INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher : Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication date : October 2023
Format: Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length : 391 pages
Genre: Psychological Literatury Fiction
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK
I got this book from the Half-Price Bookstore. The price was very low, and I was intrigued by the premise. I do enjoy a book that has Louisiana as the setting. I also recognized the author as the writer for The Future Saints, which is on my TBR. I was also happy to find this book available on Libby as an audiobook. So I went back and forth between the book and the audiobook.
MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “MIDNIGHT IS THE DARKEST HOUR”
I got this book from the Half-Price Bookstore. The price was very low, and I was intrigued by the premise. I do enjoy a book that has Louisiana as the setting. I also recognized the author as the writer for The Future Saints, which is on my TBR. I was also happy to find this book available on Libby as an audiobook. So I went back and forth between the book and the audiobook.
I did enjoy this book—both the book and the audio version. I usually have issues with audiobooks, but it was smooth sailing with this narrator. The pace, pronunciation, and rhythm of the book were perfect.
The story is enchanting in the best possible way. It has lots of elements that make a thriller/psychological/romance book special. It has religious fanaticism, occult religions, a swamp with bodies, drug dealings, a powerful reverend, and a small town. The two main characters, Ruth and Everett, are solid characters, very different, but united by an incredible love and loyalty to their friendship first, and their love later.
PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:
For fans of Verity and A Flicker in the Dark, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all…even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners’ bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar—and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town’s secret underbelly in search of true evil.
MY RATING: 4.0
QUOTES FROM THE BOOK
“That’s the upside of being the pastor’s daughter and the Devil’s son, two outcasts who became friends the way we did. From the start, nothing has been off-limits.”
“what I’ve observed is that power is a parasite. It wriggles inside you and takes over so all you can think about is how to get more of it and cut down anyone in your way.”
“Love so violent it was a threat, a maelstrom—maybe that could do it. Maybe after it burned through me and I was transfigured, the world would look at me and be afraid. Wouldn’t that be something? The prayer of every teenage girl.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Winstead is an academic turned bestselling novelist with a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature. She lives in Houston with her husband, three cats, and beloved wine fridge.
Bibliography:
- Hot Girl Murder Club
- The Last Housewife
- The Future Saints
- This Book will Bury me
- In my Dreams I hold a Knife
- Midnight is the Darkest Hour
- The Boyfriend Candidate
- Fool me Once
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