I have come to expect a few things out of a book by Jeff Zentner. One that I will probably cry at some point. Two that I probably won't sleep or eat until I finish. Three, that I will continue to follow this man's career to the end of my days.

What is it about, you ask?

This story follows Josie and Delia, hosts of a public access monster movie show. Both are uniquely different but fit together like PB and j. Delia comes from a broken home (her father abandoned her and her mother) whereas Josie comes from one a tad more put together. Delia's story takes a turn into heartbreak city because she yearns to find him. She even hires a private detective despite her mother's financial burdens. Josie struggles with leaving Delia and her sense of responsibility for her friend. Josie also wants to be on television and Delia wants to track down her dad and have closure. Their rival dilemmas may or may not split them apart.

The core of this story centers around their show which, for the first time, was something incredibly new in a YA novel for me. I've read your podcast novels, your theater novels, your Youtube channel novels, but this one was a shiny territory and entertaining AF. More so to the scene-stealing Lawson, an MMA fighter and reader. What a combination. Drools in book nerd.

The split POV's with both girls were fantastic. I think I loved Delia's more since Josie's focused a tab too much on her romance with Lawson for my tastes. Her character did not have emotions as Delia's did. At least for me. But this wasn't a problem because I loved Lawson too much.

This book touches upon mental illness as well as the effects of being abandoned by a parent. I believe a lot of people can relate to this and may even find solidarity in Delia's story. But through all of that, there is humor. I am not the type to laugh at loud at books or even movies. I have a very particular sense of humor. This one had me chuckling and waking up my husband. Score on both accounts. That being said, this had more witty moments than Jeff's other books and reminded me so much of myself and my best friend in high school.

"I get lonely sometimes, but so does everyone else. We're all looking for some sort of salvation in something."

If you loved The Serpent King and Goodbye Days, you will love this one. You may even enjoy it more. You may also follow Jeff on every platform you can and pick apart every tweet looking for news of his next book. I will do that. Always. No shame.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to review this title ahead of its release date.

I really enjoyed this! I am a big fan of Zentner's earlier books, but also glad that this one was lighter. It wasn't lighter in that mindless fluff kind of way, but not as heavy as The Serpent King and Goodbye Days. Each girl has her own conflicts and problems--one more so than the other--but there's a great deal of humor mixed in, so that breaks it up nicely. And I was satisfied with the ending. I really hope to meet this author someday (and get my books signed!).

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the early copy!

It has been years since I read a novel by Zentner and I forgot how great he is at writing characters! This was a great ya contemporary novel and I cannot wait to read more from him in the future.


RTC

I featured this title on my blog and will provide details to the publisher in the next step of this process.

I hate horror movies due to me being an absolute wimp, but thankfully I enjoyed this book 100x more than I have ever enjoyed a horror movie.

THIS book is yet another example of why I will continue to read every book Jeff Zentner writes. He made me laugh, he made me cry, he made me care, and he did so well.

Many upper YA books take on those BIG life changes that teens that age face. The end of high school brings many new beginnings, but some beginnings are accompanied by endings. Delia and Josie may have been best friends, but they now found themselves on divergent paths.

For Josie it meant leaving home and leaving Delia. She would have to adjust to a new city, a new school, new friends, a new job, and a life with a lot less Delia. She was dealing with all the anxiety that accompanies leaving the nest, but she was also weighed down with a lot of guilt when it came to Delia.

Delia had been dealing with feelings of abandonment for over a decade since her father left and never looked back. He left, her other best friend left, and now Josie was going to leave too. My heart totally went out to Delia. It's never fun being the one left behind, and when your own father can up and sever all ties with you, what would keep someone, who is only a friend from doing the same? She just broke my heart, and I wanted to give her the most fierce hugs a person could give, over and over again.

BUT, not to worry, because let me tell you, most of this book is chockfull of hilarity. Delia and Josie were such a fantastic pair. I adored the way they played off each other and their Seinfeldesque discussions about nothing were a thing of beauty.

He also gave us a most wonderful love interest with Lawson. Gosh! He immediately captured my heart, and my love for him just grew and grew with everyone of his on page appearances. He had all those soft boy qualities I love, as well as being an MMA fighter and an avid SFF reader. He was sweet and lovely and he wore his heart on his sleeve. Oh, and, the romance was precious and perfect.

