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bluebeereads's review against another edition
3.0
Quite The Novel Idea ~ Words from the Clouds
It's been a day since I read this book. Which is a long time for me to have between finishing it and writing the review. And it's not a good sign when it takes me this long to find the words to say. This is not a bad book. But it's also not a good/great book. It's very meh. And meh-reviews are by far the worst to write.
I don't even know what to say, honestly. This book had lots of potential to me. The story was interesting enough for it. The concept of the spheres was insanely cool and it's what made me want to read this book in the first place. But in the end this book was just really boring for the most part. Sure, the ending was crazy like it's promoted and I liked that part. It was really insane and weird and kind of awesome. But there was at least 70% of boring stuff that came first. It didn't help that I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters. The romance is rushed and I didn't buy it at all.
This feels like such a useless short review but I really don't know what else to say. Interesting concept and story with a crazy weird ending, but kind of boring for the rest. I've seen good reviews of this book, better than mine, so I think I'm just a black sheep here. Check it out if you're a fan of books like The Maze Runner and The 5th Wave.
It's been a day since I read this book. Which is a long time for me to have between finishing it and writing the review. And it's not a good sign when it takes me this long to find the words to say. This is not a bad book. But it's also not a good/great book. It's very meh. And meh-reviews are by far the worst to write.
I don't even know what to say, honestly. This book had lots of potential to me. The story was interesting enough for it. The concept of the spheres was insanely cool and it's what made me want to read this book in the first place. But in the end this book was just really boring for the most part. Sure, the ending was crazy like it's promoted and I liked that part. It was really insane and weird and kind of awesome. But there was at least 70% of boring stuff that came first. It didn't help that I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters. The romance is rushed and I didn't buy it at all.
This feels like such a useless short review but I really don't know what else to say. Interesting concept and story with a crazy weird ending, but kind of boring for the rest. I've seen good reviews of this book, better than mine, so I think I'm just a black sheep here. Check it out if you're a fan of books like The Maze Runner and The 5th Wave.
ninj's review against another edition
5.0
Fast paced, adventurous YA fun.
Teenagers off in search of strange spheres that grant you improved abilities, up against the evil CEO.
Reminds me a lot of Ready Player One in style, pacing, format.
Teenagers off in search of strange spheres that grant you improved abilities, up against the evil CEO.
Reminds me a lot of Ready Player One in style, pacing, format.
celsius273's review against another edition
3.0
Burning Midnight has a pretty cover and an amazing premise that just couldn’t seem to contain itself. The first 75% was great, super engaging and easy to follow but once the ending is set into motion, things became chaotic and rushed and thus the book feels stunted.
Sully, Hunter, Dom, and Mandy are the protagonists of the story, all of them sharing a fascination with the spheres and a hatred of Alex Holliday. There are interesting parallels between Burning Midnight and Ready Player One: four kids team up against a wealthy man who has become an overlord of a game of sorts. In addition, I’m pretty sure that one of the characters in Ready Player One is named Holliday or something as well… but it’s okay, this poor/insignificant rises up against an evil “dictator” format works for this book.
The first ¾ of the book had pretty good character development. I learned a bit about each of their backgrounds without anyone coming off as a pity case and no judgement about any of their cases. McIntosh really pulls diversity out which was really nice: the protagonists come from different socioeconomic backgrounds yet don’t feel any entitlement or bitterness about it, they have different sexualities, and each has a different family life but never judge one another. That was really cool and done nicely.
Moreover, the first part of the book kept me interested because the characters pour their lives into finding the spheres. They really think this is their last salvation, the only way to hit it rich and get out of their own situations, and the amount of passion there is quite moving. And because Sully and Hunter are so focused on finding spheres, there was time for a romantic interest to develop between them. Yes this romance felt like it was obligatorily added in, but they were brought together in a logical way which was fine with me.
The part of the book I didn’t like was the ending. The plot exploded, things moved too quickly to be logical, and I found myself having to turn back a couple pages to make sure I wasn’t missing things because the characters would suddenly be in a different place or a different situation and I would be confused about how or what had just happened. It takes half of the book to find the first gold, another quarter to find the rest of the spheres that matter and the last quarter is a complete mess. The characters act irrationally - granted Earth is kind of being invaded so they’re under stress - and despite agreeing to decide on things as a team, they go around making “heroic” sacrifices that end up being really stupid decisions.
