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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
3.5
Although I would like to give this less because I feel like he just watched "Cafe de Flore" and wrote a book similar to that.
Although I would like to give this less because I feel like he just watched "Cafe de Flore" and wrote a book similar to that.
I had not heard much about MIDWINTERBLOOD before I picked it up one day on a whim. I had heard good things from a few of my favorite bloggers, and I thought, “Why not?” It’s a story combining the past, the present, and the future, intricately linked in mysterious ways by an island with a very mysterious history. My first reaction was to think of CLOUD ATLAS, but the more I read this story, the more I found myself racing through the pages, I began to realize it was something else entirely.
REINCARNATION THROUGH SEVEN CYCLES
MIDWINTERBLOOD is not a story like any that is told in young adult fiction often. In fact, in a sense, it isn’t truly just young adult fiction – it is young adult, it is middle grades, it is adult. It has a crossover appeal that will draw in older teens and adults instantly with its variety of characters ranging from archaeologists to journalists to children. On top of this, MIDWINTERBLOOD is a story that begins with the end. And it ends with the end. But the way that Sedgwick intricately entwines the threads of plot was something that immediately called to me.
The story is complex, revolving around characters known mostly through the years as Eric and Merle – a changing cast of ages, times, and once gender (sort of) that all comes back to the fact that Erik and Merle are the spirits of two people wrapped in an ancient love, tied to Blessed Island.
CREEPY, CHILLING
It might not be a traditional horror movie of axe-wielding psychopaths, but at its core, MIDWINTERBLOOD is a story of, well, blood. It’s very bloody, based on the back of an event many centuries ago that resulted in bloodshed. In fact, the seven stories inside its pages revolve around death and include monsters, myths, witches, ghosts, and bombs. Creepy kids are also another major player here.
Once I got about 50 pages into MIDWINTERBLOOD, I was hooked and read the rest of the book – it’s rather short, just so you know – in one sitting. I flipped the pages compulsively until I reached the ending and went, “Wow.” It’s a circuitous book that makes sense only if you read the entire book from beginning to end, taking note of every instance of their lives, especially noting the very last vignette and the happenings of the beginning (well, it is the beginning – the beginning is the end is the beginning is the end is a Smashing Pumpkins song with some more endings).
But there are issues. One, I was never sure how this was truly a young adult novel. Most of the characters we find are adults, with a few exceptions. Even our main characters in various stories are adults. The narration style was another hang up for me. The way the story was told was somewhat odd and different, and not something I ever truly meshed it. It was always noticeable, especially in the one vignette that was told in first person (maybe it was noticeable because it was the only time the present-tense style ever seemed to fit). But other than this, the story was amazing and almost perfect.
VERDICT: An unexpected book, but not without a few issues, MIDWINTERBLOOD is a chilling but enthralling story that pulls you in with ghosts, vampires, and murder, and refuses to let you go until you realize that every word makes sense in the great scheme of things. Definitely check this one out.
REINCARNATION THROUGH SEVEN CYCLES
MIDWINTERBLOOD is not a story like any that is told in young adult fiction often. In fact, in a sense, it isn’t truly just young adult fiction – it is young adult, it is middle grades, it is adult. It has a crossover appeal that will draw in older teens and adults instantly with its variety of characters ranging from archaeologists to journalists to children. On top of this, MIDWINTERBLOOD is a story that begins with the end. And it ends with the end. But the way that Sedgwick intricately entwines the threads of plot was something that immediately called to me.
The story is complex, revolving around characters known mostly through the years as Eric and Merle – a changing cast of ages, times, and once gender (sort of) that all comes back to the fact that Erik and Merle are the spirits of two people wrapped in an ancient love, tied to Blessed Island.
CREEPY, CHILLING
It might not be a traditional horror movie of axe-wielding psychopaths, but at its core, MIDWINTERBLOOD is a story of, well, blood. It’s very bloody, based on the back of an event many centuries ago that resulted in bloodshed. In fact, the seven stories inside its pages revolve around death and include monsters, myths, witches, ghosts, and bombs. Creepy kids are also another major player here.
Once I got about 50 pages into MIDWINTERBLOOD, I was hooked and read the rest of the book – it’s rather short, just so you know – in one sitting. I flipped the pages compulsively until I reached the ending and went, “Wow.” It’s a circuitous book that makes sense only if you read the entire book from beginning to end, taking note of every instance of their lives, especially noting the very last vignette and the happenings of the beginning (well, it is the beginning – the beginning is the end is the beginning is the end is a Smashing Pumpkins song with some more endings).
