
~scythes are sexy now
~if the ice-masks melt, you’re soulmates
~dress toimpress terrify
~Witches Do It Better
~rivals to-- wait, still rivals-- STILL RIVALS--
I cannot tell you how much I love the premise of two girls fighting to win the same prince’s heart…so they can eat it.
And Jasinska absolutely pulls it off. Marynka and Zosia are not-quite-witches – in fact, they’re the servants of witches; Red Jaga and Black Jaga respectively. But full-on witches, it seems, cannot touch the pure of heart – and yet it’s those pure hearts, when eaten, that strengthen a witch’s power. Which is why they take servants; girls who are born mortal, but who are given enough magic to be able to turn into monsters. To hunt and kill the pure-of-heart their mistresses desire.
To be honest, a normal human probably wouldn’t make the distinction between witches and their servants – Marynka and Zosia can ride the wind, summon fire or darkness, and transform into terrifying creatures with iron teeth and flashing claws. Even Beata, the softer servant of the gentler White Jaga, can unleash devastating light and rip soldiers to pieces with her talons.
The Jagas are sisters and competitive, always boasting about their servants, and although Marynka and Beata are friends, neither of them know Zosia as anything other than her nom-de-plume Midnight (just as Marynka is Midday and Beata is Dawn, titles that come from their mistresses' powers). Marynka is obsessed with Midnight, in fact; when they’re sent after the same pure heart, Midnight almost always manages to get to it first and steal it away, but Marynka wins just often enough to make her fierce about it instead of resigned. It doesn’t help that Red Jaga is always criticizing Marynka for not being good enough and failing so often.
And then a prince of legendary goodness returns from exile, and all three girls are sent after him.
The world Jasinska has created is heavily drawn from Polish myth and history, which I know almost nothing about – but I know that I absolutely fell in love with the kingdom of Lechija, where magic is not just believed in, but omnipresent; there are rusalkas in the lakes, and the Jagas in their forests (forests of eternal night, dawn, and midday, respectively), but there is also magic wielded by humans. The witches call this ‘divine’ magic, and it’s one of the only things that can really hurt them, but it’s woven into the fabric of human life, with priests and prophets and princes alike being able to use it, and enchant objects with it that anyone can then use. There are swords that burst into holy flame, masks of ice that melt when you see your soulmate, characters who can read the future in the stars. It’s not idyllic – Lechija is in a very tense political situation, and everyone is holding their breath lest one wrong move tip them over the edge into war – but it is really, really beautiful. It doesn’t hurt at all that Midnight Girls is set during Karnawał, which is one big carnival-holiday that allows for lots of gorgeous, opulent costumes and horse-drawn sleigh rides. The gift for description that was on full display in Jasinska’s debut The Dark Tide is given free and wonderful reign in her sophomore novel as well.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
~gloriously monstrous monster girls
~you don’t need to eat your heart out, they’ll do it for you
~scythes are sexy now
~if the ice-masks melt, you’re soulmates
~dress to
~Witches Do It Better
~rivals to-- wait, still rivals-- STILL RIVALS--
I cannot tell you how much I love the premise of two girls fighting to win the same prince’s heart…so they can eat it.
And Jasinska absolutely pulls it off. Marynka and Zosia are not-quite-witches – in fact, they’re the servants of witches; Red Jaga and Black Jaga respectively. But full-on witches, it seems, cannot touch the pure of heart – and yet it’s those pure hearts, when eaten, that strengthen a witch’s power. Which is why they take servants; girls who are born mortal, but who are given enough magic to be able to turn into monsters. To hunt and kill the pure-of-heart their mistresses desire.
To be honest, a normal human probably wouldn’t make the distinction between witches and their servants – Marynka and Zosia can ride the wind, summon fire or darkness, and transform into terrifying creatures with iron teeth and flashing claws. Even Beata, the softer servant of the gentler White Jaga, can unleash devastating light and rip soldiers to pieces with her talons.
The Jagas are sisters and competitive, always boasting about their servants, and although Marynka and Beata are friends, neither of them know Zosia as anything other than her nom-de-plume Midnight (just as Marynka is Midday and Beata is Dawn, titles that come from their mistresses' powers). Marynka is obsessed with Midnight, in fact; when they’re sent after the same pure heart, Midnight almost always manages to get to it first and steal it away, but Marynka wins just often enough to make her fierce about it instead of resigned. It doesn’t help that Red Jaga is always criticizing Marynka for not being good enough and failing so often.
And then a prince of legendary goodness returns from exile, and all three girls are sent after him.
By the lakesides the green-skinned rusalki were busy singing sweetly with the frogs, luring men to watery graves, their voices mixing with the muezzin’s call to prayer carrying from the emerald minarets of nearby mosques.
The world Jasinska has created is heavily drawn from Polish myth and history, which I know almost nothing about – but I know that I absolutely fell in love with the kingdom of Lechija, where magic is not just believed in, but omnipresent; there are rusalkas in the lakes, and the Jagas in their forests (forests of eternal night, dawn, and midday, respectively), but there is also magic wielded by humans. The witches call this ‘divine’ magic, and it’s one of the only things that can really hurt them, but it’s woven into the fabric of human life, with priests and prophets and princes alike being able to use it, and enchant objects with it that anyone can then use. There are swords that burst into holy flame, masks of ice that melt when you see your soulmate, characters who can read the future in the stars. It’s not idyllic – Lechija is in a very tense political situation, and everyone is holding their breath lest one wrong move tip them over the edge into war – but it is really, really beautiful. It doesn’t hurt at all that Midnight Girls is set during Karnawał, which is one big carnival-holiday that allows for lots of gorgeous, opulent costumes and horse-drawn sleigh rides. The gift for description that was on full display in Jasinska’s debut The Dark Tide is given free and wonderful reign in her sophomore novel as well.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
I loved this so much more than when I first tried to read it. My complaint is there’s no sequel because I want MORE. I could have read a thousand more pages about Marynka and Zosia but I guess it was nice to have a shorter fantasy stand alone.
I liked this one. I liked once they figured out who they really were... it got a lot more fun after that.
This is a beautiful sapphic enemies to lovers fantasy. And it's so good! I was hooked from moment one
It was just an OK read for me. Sapphic monster/witchy YA novel. The premise had me intrigued but the execution was wanting.
I listened to an audiobook of The Midnight Girls and the narrator did such a fantastic job performing. Unfortunately, I just thought the book itself was ok. I loved the idea of morally grey characters, who are monsters, compete for the prince's heart (and not for love) only for fall for each other instead. Zosia and Marynka had an instant connection, so you felt their push and pull since they are supposed to be "enemies". It's definitely worth reading though because I thought the concept and plot is unique and I enjoyed the writing. I just didn't have that wow factor I was hoping for.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No