Thank you SO much to Ashley Winstead and Sourcebooks for my copy of this book! Ashley is one of my favorite authors and I am obsessed with her writing. This book was a southern gothic thriller about Bottoms Springs Louisiana. It is a stereotypical southern town, with religion at the center and no room for outsiders. Ruth has always felt like an outcast, while the town is enamored by the fire-and-brimstone teachings of her preacher father.

The only thing the town fears more than the Devil are the local myths that haunt the area. One of these is the Low Man, an evil shapeshifter that is said to use moonless nights to sneak into sinners' bedrooms and kill them. When a skull is found in the swamp near eerie symbols, Ruth and her only friend, Everett, try to get to the bottom of what’s going on. They have ties to the town’s past, and there are secrets they never want to get out.

Thoughts: Once again I LOVE that Ashley Winstead puts content warnings at the beginning of her books. They include religious fundamentalism, substance abuse, colonialism, physical and sexual abuse, child abuse, and murder. This story was dark and damp and haunting and important, though not as dark as The Last Housewife. I loved the fact that she included Twilight in the story, and the connections made a lot of sense.

This book is about taking back our power as a woman in the world. It’s about the intersection of religion and love and fear and power. There is an element of romance in the book, and while I normally don’t like that, she did it perfectly to give examples of a power dynamic. The claustrophobic religious small town mixed with the occult and power of nature were a fascinating contrast. I love that Winstead can take on so many important topics and do it so well. It’s much more than your typical thriller, and I loved it! 5-stars!

Ashley Winstead continues her winning streak, in my eyes, with her next book Midnight Is the Darkest Hour.

This Southern Gothic, Thriller was a phenomenal read and made you feel as though you were in the southern, religious bayous of Louisiana. Growing up in a religious Southern area, I feel that Winstead captures the setting perfectly with characters feeling like people I knew growing up and showing just how powerful religion is in these areas.

Her biggest strength though is her characters and they feel real, fresh and alive which made me love the story even more.

Winstead is now on my automatic read list of authors!!

I love a good southern, dark thriller filled with a forbidden love. The pulse of this is a slow build that leads to an ending everyone will be talking about.

I really loved this book. The intoxicating atmospherics of the Louisiana gulf coast setting were beautifully done and so accurate. Ruth's story is as twisted, convoluted, and dark as the swamps and forests she is surrounded by. I read this book with a total desperation for the pieces of the story to fall together and I was kept guessing until the very end. This story has the intrigue of Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and True Detective but there is so much more bubbling under the surface here. Having recently read Ashley Winstead's novel The Last Housewife, I can definitely see parallels between Ruth and Shay. This story delves into similar deep-seated feminist issues. Ruth's Southern, Evangelist upbringing and support system bring to mind Shay's Texas beauty queen background. In The Last Housewife, Shay gets out of Texas and attends a liberal arts college. The same cannot be said for Ruth. Yet the two go on similar journeys. These stories explore female rage and the chaos and/or justice it can serve when fully unleashed.  I loved the Twilight references peppered throughout this novel. Ruth's obsession with Twilight is such an honest and relatable element of this story for so many women. Outside of being relatable, there seems to be an open critique of Twilight and stories like it within this book. Ruth was sold a story of heroes, happy endings, and otherworldly love both in Twilight and in church. But how was she supposed to attain these things in the real world?  There is so much to unpack here surrounding the wants and needs of men and women and how they combat each other.  Ruth's job as a librarian in her small, conservative town and how she uses her access to information to attempt to save herself was a lovely addition to this story as well as the conversation surrounding banning books/limiting library services unfolding in the world today.  There are honestly so many commentaries going on under the surface in this story that I could probably go on for paragraphs and paragraphs more. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. I look forward to more stories from Ashley Winstead.

Ashley Winstead's books deserve all the hype. This one gripped me right from the start and never let go. The atmosphere was fantastic, I loved all the themes and social commentary as well. Read it!

I was so excited to get my hands on an advanced copy of MIDNIGHT IS THE DARKEST HOUR. I absolutely devoured this book. This book does include a warning as it deals with child abuse, fundamentalism and sexual assault, so please read at your own discretion.

This book takes place in backwoods Louisiana, where a preacher’s daughter named Ruth struggles to find herself. In the wake of finding human remains in the swamp, Ruth worries this is the man she and her friend Everett killed years ago. Ruth has to face her past and present and learn that monsters aren’t always legends passed down from generations, but can be the people closest to you.

Absolutely loved this. As a religious trauma girlie this was everything I wanted when talking about religion. Also this started off with the main character getting into reading with twilight and same. This also deals with a romance which I thought was really good as well. The ending of this one was actually insane and I loved it.

The story digs down deep into small towns in Louisiana. The highly detailed atmosphere surrounding this entire story has truly captivated me as a reader. It is heavy and dark. Loaded with creepy crawly’s and things that go bump in the night.

Two unlikely friends; family drama that is unbelievable and painful to read. Networks full of good old boy beliefs, and straight-up evil. Talk of occult and murder. Winstead knows how to ramp up your anxiety and builds the pace beautifully.

The author has crafted this novel that is so different, it’s unexpected. You’re not sure what’s coming next, and she throws twists and turns continually. The main characters are astounding and overall the story is simply wild.

This is not one that I want to try to explain for fear of giving away plot secrets, but suffice it to say that if you enjoy unexpected characters, unexpected locale, a captivating story, and thrills that keep coming, then this is one to check out.

Wow, Ashley Winstead can write! I loved In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, it was such a great thriller. I read this one in two days. Truthfully I don’t like the Gothic genre, but this one was just great. It amazes me how different the two books are to each other, which proves what a great writer Ashley truly is. There is so much going on here and it comes together beautifully at the end. I highly recommend.

