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maxxesbooktopia 's review for:
Midnight's Twins
by Holly Race
In this novel, we are introduced to the lead character christened Fern King, her twin brother – Ollie King, their common friend – Ramesh and a few other friends. Ramesh and a few other friends that I could not for the life of me remember are forgettable characters. I did not, in any way, find myself getting attached to them and I wish the author would craft multiple layers upon these characters because I did not even care when one is hurt or the other is dead. Their characterizations do not feel authentic to me, it felt like they were just there to propel the plot forward.
However, Fern and Ollie do indeed feel like people you would meet in real life. Ollie is such an asshole and every time he appears in a scene, I will get extremely annoyed because he bullies his sister with his crowd of “friends” which leads to her getting tied to a tree and the fire searing her skin. Well, why did they do that? Because she has red eyes and they think she is a witch. What the actual fuck. I did not like that the author tries to redeem Ollie as a character because how can you redeem someone who almost killed his own sister albeit, accidentally letting the fire go?
With all that egregious stuff done to her, Fern tries to distance herself from humans in general because she does not want anyone to use her or bully her so she keeps to herself most of the time. She becomes spiteful of her brother, jealous of the discrepancies between the love her father gives her brother and her (their mother is dead), grows extremely dubious to anyone who treats her well and she also becomes duplicitous in every way possible to survive. I found myself rooting for Fern with my whole being because she is a believable character and she exudes such confidence when she is proficient at something and ugh, I just loved her as a character in this novel.
If you know, portal fantasy has been gone for quite some time and now, it is making a comeback with a few well-known novels like Burn By Patrick Ness and I have not had any fluke with portal fantasy ever since I finished the Daughter of Smoke and Bones trilogy 3 years back and this is no exception. Although the world is fascinating, it is not well-built. It lacks flavor and the details that the author has provided are not intricate enough for me to picture it in my mind. I am still confused by the power that Fern wields called –inspyre – and how did that power make an army of people that cannot feel fear? In addition, the world – Annwn – does not make sense on several occasions in the novel. For example, why didn’t the old buildings change in shape in Annwn when the landscape is already different in Ithr (our world), are they not meant to coexist? Also, how did the villain build his own “fortress” using his inspyre when the landscape in Annwn still lingers in the past?
Moreover, I kind of wish the author would have lingered a little longer on the school-setting section of the novel and let the readers learn more of the world through the eyes of the protagonist because it seems a little too soon for them to go out into the world to fight all those nightmares.
However, this novel is well-paced. It does not drag the story or take the story through a tantivy speed. With that, it is engaging and it makes you flip through the pages in expeditiously and before you know it, you have already reached the final pages of the novel.
The writing style for this novel does not have anything special but it is definitely readable and it has more “showing than telling” which I absolutely enjoyed.
In conclusion, I am proffering this novel with a rating of 45% (E). I wish some things are done differently in this novel and if the things I described in my review are right up to your alley, you should give it a try. If it is not, I would not recommend it.
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However, Fern and Ollie do indeed feel like people you would meet in real life. Ollie is such an asshole and every time he appears in a scene, I will get extremely annoyed because he bullies his sister with his crowd of “friends” which leads to her getting tied to a tree and the fire searing her skin. Well, why did they do that? Because she has red eyes and they think she is a witch. What the actual fuck. I did not like that the author tries to redeem Ollie as a character because how can you redeem someone who almost killed his own sister albeit, accidentally letting the fire go?
With all that egregious stuff done to her, Fern tries to distance herself from humans in general because she does not want anyone to use her or bully her so she keeps to herself most of the time. She becomes spiteful of her brother, jealous of the discrepancies between the love her father gives her brother and her (their mother is dead), grows extremely dubious to anyone who treats her well and she also becomes duplicitous in every way possible to survive. I found myself rooting for Fern with my whole being because she is a believable character and she exudes such confidence when she is proficient at something and ugh, I just loved her as a character in this novel.
If you know, portal fantasy has been gone for quite some time and now, it is making a comeback with a few well-known novels like Burn By Patrick Ness and I have not had any fluke with portal fantasy ever since I finished the Daughter of Smoke and Bones trilogy 3 years back and this is no exception. Although the world is fascinating, it is not well-built. It lacks flavor and the details that the author has provided are not intricate enough for me to picture it in my mind. I am still confused by the power that Fern wields called –inspyre – and how did that power make an army of people that cannot feel fear? In addition, the world – Annwn – does not make sense on several occasions in the novel. For example, why didn’t the old buildings change in shape in Annwn when the landscape is already different in Ithr (our world), are they not meant to coexist? Also, how did the villain build his own “fortress” using his inspyre when the landscape in Annwn still lingers in the past?
Moreover, I kind of wish the author would have lingered a little longer on the school-setting section of the novel and let the readers learn more of the world through the eyes of the protagonist because it seems a little too soon for them to go out into the world to fight all those nightmares.
However, this novel is well-paced. It does not drag the story or take the story through a tantivy speed. With that, it is engaging and it makes you flip through the pages in expeditiously and before you know it, you have already reached the final pages of the novel.
The writing style for this novel does not have anything special but it is definitely readable and it has more “showing than telling” which I absolutely enjoyed.
In conclusion, I am proffering this novel with a rating of 45% (E). I wish some things are done differently in this novel and if the things I described in my review are right up to your alley, you should give it a try. If it is not, I would not recommend it.
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