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A review by reader_fictions
The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz
2.0
2.5 stars
Ah, Swoon Reads, here we are, doing this dance once again. You have a beautiful cover and promising premise and I know better, but oh I just cannot resist your allure. I cannot quit you, Swoon Reads, but sometimes I want to. The Midnight Dance is Dollhouse meets the Chemical Garden trilogy, and it’s okay but it’s not great.
Early on, I actually found myself oddly captivated by The Midnight Dance. I found the writing pleasant and easy to consume, and something about it made me want to keep reading, despite not being especially into the characters or story. So that’s good, because it means I might try more Katz in the future.
First warning, don’t come for the ballet, because there’s actually not much ballet in here. And the MC hates ballet, so it’s really not about that. It’s basically like if the dolls from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse were only tasked to be ballerinas. Which is kind of cool, except I have so many questions. Why does this dude have so much money to spend on this? Because this is a costly operation and putting on the occasional ballet just cannot bring in that much dough. His evil plan is a harem of ballerinas, which is creepy af, but we’re not exactly talking world domination here and also why ballerinas? I know why he’s obsessed with tech but I do not get the ballet connection at all.
Romance-wise, this is so completely Chemical Garden. Penny (it’s not weird for me to have to look her name up bc my memory but I actually don’t even recognize her name two weeks later, so yeah not the most memorable book tbh) is realizing that something’s weird, because she’s starting to have memories that don’t fit her life. She’s basically been trained to be into stockholm syndrome creep dude, but she’s got ~feelings~ for the cute house boy, Cricket. There is no chemistry any which way, and I really didn’t care about this.
The Midnight Dance really just needed more: more characterization, more pizzazz, more dancing, and way more world building. I kind of enjoyed reading it, but I forgot it again almost immediately after. By no means the worst Swoon Reads has offered, but not particularly satisfying.
Ah, Swoon Reads, here we are, doing this dance once again. You have a beautiful cover and promising premise and I know better, but oh I just cannot resist your allure. I cannot quit you, Swoon Reads, but sometimes I want to. The Midnight Dance is Dollhouse meets the Chemical Garden trilogy, and it’s okay but it’s not great.
Early on, I actually found myself oddly captivated by The Midnight Dance. I found the writing pleasant and easy to consume, and something about it made me want to keep reading, despite not being especially into the characters or story. So that’s good, because it means I might try more Katz in the future.
First warning, don’t come for the ballet, because there’s actually not much ballet in here. And the MC hates ballet, so it’s really not about that. It’s basically like if the dolls from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse were only tasked to be ballerinas. Which is kind of cool, except I have so many questions. Why does this dude have so much money to spend on this? Because this is a costly operation and putting on the occasional ballet just cannot bring in that much dough. His evil plan is a harem of ballerinas, which is creepy af, but we’re not exactly talking world domination here and also why ballerinas? I know why he’s obsessed with tech but I do not get the ballet connection at all.
Romance-wise, this is so completely Chemical Garden. Penny (it’s not weird for me to have to look her name up bc my memory but I actually don’t even recognize her name two weeks later, so yeah not the most memorable book tbh) is realizing that something’s weird, because she’s starting to have memories that don’t fit her life. She’s basically been trained to be into stockholm syndrome creep dude, but she’s got ~feelings~ for the cute house boy, Cricket. There is no chemistry any which way, and I really didn’t care about this.
The Midnight Dance really just needed more: more characterization, more pizzazz, more dancing, and way more world building. I kind of enjoyed reading it, but I forgot it again almost immediately after. By no means the worst Swoon Reads has offered, but not particularly satisfying.