I will admit, Orlando was a mixed bag for me. The stuff with Devine took a real over the top turn, but the chapters that followed were so beautiful and emotional, that I just didn't really care what happened before that. Zentner did some wonderful things for these characters in those last few characters. I found myself simultaneously shedding happy and sad tears as I sported a HUGE grin.

Other things I loved:

• Buford
• Arliss
• The Random Josie Observations test
• Improbable animal encounters 🐘 + 🐬
• "Fan" mail
• Road trip
• Nods to The Serpent King and Goodbye Days

Overall: This was a beautiful story about friendship, love, moving on, and letting go. It was about beginnings and endings and appreciating the lessons learned along the way.

I've never read any of Jeff Zentner's other books, but I am a sucker for contemporary reads, so I thought this one would be a great book to read. I thought this one would be a funny read, and it was, but it also dealt with a lot of seriousness, like loss and abandonment. It was a pretty interesting read all around, and I definitely recommend it if you like books that know how to be both funny and serious.

The friendship between Delia and Josie, the two girls that put together a public access TV show to show bad horror movies (Think Elvira or Svengoolie), was awesome! I am usually pretty cautious when a male writer is writing female characters, but I feel like Zentner really understood how to write these two. They were both so funny and constantly doing bits to each other, which I loved, that I really could understand their friendship. I also love characters who are just so weird and literally do not care what people think about them.

Even though the book has great funny moments, there were also these moments of sadness when it came to Delia. Delia is dealing with a lot, still struggling over the loss of her Dad who left her family when she was a kid and she's afraid everyone else in her life will do the same. It must be really hard to have to go through that, but I also felt like she was really unfair to Josie for wanting her to never leave their town. Josie is such a good friend that she doesn't want to hurt Delia so she holds herself back to protect her best friend. I like and hate that about this novel because I love that Josie wants to protect her friend, but at the same time I hate that Delia places her abandonment issues on her best friend. It's a huge conflict throughout the novel that comes to ahead, and it just felt so real and raw to me.

There's subplot of romance for Josie, and I really liked it because it felt so sweet and the type of romance you get into when you are a teen. Lawson just kind of rolls with all of Josie's weirdness, and is like the chillest dude ever. I really liked them together, and I hope in their world they last for awhile.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting with this book, but I do think it surprised me in moments. If you are looking for a young adult contemporary that is heavy on friendship, I recommend this one.

RAYNE AND DELILAH'S MIDNITE MATINEE begins as a fun-filled romp and slow-burns its way to a discussion of friendship, loneliness, and hope for the future.

Josie and Delia are best friends who host a public-access horror show in the vein of Elvira and Svengoolie. When they have the chance to meet with a former horror icon and take Midnite Matinee to the next level, both girls are incredibly eager to do so. But when Josie is torn between a new boy and her lifelong dream of breaking into the biz, and Delia discovers the whereabouts of her estranged father, the two have to question how far they'll go for friendship.

If there's one author who gets small-town life right, it's Jeff Zentner. He knows exactly how to nail the life of a rural teenager. This book is filled with nods to iconic horror camp that a casual viewer might not get, but true fans of the genre will appreciate. The pacing is incredibly done and the story progresses smoothly, as well as the character development that both Josie and Delia go through.

I didn't like this one as well as I'd hoped to. There were parts of it I really enjoyed. Each line is well crafted, imbued with personality. That's the strength here. The protagonists feel like real people. They are surrounded by unique characters. It's a genuinely ridiculous adventure. It's a collection of details most people would never think to combine. Sometimes that leads to very strange interactions and weird repetitions. Like truck bread. And using humor to guide the characters through serious self exploration was a genius move. Without the absurdity this would be a mopey, dreary couple hundred pages of navel gazing. Instead we have characters who have been refusing to deal with big issues, forced by circumstance to address their problems. I like all of those individual parts. It's just that when you put them all together it's a hard to swallow whole.

Best friends Delia and Josie are the hosts of their very own horror feature show, Midnite Matinee, on the local public access station.  Delia selects an obscure campy horror movie from her dad's old VHS collection and the friends (in character as Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood) build a show around the film (with the help of their grouchy but beloved camera man Arliss) which airs every Saturday night between 11PM and 1AM.