Additionally, the spheres totally change in nature, not that they don’t give abilities, in that they aren’t just like mystery boxes in Mario Kart anymore. I thought that the turn they took was a bit on the fly and that everyone just rolled with it was a implausible. And finally, the book seems to just cut off. From the time that the climax occurs to the end of the book is about eight or so pages. There’s no elaboration about the rest of their lives or at least the near future and that would be fine if there were to be a sequel but there isn’t so I’m not feeling really connected to the book as of the ending.
Overall, a nice YA debut if not for a not so nicely executed ending. Burning Midnight wins points for having a wonderfully original concept which I really liked. It feels like it tends towards the juvenile side of the age spectrum but that doesn’t diminish its appeal. Definitely worth a rea
Sully, Hunter, Dom, and Mandy are the protagonists of the story, all of them sharing a fascination with the spheres and a hatred of Alex Holliday. There are interesting parallels between Burning Midnight and Ready Player One: four kids team up against a wealthy man who has become an overlord of a game of sorts. In addition, I’m pretty sure that one of the characters in Ready Player One is named Holliday or something as well… but it’s okay, this poor/insignificant rises up against an evil “dictator” format works for this book.
The first ¾ of the book had pretty good character development. I learned a bit about each of their backgrounds without anyone coming off as a pity case and no judgement about any of their cases. McIntosh really pulls diversity out which was really nice: the protagonists come from different socioeconomic backgrounds yet don’t feel any entitlement or bitterness about it, they have different sexualities, and each has a different family life but never judge one another. That was really cool and done nicely.
Moreover, the first part of the book kept me interested because the characters pour their lives into finding the spheres. They really think this is their last salvation, the only way to hit it rich and get out of their own situations, and the amount of passion there is quite moving. And because Sully and Hunter are so focused on finding spheres, there was time for a romantic interest to develop between them. Yes this romance felt like it was obligatorily added in, but they were brought together in a logical way which was fine with me.
The part of the book I didn’t like was the ending
Spoiler
or basically from when the golds are burned and things are set into motionAdditionally, the spheres totally change in nature, not that they don’t give abilities, in that they aren’t just like mystery boxes in Mario Kart anymore. I thought that the turn they took was a bit on the fly and that everyone just rolled with it was a implausible. And finally, the book seems to just cut off. From the time that the climax occurs to the end of the book is about eight or so pages. There’s no elaboration about the rest of their lives or at least the near future and that would be fine if there were to be a sequel but there isn’t so I’m not feeling really connected to the book as of the ending.
Overall, a nice YA debut if not for a not so nicely executed ending. Burning Midnight wins points for having a wonderfully original concept which I really liked. It feels like it tends towards the juvenile side of the age spectrum but that doesn’t diminish its appeal. Definitely worth a rea
booksandladders's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Actual Rating: 2.5*
I loved the premise of this book and was immediately enthralled with the idea of spheres giving people abilities. I think it was so interesting that not only did Scully sell these at a flea market, but he also discovered a new one. I really liked his relationship with is friends, Hunter, and Alex Holliday. I think character wise this was a really great book. But the characters weren't enough to save it for me.
There was a definite turning point. I liked some of the lead up to finding the Gold sphere and it's twin, but it got a bit boring at this point for me because Scully and Hunter weren't really doing much about anything and scraping by. It seemed like once they found the gold, it was about finding the OTHER gold and all I really wanted to know was what it did. And even that ended up being a disappointment.
I felt like the story took a nosedive and became this weird semi-preachy novel about aliens and God. Which made it a strange mix. I thought the ending was kinda tacky tbh. I'm going to put the ending under a spoiler so I don't ruin the book for people but I really want to talk about it.
But it was just SO STUPID. Like I couldn't handle it because it was just such a lame way to end this book. From like 60% onwards I had zero interest or care about the characters or their problems. I was kinda hoping the aliens would eat them and take them back to their homeland because they were quite annoying
This had so much potential and went so downhill after the Gold spheres were found and burned. I liked the overall idea and thought it was really well written, but the ending was overdone and something I could have lived without.
Books and Ladders | Queen of the Bookshelves | Books Are My Fandom | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin'
Actual Rating: 2.5*
I loved the premise of this book and was immediately enthralled with the idea of spheres giving people abilities. I think it was so interesting that not only did Scully sell these at a flea market, but he also discovered a new one. I really liked his relationship with is friends, Hunter, and Alex Holliday. I think character wise this was a really great book. But the characters weren't enough to save it for me.
