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caszriel 's review for:
Midnights With You
by Clare Osongco
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
Initial thoughts: I'm gonna need some time to collect my thoughts more coherently but, oh my god, please read this book. When I first read the synopsis I was a little taken aback, because it was a book that sounded so much like something I'd enjoy. And enjoy it I did. I love driving, I love music, and I think driving is something that is so intimately connected with music (who drives without soundtrack, come on) and this book captures that so well. I started making a playlist while reading and I might flesh it out later? There was so much to love in this book, I will be singing its praises everywhere I go and have already recommended it to a bunch of friends.
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I first stumbled upon Midnights With You when one of my friends posted about it on release day. I read the synopsis and thought, 'Wow, this book sounds like it was made for me'. I had high hopes from the get go, and I was not let down. This review has been a long time coming because I've struggled to put into words how special this book is, but here's my best attempt.
Ann Liang said "Midnights With You is everything I've ever wanted in a book" and I couldn't agree more. This book is everything I love about YA contemporary. Each writer's background and experiences that they draw on are uniquely their own, yet, in story form there's always something a reader can relate to. I can only imagine how incredible the reading experience would have been if I were a mixed-race Filipina raised by a single mother.
Deedee and Jay connect because of their similarities, but what's really beautiful about this book is how it showcases different perspectives through various characters. As we all know, there isn't one defining experience for any group or event in life, only a particular individual's experience. A quote from the book that beautifully captures this: "I'm sure the things that haunt us wouldn't be the same. But I kind of wonder if they'd rhyme."
So many of my favorite things feature in this book, from driving to music to writing letters. The small town setting, how Deedee sees it as a prison while Jay views it as an escape. It's messy, it's complicated, it's real. As a bonus, the dialogue is so witty and made me laugh out loud.
If you love stories about late nights, driving, music, with a group of messy teenagers at the center of it all, this is the book for you. I could not recommend Midnights With You more; I'm attaching a collection of my favorite quotes, and a playlist because this book deserves it.
Quotes collection:
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I first stumbled upon Midnights With You when one of my friends posted about it on release day. I read the synopsis and thought, 'Wow, this book sounds like it was made for me'. I had high hopes from the get go, and I was not let down. This review has been a long time coming because I've struggled to put into words how special this book is, but here's my best attempt.
Ann Liang said "Midnights With You is everything I've ever wanted in a book" and I couldn't agree more. This book is everything I love about YA contemporary. Each writer's background and experiences that they draw on are uniquely their own, yet, in story form there's always something a reader can relate to. I can only imagine how incredible the reading experience would have been if I were a mixed-race Filipina raised by a single mother.
Deedee and Jay connect because of their similarities, but what's really beautiful about this book is how it showcases different perspectives through various characters. As we all know, there isn't one defining experience for any group or event in life, only a particular individual's experience. A quote from the book that beautifully captures this: "I'm sure the things that haunt us wouldn't be the same. But I kind of wonder if they'd rhyme."
So many of my favorite things feature in this book, from driving to music to writing letters. The small town setting, how Deedee sees it as a prison while Jay views it as an escape. It's messy, it's complicated, it's real. As a bonus, the dialogue is so witty and made me laugh out loud.
If you love stories about late nights, driving, music, with a group of messy teenagers at the center of it all, this is the book for you. I could not recommend Midnights With You more; I'm attaching a collection of my favorite quotes, and a playlist because this book deserves it.
Quotes collection:
"I'm sure the things that haunt us wouldn't be the same. But I kind of wonder if they'd rhyme."
"It's funny how you have your own version of this town." I sip from my coffee, the buzzing of the light post low in my ears. "How many more secret spots do you have out here?"
"But I liked who I was here, after a while," he says. "It was like I could be someone else, a few months out of the year. Get away from myself."
"Do you ever feel like you just want too much?" Jay says out of the blue.
"What do you mean?"
"I guess... people are counting on me, and I disappoint them..." He trails off, and the silence expands. Off in the distance, an owl hoots. "And I want too many things I can't have."
"There are so many things I want to say right then, caught between how much this means to me and how much more I want. But I swallow all of them, get up, and walk back to the car without replying."
"No more making myself miserable on purpose, thinking about things I can't have."
"You're just going and going all the time, like, This is fine, this is fine, this is fine. Then when you see how things could be different, for a second—that's when you fall apart."
"But I can't relax. I miss this moment before it's even over. I'm so scared of it ending, already. Of this going away."
"I'm going to ruin his life, this nice boy who's hurting and deserves better."
"I think we're both kind of in the thick of it," I say, trying to make my voice as gentle as possible. "And it can be dangerous to think another person is a way out. And I could see myself doing that, with you. I think I need to spend some time alone."
"The miles we've traveled together and apart, and all the people we've been since the last time we touched. How much I want to meet the people he's going to be."