The end of their senior year is approaching and there are hard decisions to be made.  
Josie has always had dreams of a career in television and is offered an internship with the Food Network.  She isn't all that enthusiastic about Food Network, but then again she isn't a huge horror film fan like Delia, though she plays her part well.  Unfortunately, taking the internship would mean leaving their small town in Tennessee - and Delia and their show - behind.  The last thing she's interested in is a relationship, except this guy Lawson shows up at the TV station on a random Friday night and takes her by surprise.
Delia has never been a great student and plans on sticking close to home to help her mom out and dreams of making a career out of Midnite Matinee.  Her dad left when she was little; the horror movies they play on public access are her only real connection to him and she secretly hopes that one day he'll see the show and contact her.
With the future opening up before them, the two friends have to overcome fear of the unknown and make choices that will test their loyalty to one another.

I don't gush about books often.  I try not to because when I absolutely adore a book I cannot tell you about it, instead I just make random gestures with my arms and say, "It is sooooo good!"

But I have to gush.  

This is a genuine coming of age story with honest (and laugh-out-loud hilarious) dialogue and characters.  
The relationship between Josie and Delia brought back vivid memories of my best friend and me in high school; the random conversations we had and the fierce loyalty we had to another, especially in the face of change.
I adored that while there was a romance in the story, it didn't overshadow the friendship.
The insecurities that Josie and Delia had are universal and therefore relatable.  I was completely invested in their lives and concerned about their future because everything from the way they talked to the way they reacted to situations rang so true.
The most unexpected part was the humor. Jeff Zentner made the conversations between characters so effortlessly hilarious that I literally laughed out loud throughout the book, which I read in two sittings because I didn't want to put it down!
If you enjoy YA (or are on the fence about the genre), contemporary/coming of age fiction, and appreciate genuine characters, I highly recommend picking up this book.

Many thanks to Crown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee is scheduled for release on February 26, 2019.

“I’m glad things end, though. It forces you to love them ferociously while you have them. There’s nothing worth having that doesn’t die”

*** thank you to Netgalley for an e arc, for my honest review**

I was going to give this 3 stars, purely because I’m not a contemporary person and was bored for about 60% but the freaking life lessons and points Jeff makes during this book are worth a star themselves! The way he weaves life lessons into a story and makes me cry when I thought I couldn’t care less about this story is truly a work of art.




Now I am not a contemporary person, so for me this is a 3.75 but for contemporary lovers this is going to be a five star. I can feel it. It’s a truly moving story. I just had some pace issues and didn’t truly care for Delia, that much. She redeemed herself in the end but throughout The Whole story she just bothered me with a few things.

Delia struggles with depression, anxiety and losing her father. My father left me when I was young too. I struggled with the exact same thing she did “if my own dad can leave me anybody can” and she struggles really really bad. But one thing bothered me about her that I cannot let go of. She was a HORRIBLE friend to Josie and Josie was an AMAZING AMAZING friend. It was all about her and what she wanted and her feelings and Josie honestly tip toed around Delia with what she wanted and it really really bothered me.

Delia’s mom is amazing. She’s just like mine and I related to that so much. She always picked her up and was by her side no matter what. The ending was just so emotional for me because it was just like my mom and myself.


I really enjoyed Josie’s love story! Lawson is the prime picture of a gentleman and what woman should expect from men. He always had Josie’s back and never over shadowed her. He let her be herself and express her feelings. He protected her but not possessed her. He was amazing!!!

The last 25% really did it for me. That was what I wanted the whole time and the feels Jeff puts you in with his writing and the morals was amazing to read!

