Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Midnight Is the Darkest Hour

The Queen strikes again! Honestly, I was pretty nervous about this book. I had read this author's other two thrillers and enjoyed both of them. One of them was even a five-star, however, as I was reading this the writing felt different (I was reading as an audio read along with the physical copy in hand and the voice actor was Southern; after I got adjusted the southern accent just added to the atmosphere, I recommend the audio of this book if you're interested). From what I noticed it seems that Ashely changes her writing to match how her character would view their circumstances so it really puts you in their head (but this is just an assumption; I could just be reading into things). But anyway I'm not gonna lie it took me a while to get into this book (not too long though, probably around the 25% mark), but once I was in it. I was IN IT! It was soooo good! I was eating it up and was loving every minute of it. I always hear people talk about getting "immersed into a world" when they read and I had trouble relating because I don't think I've ever felt that, but with THIS book as soon as I started reading it with each sitting it felt like I was in their world every time. There weren't that many descriptions in this book, however, I feel like the dialogue and the course of events that took place in this book really set up the atmosphere and the tone of this book. I applaud Ms. Winstead because that's not an easy task to convey the overall setting of your book through dialogue. I really enjoyed my reading experience with this book and most importantly I enjoyed Everett. He's highkey a psychopath, but I loved him. He's become one of my favorite thriller book boyfriends (I don't condone his actions at all; he is a fictional character and I enjoyed reading about him and the way he was towards Ruth, that's all). I loved Ruth and Everett. They're literally soulmates. I also enjoyed Ruth's journey through self-discovery and finding her voice (however radical that it was😅). Now I understand that this is one of those books where you either like it or you hate it and I could completely get someone giving this book 2 stars, but I don't know I really enjoyed it! It actually reminds me of another book "The History of Wild Places" by Shea Ernshaw, they both contain the same vibes, but I love this one more! Can't wait to read more Ashley Winstead books. She's becoming an auto-read auhtour for me!

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sarahmcg's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

Loved this atmospheric, mystery/thriller from Ashley Winstead. I’ve really enjoyed all of her novels! This book gave Where the Crawdads Sing vibes but… darker… with a lot of Twilight references 🤔 I loved seeing Ruth’s character arc, especially seeing the contrast between past & present. And you’ve gotta love a morally grey MMC 😏

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aileron's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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annagerman's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

True blood meets true detective. Part psychological thriller, part dark romance, part southern gothic fairy tale - this book combines so many elements from different genres to create immaculate dark creepy vibes. The writing is really immersive and detailed.

I loved Ruth and Ever, they truly felt like complex flawed humans with a believable love and relationship.
Ruth's "corruption" arc was wonderfully structured and paced.
Some of the description of Ever were particularly... Tasty 😩

The weakest point of the book for me was the character of Reverent Cornier. Similarly to the character of Don Rockwell in the last housewife, I feel like the author's "charismatic larger-than-life male leader" characters fall kinda short. Their magnetism is more tell than show.

There were one plotpoint that sort of felt out of place (the biker gang shoot-out was both unnecessary and over-the-top imo). Also a few of the referrals were a bit lazy (Microfilm? Reporter phonecall? 😓)
But those are minor complaints in the greater scheme of things out.

I personally don't mind open endings, so I was fine with it. It definetly had me frantically searching for more pages and making sure I didn't skip any somehow. I think the characters reached their conclusions and there wasn't much point in dragging it out.

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r_o_s_e's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

<b> Midnight is the Darkest Hour </b> is a twisted, unhinged beast

If you enjoy occultism, heavy religious themes and being VERY mad in thrillers, then this is the book for you!!

Woven with dark themes of greed, power and oppression, this book tickled me in just the right way 😈👿

THANK YOU NetGally and Aria & Aries for providing an ARC of this book

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amanda_reads13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

In the small town of Bottom Springs, religion and the local pastor run everything. When a skull is found in the swamp and "pagan" symbols are carved in trees nearby, the town panics thinking that a supernatural being is responsible. Everyone in the town turns to the Pastor for guidance. That is, everyone except his own daughter, Ruth, and her outcast BFF, Everett.

This one just didn't live up to my expectations. The plot seemed extremely interesting, but it just didn't come together for me. There was too much going on in this book. The romance, plus supernatural beliefs, cults, murder, coverups, drug running, investigations... It was a lot. The cult angle could have been so interesting, it just fell flat and felt very surface level. Why not delve more into that? Why bring up this supernatural element too? I think overall it was pretty predictable and didn't pull me in.

It was pretty easy to figure out that these men were in on the drug running. The whole cult aspect seemed to be an afterthought. I mean, they weren't really in a cult, they were just a group of abusive, greedy misogynistic, and superstitious men who were running drugs out of the local hospital. It also wasn't very surprising that Ruth killed his dad or that Everett was the killer. I mean they both have some serious issues from their fucked up childhood.

The back and forth between Ruth and Everett was very frustrating. Her obsession with Twilight was really weird, like she couldn't distinguish reality from a book. They weren't very well developed characters and I just didn't really care about what happened to them.

Tropes: friends to lovers, cult, small town

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markedwithanm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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