A review by minimicropup
Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles

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

5.0

What did I just read? Couldn’t explain this if I tried. This won’t be for everyone but I loved it. 
 
Energy: Curious. Whimsical. Strange.
 
🐩 Tail Wags: Fantastical elements. Strangeness and symbolism. Flowery-ish flowing writing style. Slow burn, steady paced, speculative surrealism. The blend of cozy gothic slice-of-life with dark fairy tale. Intimate sensory world-building. Creeeeepy vibes. 
 
🤔 Random Thoughts: I read text along with audio. Audio alone wsa too easy to get miss a few lines that were important to the story without knowing. I try to get the audio for historical fiction because I suck at hfs. And fpr vibes. 
 
Scene: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Set in Bristol and Oxbury, England.
Perspective: A late twenties adult stuck living with extended family per societal rules. They have little hopes for romance and independence in their future because of the prejudice and racism surrounding them. When a suitor suddenly claims them, they begin to wonder if their life could change for the better. 
Timeline: Spring of 1840.
 
🤓 Reader Role: Intimately exposed to Orabella’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. 
🔥 Fuel: Orabella’s fate. Atmospheric tension and exploring this eerie world. What is up with the family Orabella has married into? Can she trust her husband? Is she safe? Who has ulterior motives and why?
📖 Cred: Speculative historical
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Ginger, smoke, and wool. Dust. Mildew. Honeyed tea. Cold silk. Tallow. Twisted branches. Cubes of meat. Snarling. Sweet wine. Birdsong. Barking laughter. Mushrooms. Moss. 
  • Poetic, lyrical, sometime flowery, fairy tale style
  • Intimate, sensory world building
  • Gothic historical fiction (mid-1800s)
  • Steamy forced marriage
  • Symbolic tales using imagery, allegory, paradoxes
  • Surreal manor in the woods
  • Distorted time fragmented reality
  • Alienated, likeable main character 
  • Ominous in-laws and fam
  • Folklore and fae magical realism horrors
  • Absurd, stream of consciousness, grotesque 
  • Books to start head-empty-no-thoughts go-with-the-flow
 
Content Heads-Up: Patriarchy, misogyny. Racism (otherness, exclusion, prejudice). Hallucination. Drugging. Alcohol. Sexual content (descriptive on page; consenting, first time, steamy, rough). Incest. Murder. Vomit. Blood. Physical attacks. Infertility. Confinement/locked in. Fire. Cannibalism (brief).
 
Rep: Mixed race (Black, White). British. Peach-white, finch-brown, cream, porcelain-white, bronze, sallow skin tones.
 
📚 Format: Library Digital + Everand Audio
 
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