A review by probablyjenna
Midnight on Beacon Street by Emily Ruth Verona

3.0

The gorgeous horror movie inspired cover of Midnight on Beacon Street might be part of its issue - while references to classic horror movies abound throughout the book, this hardly fits into the genre of thriller or horror. 

This is a short, slow book where not much happens besides deep character development. There is a major lack of suspense - I’m not sure there is any at all, to be honest, despite having the perfect setup for some serious creepiness.

The book also has a nonlinear timeline, which is a trope I usually enjoy in thrillers because it helps add nuance to aspects of the story and typically builds suspense. These time jumps, though, more so fractured any possible tension in the story and instead felt really random. You could probably take out all of the flashbacks to the main character’s childhood & not miss anything. More than anything, this style made the story feel disjointed and kept me from experiencing any sort of suspense.

Lastly, the big reveal at the end just did not work for me. It made such little sense, and there was no real effort to flesh out the motives. It felt way too random for me (WHY would this character do this?), while at the same time being extremely predictable.

Those are my gripes, but there are certainly positives as well. I enjoyed Amy as a main character; she fit the bill for an 80s horror movie protagonist. I liked the attempt at bringing mental illness and trauma into the storyline; I think it was a bit underdeveloped, but this is also a debut so I can allow some grace. And the author is legitimately good at the craft of writing! It’s hard to avoid cheesiness when doing an homage to classic horror, but she had all the right elements…they just didn’t mix together quote right.

Overall, I didn’t love this one but I am intrigued by the author and will likely read whatever she writes next.