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley to read in return for an honest review. This is one of my highly anticipated 2019 releases completely because of Chelsea Dolling Reads talking about it on her channel all the time. So, when I saw it on NetGalley I couldn’t resist hitting that request button. Much to my surprise, I was approved and immediately dove into the story. I have to mention, there was an author’s note in the beginning that I’m not sure if it will be in the final copy, but it talked about where the inspiration for this story came from and that it was intended to be funny with a few serious moments here and there (the opposite of the rest of his books that focus on heavy topics with a few moments of funny). I mention this because I have to say that Jeff Zentner NAILED it. I do most of my ebook reading when my daughter is napping, she’s usually falling asleep in my arms before I put her down. Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee was the WRONG book to read during naptime. I was legitimately laughing out loud at times and praying I hadn’t woken up my child. Thankfully, I didn’t but there were some really close calls.
I loved our two main characters. I’ll start with Josie. Josie reminds me of parts of myself in high school. All the good and positive (read: angsty) parts of myself. She’s happy with her friends she mostly knows what she’s doing with her life, she meets a great guy that she tries not to let take over her life despite the strong feelings she has for him. She also tries really hard to please everyone. She wants to make her parents happy, but making them happy means disappointing Delia which is the last thing she wants to do. She was also sassy and unapologetic about what she loves and wants. I really loved Josie.
As much as I enjoyed Josie, Delia was most definitely my favorite. I could relate all too well to the things she was going through. Dealing with the fact that her father left when she was a kid and she never knew why, she clings to his memory with their shared love of old horror movies. She spends this book clinging to those in her life that she loves and trying to come to terms with the fact that her father left. She is terrified that everyone she loves will always leave her. This is something I went through in high school and even parts of college. Having an absentee parent, one that leaves when you’re young, really leaves you with a lasting fear that if your own parent won’t stick around, why would anyone else? I felt for Delia because I have struggled with the same feelings that she is trying to accept and move past in these pages. But like Delia, I had a best friend that did her best to hold me together. We shared a love of books and she’s my partner in crime (Yes, I’m talking about Antonia.)
I think the friendship between Josie and Delia was the heart and soul of this book. The dynamic they have was everything. They made me laugh and warmed my heart with their love for one another. They fight and forgive and laugh and cry and I loved every page with my whole heart.
Overall, I adored this book. I recommend it to anyone that loves a friendship-based story. This was well written and full of everything good. Excellent and well-developed characters, funny moments, sad moments, heartwarming moments. I really couldn’t have asked for anything more.

I was so excited because I thought for sure that this would be a lot lighter than Jeff Zentner's first two books. Well, joke's on me, because it's about a girl who loves horror movies because she watched them with her dad and he's no longer part of her life. Which, hello, it me. (And for the record, my dad just died; he wasn't a jerk like Delia's dad.) Either way, it hit me right in the feelings and there were a lot of tears.

But there's also a lot in this book that made me laugh. I loved everything about it, and it probably is my favorite of his novels. (The others are tied for second place.)

I loved Josie and Delia and I loved their show. It makes me want to start watching public access or even start my own goofy show. (I won't do it; I do not at all have the nerve.)

Everything about this book is sweet and lovely, even the parts that made me ugly cry. Highly recommended.

Delia and Josie are seniors in high school, who have become best friends through their work on their public access horror host tv show. Their personas, Rayne and Delilah, have won many hearts and their show has been syndicated in several cities. Josie has always wanted to work in tv, and while horror isn’t her thing, she loves working with Delia and the opportunity to be part of a semi-successful show. However, with graduation looming, Josie’s parents have gotten her an internship at Food Network in another town. This means Josie would have to move and attend a different college than the one Delia and her had planned their future around. Delia is desperate to keep the show going because she hopes that the father who abandoned her will one day stumble upon their show and reach out to her. Much of their relationship stemmed from watching these cheesy horror hosts together. When she learns of Josie’s potential change in plans, Delia becomes desperate to stop another person from abandoning her. Delia finds out about a famous horror producer visiting a horror con in Florida and convinces Josie that this could be their chance to expand their show. Florida also happens to be where the PI Delia hired traced her father’s location. This trip is important to both of their futures because, Josie was given the ultimatum that she could go to Florida, but if it didn’t work out there, she would have to go intern with the Food Network. There is a lot on the line.

I enjoyed this Zetner novel more than any of his others. I thought Delia and Josie were hilarious. I think readers will appreciate the nods to Zetner’s characters from other books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I debated between 3.5 stars and 3.75 stars for this one so I'm rounding up instead of down. I don't generally read many male authors anymore, especially when they're writing teenage girls. There's usually something that's missing from it. For once, I can say that I actually enjoyed the way Josie and Delia were written. Their friendship is organic and the writing gave me a sense that these two have been friends for a very long time. I enjoyed reading about their midnite matinee tapings, especially when it included the ever grumpy Arliss. I actually liked Lawson, even if he felt a lot older in the writing than the character was. There are some heartbreaking moments and laugh out loud moments but I didn't love the whole story. There were times were I just felt uncomfortable in situation they were in and wanted to skip ahead (but didn't). I'm still glad that I read this because the friendship between the two MCs is strong and wonderful. It was a pleasantly surprising story.

This story had a solid plot, and I'm a sucker for friendship stories. You can tell that Josie and Delia are best friends, but you will soon realize that they will eventually have to part ways, as both live very different lives, despite running a not so well known TV show together. Josie and Delia are very different individuals. Josie comes from a standard nuclear family, one that is well off, with loving parents and an annoying sister, and options for her future. On the other hand, Delia lives in a trailer with her mother who might not always take her medication. That's all she has, just her mother and Josie.