There was a definite turning point. I liked some of the lead up to finding the Gold sphere and it's twin, but it got a bit boring at this point for me because Scully and Hunter weren't really doing much about anything and scraping by. It seemed like once they found the gold, it was about finding the OTHER gold and all I really wanted to know was what it did. And even that ended up being a disappointment.
I felt like the story took a nosedive and became this weird semi-preachy novel about aliens and God. Which made it a strange mix. I thought the ending was kinda tacky tbh. I'm going to put the ending under a spoiler so I don't ruin the book for people but I really want to talk about it.
Spoiler
So throughout the novel, Scully mentions that no one knows where the spheres come from and that he has heard both sides of the debate about aliens and God and the Devil a billion times. Then once Hunter burns the gold spheres, we find out that it IS aliens and that she can communicate with the one inside her -- but all the spheres have implanted aliens inside people. She then becomes a different version of herself where she is obsessed with finding the matching Midnight Blue sphere so she can burn it because the alien inside her is telling her it will solve all her problems. Which ???? Anyway, obviously it does not solve problems and there is an alien invasion which is then solved when Hunter makes the Midnight Blue go back into it's spheres even though this had never been done before.But it was just SO STUPID. Like I couldn't handle it because it was just such a lame way to end this book. From like 60% onwards I had zero interest or care about the characters or their problems. I was kinda hoping the aliens would eat them and take them back to their homeland because they were quite annoying
This had so much potential and went so downhill after the Gold spheres were found and burned. I liked the overall idea and thought it was really well written, but the ending was overdone and something I could have lived without.
Books and Ladders | Queen of the Bookshelves | Books Are My Fandom | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin'
shannon_cocktailsandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books
I grabbed a copy of MIDNIGHT BURNING because I was looking for something that might catch my fourteen-year-old son's attention.
Will McIntosh created a world that had me intrigued from practically the first page of the book. I wondered what these mysterious spheres were? Where did they come from? And what kind of repercussions would the people of this New York City have to deal with from using the spheres? The author does a fantastic job of keeping a reader hooked on what Hunter and Sully do with the spheres, intriguing us further as we discover exactly what the spheres' purpose is and how Hunter, Sully, Dom and Mandy fight to save the world.
As the teens fight to save the world, they also form a tight bond. Sully and Dom were already best friend, but when you add Hunter (who was the loose cannon of the group) and Mandy, the dynamics often causes fighting. But when push came to shove, they discovered they would all stand by each others sides. In the end, the knew who they could trust with their lives.
I enjoyed this book, which I then quickly walked to my son's room and told him he had to read it. It had some great twists and turns, making it hard to put down.
I grabbed a copy of MIDNIGHT BURNING because I was looking for something that might catch my fourteen-year-old son's attention.
Will McIntosh created a world that had me intrigued from practically the first page of the book. I wondered what these mysterious spheres were? Where did they come from? And what kind of repercussions would the people of this New York City have to deal with from using the spheres? The author does a fantastic job of keeping a reader hooked on what Hunter and Sully do with the spheres, intriguing us further as we discover exactly what the spheres' purpose is and how Hunter, Sully, Dom and Mandy fight to save the world.
As the teens fight to save the world, they also form a tight bond. Sully and Dom were already best friend, but when you add Hunter (who was the loose cannon of the group) and Mandy, the dynamics often causes fighting. But when push came to shove, they discovered they would all stand by each others sides. In the end, the knew who they could trust with their lives.
I enjoyed this book, which I then quickly walked to my son's room and told him he had to read it. It had some great twists and turns, making it hard to put down.
tallulahk's review against another edition
2.0
I simply didn’t like this book very much, as all aspects of the story seemed lacking and not well developed. For example, Hunter, the girlfriend of the protagonist, gained access to knowledge that completely changed her and her friends’ lives. However, with this newfound knowledge, Hunter becomes far too confident in her own instincts, and as she further loses sight of what constitutes brazen and brash, she “burns” a sphere that endangers almost the entire world. These actions get addressed only minimally, and she, along with every other character in this book, never undergoes any development that would prevent something along these lines from ever occurring again, which made this book seem quite incomplete and lacking overall.
jxriggle's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
momoqa's review against another edition
4.0
Great idea that was let down by an abrupt ending which didn't explain everything.
erinarkin20's review against another edition
3.0
3-3.5 stars
Burning Midnight is the first book I have read by Will McIntosh and I will definitely be checking out his books in the future. There were some things I liked and some things that didn’t necessarily click for me. With that said, I thought this was a solid story and I absolutely love the cover for this book.
