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

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed it over all so I will be looking for more books by this author. For a short book, the main characters felt well-fleshed out and I was invested in what happened to them. Midnight on Beacon Street follows the classic horror setup of a babysitter, Amy, and two kids in her care, Mira & Ben, dealing with some unexpected visitors. All the chapters are time jumps, mostly non-chronological points throughout the night with a few flashback chapters of Amy's youth. From the start of the book you know something horrible has happened and the rest of the book you are taken on the journey of figuring out what exactly happened to Amy & the kids.

If you prefer a more linear story and a gory or typical horror story, this might be a book to skip. As another reviewer noted, this book is more of a love note to the horror genre than your typical horror book. I enjoyed that, I liked that it was more about the suspense of figuring out what happened. The only reasons I rated this book a 3 instead of a 4 or 5 are:  One, some of Ben's POV or time jump chapters feel repetitive. Two, the ending. I liked it but it could have been more fleshed out.