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A review by justinkhchen
Midnight on Beacon Street by Emily Ruth Verona
3.0
2.75 stars
A well-meaning effort fusing 90s nostalgia, horror films, and childhood trauma, with its home invasion premise and the gorgeously ominous cover art, I was expecting a fast and lean thriller in the vein of movies such as Panic Room, or even Home Alone. Turned out this is yet another incident where the word ‘thriller’ in its promotional material felt intentionally misused, aimed to draw in a specific audience, but eventually led to disappointment when the material didn’t match up—Midnight on Beacon Street is objectively decent with a focused goal, but it’s much more subdued and serious, more character study than an adrenaline-filled game of cat and mouse.
In contrast to the minimalist setup (1 house in the span of an evening), Midnight on Beacon Street is told non-linearly, jumping back-and-forth in time at irregular intervals. Even though this added complexity feels ‘thrillery’, in actuality it creates a very uneven pacing. Instead of using this technique to reveal critical information, the novel uses it to flesh out various character’s backstories. While the intent is a valid one (characterization is definitely this novel’s strength), these lengthy inserts completely fracture the tension of the book’s primary event. Without going into spoiler territory, I was pleasantly surprised around the 60% mark when a certain character showed up. Unfortunately that ended up being an under-utilized red herring, and the actual culprit was head scratching in both the who and the why—as if the author simply picked the least likely character and retrofitted this person as the villain.
The thesis of Midnight on Beacon Street is a strong one: how do children digest trauma, when they have not yet had a holistic grasp of the world, but the execution feels labored (especially when evaluated as a thriller). Perhaps it would’ve fared better going into this expecting a drama with nods to horror film tropes, rather than a full-on horror thriller.
**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**
A well-meaning effort fusing 90s nostalgia, horror films, and childhood trauma, with its home invasion premise and the gorgeously ominous cover art, I was expecting a fast and lean thriller in the vein of movies such as Panic Room, or even Home Alone. Turned out this is yet another incident where the word ‘thriller’ in its promotional material felt intentionally misused, aimed to draw in a specific audience, but eventually led to disappointment when the material didn’t match up—Midnight on Beacon Street is objectively decent with a focused goal, but it’s much more subdued and serious, more character study than an adrenaline-filled game of cat and mouse.
In contrast to the minimalist setup (1 house in the span of an evening), Midnight on Beacon Street is told non-linearly, jumping back-and-forth in time at irregular intervals. Even though this added complexity feels ‘thrillery’, in actuality it creates a very uneven pacing. Instead of using this technique to reveal critical information, the novel uses it to flesh out various character’s backstories. While the intent is a valid one (characterization is definitely this novel’s strength), these lengthy inserts completely fracture the tension of the book’s primary event. Without going into spoiler territory, I was pleasantly surprised around the 60% mark when a certain character showed up. Unfortunately that ended up being an under-utilized red herring, and the actual culprit was head scratching in both the who and the why—as if the author simply picked the least likely character and retrofitted this person as the villain.
The thesis of Midnight on Beacon Street is a strong one: how do children digest trauma, when they have not yet had a holistic grasp of the world, but the execution feels labored (especially when evaluated as a thriller). Perhaps it would’ve fared better going into this expecting a drama with nods to horror film tropes, rather than a full-on horror thriller.
**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**