One of the pieces of this story that I enjoyed was the fact that it was a male narrator. David Sullivan is a sphere dealer and things aren’t easy for him and his mom. In this world that McIntosh has created, spheres are what make people more than what they were born as. Spheres mysteriously appeared on Earth and people realized they gave them certain abilities. Different colors meant different abilities and the rarer the sphere, the greater the value…and cost.
David has been selling spheres at the local flea market but because he is competing with the big box stores…namely Alex Holiday’s stores, business and money isn’t steady. When he meets Hunter, a girl who makes a living searching for spheres, they make a deal to hunt together and that is when things begin to get interesting.
Let’s talk characters for a minute. I really liked Sully (David) and thought he was developed well. He is a great mix of caring, driven, and smart…when he actually does what he thinks they should do instead of listening to Hunter. I found Hunter frustrating. She was so distrustful and refused to listen to reason which really annoyed me. I think this is why I didn’t believe the romance between Sully and Hunter…at all.
The secondary characters in this story are well done and I wish we would have had more of them with Sully. I loved the friendship between Sully and Dom and the brief glimpses we had were well done. Alex Holiday is the bad guy. He burned Sully in the past and now that Sully and Hunter have found something he wants, he is willing to do anything to get it. He clearly doesn’t care about anyone but himself and what he wants. I was glad that Sully didn’t fall for his tricks and stood up to him. Eventually he got what was coming to him and I wasn’t sorry about how things ended up for him.
Going back to the spheres…things come to a head and we finally find out where the spheres came from and why. I found it interesting although slightly rushed at the end and what happened with Hunter was a bit odd but overall what I liked most about this story was that it is different. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action, an interesting premise, and a solid male point of view. If you are looking for a YA in the science fiction genre that gives you a story that is different than other books out there, consider checking this one out.
Thank you to the Publisher for the review copy!
Burning Midnight is the first book I have read by Will McIntosh and I will definitely be checking out his books in the future. There were some things I liked and some things that didn’t necessarily click for me. With that said, I thought this was a solid story and I absolutely love the cover for this book.
One of the pieces of this story that I enjoyed was the fact that it was a male narrator. David Sullivan is a sphere dealer and things aren’t easy for him and his mom. In this world that McIntosh has created, spheres are what make people more than what they were born as. Spheres mysteriously appeared on Earth and people realized they gave them certain abilities. Different colors meant different abilities and the rarer the sphere, the greater the value…and cost.
David has been selling spheres at the local flea market but because he is competing with the big box stores…namely Alex Holiday’s stores, business and money isn’t steady. When he meets Hunter, a girl who makes a living searching for spheres, they make a deal to hunt together and that is when things begin to get interesting.
Let’s talk characters for a minute. I really liked Sully (David) and thought he was developed well. He is a great mix of caring, driven, and smart…when he actually does what he thinks they should do instead of listening to Hunter. I found Hunter frustrating. She was so distrustful and refused to listen to reason which really annoyed me. I think this is why I didn’t believe the romance between Sully and Hunter…at all.
The secondary characters in this story are well done and I wish we would have had more of them with Sully. I loved the friendship between Sully and Dom and the brief glimpses we had were well done. Alex Holiday is the bad guy. He burned Sully in the past and now that Sully and Hunter have found something he wants, he is willing to do anything to get it. He clearly doesn’t care about anyone but himself and what he wants. I was glad that Sully didn’t fall for his tricks and stood up to him. Eventually he got what was coming to him and I wasn’t sorry about how things ended up for him.
Going back to the spheres…things come to a head and we finally find out where the spheres came from and why. I found it interesting although slightly rushed at the end and what happened with Hunter was a bit odd but overall what I liked most about this story was that it is different. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action, an interesting premise, and a solid male point of view. If you are looking for a YA in the science fiction genre that gives you a story that is different than other books out there, consider checking this one out.
Thank you to the Publisher for the review copy!