To be completely honest, I wasn't too invested in Josie, as most of her chapters seemed uneventful compared to Delia, who has been battling to find and meet her father by herself while Josie is off getting closer to Lawson. Now speaking of Lawson, I didn't care about the romance between him and Josie, as it happened a bit too fast for my liking, but I will say they do suit each other, so there's that.

Something that I did not like in the story was the incident when Josie and Lawson met the TV guy in ShiverCon that happens later on in the story. The whole thing was a mess and I didn't care much about it. In fact, I started to skim through it so I could go back to Delia's chapters. Not sure how the whole fiasco was supposed to play out in terms of enjoyment (was it suppose to be amusing to the reader? or...?), but I did not enjoy it. Personally, I felt that the ending was the redeeming factor of the story, as it ended on a bittersweet note.

Definitely not the best friendship story that I've ever read, but it's not the worst. The plot starts off a bit slow, gets kinda messy about 3/4 of the way through, but it has a good ending for both girls.

Oh, man. I really wanted to love this book. I loved the concept, the complexities of end-of-high-school best-friendship are absolutely relatable, and there were moments I really liked (seriously, Jeff, how did you come up with some of that dialogue?), but I was never quite as hooked in as I’d hoped I would be.

There is a particular sigh of relief to be breathed as a reader, when you realize that a book you've been highly anticipating, by an author whose writing you really enjoy and respect, is just as good as you had hoped it would be. Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee did a fantastic job depicting female friendship, as well as that weird world you live in at the end of high school when you're wrestling with your options (or lack thereof) and having to make big decisions about your next steps. Jeff Zentner also wrote two teenage girls in a way that makes it seem like he's actually met teenage girls before- they are realistic, quirky, funny characters, and their fierce friendship is an absolute treasure to read. While a public access show about terrible horror movies might not be the most common hobby, it's so fun to read about. While this story definitely had plenty of laughs, it also has a major plotline in Delia's search for her absent father that brings a more somber tone to the story too, as well as touching on mental health. Very excited to start getting this one into readers' hands.

I’m going to start off by saying I don’t usually cry much— okay, full disclosure, I cry a lot. Dog videos on Facebook, eating spicy foods, and don’t even get me started on being spoken to by any person with authority— but when it comes to media, it’s easier for me to distance myself and not get wrapped up in the emotional turmoil of a narrative. This was not the case for this book. I have to hand it to Jeff; he really knows the ways to twist and pull and coerce genuine reactions out of his readers. I was a sopping wet puddle by the end of the novel; having loved and lost and discovered a new sense of self through it all. I related so much to the sentimental and horror-obsessed Delia, and I saw a mixture of two of my best friends as her sharp-witted and hardworking cohost, Josie. Their relationship was expertly crafted, and it honestly felt so familiar and like home. I fell head over heels for Lawson, and it took me by almost as much surprise as it did Josie. Arliss also held a special spot in my heart; bringing up memories of mentors long past who filled a hole I never could quite place. I feel like this book was written for me: mashing up all of these things and combining them with horror. I’ve never really watched public access horror shows, but I love the genre, and my mom and I used to rent low budget horror films every week and just laugh and enjoy our time together. Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee did just what the show of the same name did for Jacob and Erica in the last fan letter. It made me think of happy times, and of people I love, and of how proud I am to have been shaped and molded by the moments in my life that have led me here. This is the best book I’ve read in a long time.

Every week, Delia and Josie host a public access television horror feature show. As they graduate high school Delia wants to continue the show while Josie is thinking of college. A trip to a horror convention may determine the future of the show and their friendship. Delia and Josie's friendship is at the center of this novel. Their interactions feel like how two 18 year old best friends would interact with each other, especially when they go off on silly tangents. While there are plenty of light moments both girls are at a crossroads that could affect their friendship's future. Delia hires a private eye to track down the father who abandoned her and her mother years ago. While Josie has an internship lined up out of town that would take her away from Delia who has abandonment issues. The narrator alternates between the two girls. This novel works for the short part. The one possible exception is a subplot which starts once the girls reach the convention where things take a turn towards the absurd which contrasts with the more grounded happenings of the rest of the novel. Recommended for those who likes the more humorous side of realistic fiction with a touch of romance.