Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*This review is based off of an ARC copy

Synopsis:

Midnight is gentle and genuine, which is why Poppy has been able to keep him under her thumb for so long; but when Midnight and his dad move into a new neighborhood, Midnight makes the choice to leave whatever he and Poppy had, behind. 

Forgetting Poppy turns out to be not as hard as Midnight thinks, especially when his neighbor is Wink, one of the Bell kids. She’s odd, mysterious and has wild red hair and freckles. Completely different from Poppy, who’s blonde, manipulative, and the bully in this story. 

But just because Poppy is the bully, does that make her the villain? 

The Author

Tucholke’s writing is splendid. The details and visual descriptions make her stories enthralling. If you haven’t read her books Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea or Between the Spark and the Burn, you definitely need to check them out. There’s something about her concepts and writing style that just put an air of mystery around the reader every time you’re reading one of her books. She reminds me a lot of Holly Black or Hannah Moskowitz. If you enjoyed this book or just enjoy Tucholke’s writing overall, you should check those authors out. 

Likes

The Concept alone is very luring. Once I read what it was about, it was like hook, line, sinker. From what I’ve read in her previous books, Tucholke writes a lot about deception and betrayal. People not being what they appear to be. There are lots of plot twists and mysteries, which I love. 

The Content kept me engaged and hooked. I was literally on the edge of my seat majority of the time. Despite the questions I had, I can’t say that I was ever lost or say “I have no idea what’s going on.” I knew what was going on the entire time. The surprises never effected my enjoyment of the book. I loved the twists and turn. 

The Characters were true to themselves most of the time. I loved the internal dialogue for all of them, but I especially took a liking to Midnight’s. Maybe it's just because I naturally shift towards male protagonists more than females. I also appreciate the fact that everyone had a break in their character within the storyline. I even enjoyed the presence of the background characters. They all played a vital part for all the main characters. 

Dislikes

My only valid complaint is that every one’s POV’s were sometimes a little too similar to one another. For example, they all would repeat words or phrases three times. I think this is mostly Tucholke’s personal writing style rather than a fictional character’s. 

I think this book also could have stood to be a little longer. I would’ve enjoyed a couple loose ends being tied up. Like what happens to Wink and what happens with Leaf and Poppy.