But there are issues. One, I was never sure how this was truly a young adult novel. Most of the characters we find are adults, with a few exceptions. Even our main characters in various stories are adults. The narration style was another hang up for me. The way the story was told was somewhat odd and different, and not something I ever truly meshed it. It was always noticeable, especially in the one vignette that was told in first person (maybe it was noticeable because it was the only time the present-tense style ever seemed to fit). But other than this, the story was amazing and almost perfect.
VERDICT: An unexpected book, but not without a few issues, MIDWINTERBLOOD is a chilling but enthralling story that pulls you in with ghosts, vampires, and murder, and refuses to let you go until you realize that every word makes sense in the great scheme of things. Definitely check this one out.
Creepy and rather unsettling series of seven interlinked stories.
3.5 Sterne
Das Konzept hat mich stark an Mitchells The Bone Clocks erinnert, hier allerdings in einer wesentlich zugänglicheren und seitenärmeren Variante. Während mir diese Herangehensweise eigentlich besser gefallen hat, fehlt Midwinterblood dafür eine gewisse Komplexität. Der Hintergrund und Hauptkonflikt, der alle sieben Teile zusammenhält, wird am Ende fein säuberlich erklärt und ist dazu recht einfach gestrickt. Dennoch habe ich das Lesen genossen. Die einzelnen Episoden sind nicht allzu lang, sie verströmen eine gemütliche Atmosphäre der Abgeschiedenheit und es macht Spaß, die wiederkehrenden Elemente, wie den Hasen oder die Orchideen, in den einzelnen Geschichten zu entdecken, ihre Veränderungen nachzuverfolgen und langsam ihre Verbindung zum großen Ganzen zu erkennen.
Das Konzept hat mich stark an Mitchells The Bone Clocks erinnert, hier allerdings in einer wesentlich zugänglicheren und seitenärmeren Variante. Während mir diese Herangehensweise eigentlich besser gefallen hat, fehlt Midwinterblood dafür eine gewisse Komplexität. Der Hintergrund und Hauptkonflikt, der alle sieben Teile zusammenhält, wird am Ende fein säuberlich erklärt und ist dazu recht einfach gestrickt. Dennoch habe ich das Lesen genossen. Die einzelnen Episoden sind nicht allzu lang, sie verströmen eine gemütliche Atmosphäre der Abgeschiedenheit und es macht Spaß, die wiederkehrenden Elemente, wie den Hasen oder die Orchideen, in den einzelnen Geschichten zu entdecken, ihre Veränderungen nachzuverfolgen und langsam ihre Verbindung zum großen Ganzen zu erkennen.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
First, I have no idea why this book is listed as YA. There is not one YA thing about it. It is also not what I would describe as horror though some intense tension is included and there are some fantastical elements, I would not include this in genres like horror or fantasy. It’s like a literary folklore story with magical elements.
Okay, now, I loved this book. But I feel like describing why is really difficult. It is quite mysterious and starts sort of at the end or future and goes back in time. I enjoyed that structure a lot and I feel like the folklore vibe really works with that backward timeline. I was invested instantly in the two main characters even as I yelled at them, at times. I listened to most of this and enjoyed the audio though there are sections where the narrator spoke too quietly for me to understand and I’d have to go to the physical book to catch up.
If you liked What Moves the Dead and Our Wives Under the Sea, you will like this. Don’t read the description or synopsis because it doesn’t really work for the story. It’s quite short but I was only listening while driving.
Okay, now, I loved this book. But I feel like describing why is really difficult. It is quite mysterious and starts sort of at the end or future and goes back in time. I enjoyed that structure a lot and I feel like the folklore vibe really works with that backward timeline. I was invested instantly in the two main characters even as I yelled at them, at times. I listened to most of this and enjoyed the audio though there are sections where the narrator spoke too quietly for me to understand and I’d have to go to the physical book to catch up.
If you liked What Moves the Dead and Our Wives Under the Sea, you will like this. Don’t read the description or synopsis because it doesn’t really work for the story. It’s quite short but I was only listening while driving.
This is a book I had to warm up to. The first couple of story lines were ok but as you read and start seeing the connections it gets better until the end when it all comes together. good book but torn between 3 and 4 stars.