Scan barcode
A review by hollowspine
The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz
2.0
The Midnight Dance is a creepy sci-fi/historical fiction romantic thriller. For fans of gothic stories such as A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.
Penny has spent most of her life at a prestigious dance school under the care of The Master. Sometimes she wonders what life outside the grand estate where she and her 10 fellow students live, but that just leads to headaches. Instead she should focus on the thing she loves, dance! Right?
Wrong. The more Penny thinks about it, the more she feels something is wrong. She doesn't understand her love of dancing, she sometimes can't even remember how she takes her coffee or her favorite color or... her own mother. Sometimes the other girls forget things too. And the headaches always seem to come when she questions. Is it coincidence, or something more disturbing?
Review: The premise is good, I loved the idea of this gothic estate where young women are kept like dancers in a music box, spinning beautifully to music, but ultimately trapped. However, the plot veers around without allowing readers to breath, let alone get to know the characters or the world.
The creepiness of the story was ruined by the complete ineptitude of Penny, who was unable to do a single thing without needing to be rescued. The details of the world, the backdrop of ballet, did not add to the book, but seemed just stage dressing.
For the first few chapters of the book I was fascinated. I knew some kind of mind control was going on and I wanted to find out why - what's the point and see what Penny would be able to do about it. But, the reason behind the mind control...was just because? And it seemed that throughout the narrative what Penny could do about it was basically run around like a chicken with it's head cut off. First she runs away from the estate, then she runs back to the estate, then away, then back. She hides from the Master, he finds her. She tries to lie and seduce the Master, he sees through her. She tries to sneak into the estate in disguise, she immediately rips her dress and gives up. She tries again to trick the Master. He basically rolls his eyes.
For the first part of the narrative we also get a glimpse into the Master's past. He grew up being teased and abused by his step mother and step sister because he had an impaired leg. His best friend is a stable boy/scientist who is able to basically give him a metal leg to replace it that works perfectly. They also start experimenting mind control (for unknown reasons). Eventually this falls off as more time is focused on Penny's budding romance with the dashing kitchen boy.
There was so much back and forth, it really made the book disjointed and ruined the flow of the narrative. I wish that Penny would have stayed in place more, instead of dashing from one source of help to another. I just wish she'd been a more successful person, instead she just seemed to blunder around and somehow everything worked out okay in the end and she was named a hero.
For better paranormal historical fiction, similar in tone and style to this, try The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters. It also features a man trying to control a young girls mind and make choices for her, has elements of romance and a great ending. It also is much more successful in portraying the time period it is set in, 1900's Oregon.
For creepier historical fiction, try The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is beautifully written, extremely creepy, but with a dash of romance as well. The characters are also realistic and the settings are amazing!
Penny has spent most of her life at a prestigious dance school under the care of The Master. Sometimes she wonders what life outside the grand estate where she and her 10 fellow students live, but that just leads to headaches. Instead she should focus on the thing she loves, dance! Right?
Wrong. The more Penny thinks about it, the more she feels something is wrong. She doesn't understand her love of dancing, she sometimes can't even remember how she takes her coffee or her favorite color or... her own mother. Sometimes the other girls forget things too. And the headaches always seem to come when she questions. Is it coincidence, or something more disturbing?
Review: The premise is good, I loved the idea of this gothic estate where young women are kept like dancers in a music box, spinning beautifully to music, but ultimately trapped. However, the plot veers around without allowing readers to breath, let alone get to know the characters or the world.
The creepiness of the story was ruined by the complete ineptitude of Penny, who was unable to do a single thing without needing to be rescued. The details of the world, the backdrop of ballet, did not add to the book, but seemed just stage dressing.
For the first few chapters of the book I was fascinated. I knew some kind of mind control was going on and I wanted to find out why - what's the point and see what Penny would be able to do about it. But, the reason behind the mind control...was just because? And it seemed that throughout the narrative what Penny could do about it was basically run around like a chicken with it's head cut off. First she runs away from the estate, then she runs back to the estate, then away, then back. She hides from the Master, he finds her. She tries to lie and seduce the Master, he sees through her. She tries to sneak into the estate in disguise, she immediately rips her dress and gives up. She tries again to trick the Master. He basically rolls his eyes.
For the first part of the narrative we also get a glimpse into the Master's past. He grew up being teased and abused by his step mother and step sister because he had an impaired leg. His best friend is a stable boy/scientist who is able to basically give him a metal leg to replace it that works perfectly. They also start experimenting mind control (for unknown reasons). Eventually this falls off as more time is focused on Penny's budding romance with the dashing kitchen boy.
There was so much back and forth, it really made the book disjointed and ruined the flow of the narrative. I wish that Penny would have stayed in place more, instead of dashing from one source of help to another. I just wish she'd been a more successful person, instead she just seemed to blunder around and somehow everything worked out okay in the end and she was named a hero.
For better paranormal historical fiction, similar in tone and style to this, try The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters. It also features a man trying to control a young girls mind and make choices for her, has elements of romance and a great ending. It also is much more successful in portraying the time period it is set in, 1900's Oregon.
For creepier historical fiction, try The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is beautifully written, extremely creepy, but with a dash of romance as well. The characters are also realistic and the settings are amazing!