Yes I'm changing fonts! I find this one more comfortable to read, don't you?
I just finished reading The Midnight Dance, by Nikki Katz!
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| This cover is everything! |
"When the music stops, the dance begins.
Seventeen-year-old Penny is a lead dancer at the Grande Teatro, a finishing school where she and eleven other young women are training to become the finest ballerinas in Italy. Tucked deep into the woods, the school is overseen by the mysterious and handsome young Master who keeps the girls ensconced in the estate – and in the only life Penny has never known.
But when flashes of memories, memories of a life very different from the one she thinks she’s been leading, start to appear, Penny begins to question the Grand Teatro and the motivations of the Master. With a kind and attractive kitchen boy, Cricket, at her side, Penny vows to escape the confines of her school and the strict rules that dictate every step she takes. But at every turn, the Master finds a way to stop her, and Penny must find a way to escape the school and uncover the secrets of her past before it’s too late."
I honestly had no idea what to expect when I started this book - this was purely a cover-buy for me, on every level! I was instantly intrigued when the premise promised memories, the 1800s, and Italy. Other than that, I didn't know anything about this book!
Let's start off with the positive, shall we?
It certainly wasn't bad. In fact, I really loved the idea that Katz put forward in this book! The Midnight Dance was an awesome story of mind control, mixed in with a bit of steampunk and a unique boarding school-like idea. Mind-control books are really not that common, and I really loved how Italy in the 1800s was portrayed!
I also really liked the character relations. The main character, Penny, is in a facility with her sorelle (sisters), and they all get along so well! It was lovely to read about! Cricket is also absolutely adorable in every way! The Master is the right amount of creepy and charming, giving this really odd character you loved to hate.
There was a lot going on, and I was there for it!
However, the book itself felt a bit too condensed. You guys know by now that I'm a sucker for quick standalones. (I say as I'm re-reading Throne of Glass, fully knowing that Kingdom of Ash is almost 1000 pages long... help me)
My problem with this book is that everything deserved more pages - longer paragraphs, shorter chapters, and a more fleshed-out world development. The ideas were incredible! But with so many events happening, most of which are a new concept, it's difficult to make it all make sense in 300 pages.
I'm not the best reader (is there even such thing?). I openly admit to skipping words and/or sentences when descriptions get too long - my eyes and mind wander a lot. Even so, I can usually grasp almost every detail in a story: maybe not a character's hairstyle or the fact that their sword was peeking over their left shoulder, but I can still hold onto the plot and characters enough to know things that, according to Buzzfeed, 'only a real fan would know'.
The Midnight Dance could have easily been a book I would have latched on to if not every sentence was so packed-full of details that missing a word made the rest of the paragraph confusing. For instance - the end of the book spans over about 30 pages, in which our main character, Penny, does an incredible amount of traveling, dancing, convincing, discovering, traveling back, trapping, healing, and reuniting. Out of nowhere, Cricket appears and giant revelations are given about the antagonist.
In 30 pages.
This structure made the book a little tiring to read, so I had to take it bit by bit.
But seriously, Nikki, if you're reading this, I hope you don't take it badly! Stories like yours, that are so creative, deserve so many more pages! That's only a compliment :)
For me, this book gets 3/5 feathers! Keep going with the writing, Nikki, but give your ideas more words!
Have you read The Midnight Dance? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Stay bookish!
Wait wait this book is only 300 pages?? Somehow I had it in my mind that it was more of a 450 pager. I agree with you without even reading it: that's so so difficult to establish a whole world and atmosphere and multiple characters and an engaging plot in that amount of time (there's a reason that contemporaries are usually the shorter books and fantasies and other books that need world-building are longer). I'm still hoping to read this sometime (the cover is absolutely gorgeous and I can't pass that up) but I think I'll try and read it over the course of several days instead of an all-in-one go that I normally do. Lovely review, Caroline!
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
Hi Laura!
DeleteI thought so too, before I got it! You're totally right, it really read like a contemporary despite the fantasy quality to it! Please do take your time as you're planning, it's packed with details!