Dark Southern gothic at its finest. Ruth Cornier, daughter of fire and brimstone preacher in an ultra conservative God fearing community, yet one that is totally superstitious as well, only receives love from her books and close friendship with Everett, the town outcast.
A novel of the many degrees of good and evil, where men will do what they want because they are men under the guise of religion, and their evil justified for the greater good. A story of what we will do for love, for power, and for hate. A novel of many deep layers that make you want to discuss what the author is trying to say, so perfect for book groups.
When old bones are found in the swamp, and murders uncovered, the townsfolk are more than happy to blame the creature called the Low Man, leaving Ruth and Everett to discover what’s really going on. Their feelings and relationship with each other is beautifully written and the only bright light in this mystery. Which is why I loved this book up until the very end and it’s conclusion because I’m not happy with the ambiguity of it.

𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

Where do I even start with this stunning offering from Ashley Winstead? This Southern gothic thriller was so deeply atmospheric, the characters so nuanced and complexed, and the mystery at the heart of the story was just perfectly executed.

Bottom Springs, Louisiana, is home to Ruth Cornier, a librarian and daughter of the charismatic pastor of Holy Fire Baptist Church. Ruth's entire upbringing has been centered around submission, making herself small, and obeying the teachings of her father. As someone who has had a complicated relationship with organized religion, this storyline immediately spoke to me.

But there's something dark lurking in this lush, idyllic town--deep in the bayous, swamps, and woods, the townspeople believe a vampiric figure dubbed the Low Man is rumored to hunt on moonless nights and kill sinners. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to ominous carved symbols, the town is gripped by fear. Ruth and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, are shaken by the discovery and know more about the victim than they are letting on. But when a second skull is found, the two begin to question if the Low Man is more than just a folk tale.

Everything about this book is perfection. The prose was so descriptive and lyrical that I found myself in Bottom Springs, the humidity as oppressive on my skin as the religious dogma that permeated the book. I loved most of all the relationship Ruth had with Everett, whom she affectionately called 'Ever', and how he led her to question everything she thought she believed in. The ending left me so moved, so speechless, that I'm just now writing a review for a book I finished a week ago. Thank you so much to the author and Sourcebooks for this coveted early copy.

Yes yes yes Southern gothic meets horror meets romance meets psychological thriller AKA all the best genres rolled into a hellcat of a book! Graphic, creepy and weird- may not be for everyone/ but gals that loved “In My Dreams I Hold a Knife” will definitely appreciate this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I’ve read all of Ashley Winstead’s books, she is an auto buy author after reading In My Dreams I Am Holding a Knife. I appreciate what she was trying to do with this story—a preacher’s daughter, her outcast best friend, and a small town murder mystery. There were some red herrings alluding to the supernatural. The first half was slow, but the action does pick up. O did not love the ending, but that’s just me.

Wow what a read! Can't wait to discuss this book with someone. Southern thriller at its best. Will keep you reading late into the night.

Y’all. She did it again. Ashley Winstead definitely Ashley Winsteaded in her newest culty thriller, Midnight is the Darkest Hour. It is everything (and more) that you’ve come to expect from Ashley’s thrillers - edgy, twisted, dark, tense, sexy, and atmospheric — Boldly strutting to the boundary’s edge with the swagger of a fighter pilot. Sprinkle in some small-town religious devotion, a badass biker gang, and some mysterious symbols that could only mean something nefarious is afoot and you’ve got yourself a binge worthy read.

Oh! And get ready to meet your new broody book boyfriend, Everett. The way he and Ruth are intertwined throughout their lives is what anyone who has ever been broken dreams of…a protector. He’s not the star quarterback. He’s not even popular at school. He’s quiet, bookish, mysterious, and devilishly handsome – and is the only person who truly understands Ruth.

Being from Louisiana myself, I felt at home reading this book. The moss covered Cypress trees, suffocating summer temperatures, and wildlife found in few other places were expertly written and give even more of an eerie vibe to the overall feel of the story.

The climactic ending?! I’m not even going there. You’ll just have to see for yourself. All I’ll say is that I was completely on edge and my Apple watch clocked exercise minutes because my heart rate was so high.

Super enjoyable! It felt like a Southern Gothic novel for the younger crowd. Would strongly recommend for anyone who enjoyed Twilight and Where The Crawdads Sing.

I enjoyed Winstead's "In My Dreams I Hold a Knife" but was extremely put off by "The Last Housewife" because of graphic and upsetting scenes. This latest release has restored my faith in her, however. It was everything a thriller should be and included cultish elements, atmosphere, and red herrings. Despite having a slow start, this thriller quickly gained speed, and while I guessed the end, the VERY last sentence completely threw me for a loop.

Ruth, daughter of the strict reverend of Holy Fire Baptist, is a good girl whose actions are firmly rooted in the belief of good and evil. When a body is discovered in the Louisiana bog, the ultra-religious townsfolk believe that it is the power of witches, the Low Man, or the Devil himself. Little do they know the that evil lurks within their very church's walls.

Eerie, Engrossing, and Unexpected, this was a worthwhile read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC to review!

Ruth Cornier is the reverend's daughter. In their small corner of Louisiana surrounded by swamp land, religion runs deep. All in town believe her father's word. However, after a series of events, Ruth begins seeing the truth through the eyes of Everett Duncan. The two become fast friends as teenagers and continue to find themselves every summer. Ruth chose to follow the word of the church and stay put. Everett seeks so much. When a skull is found in the swamp, Ruth begins questioning everything. How much does she really know? Has she turned her shoulder to darker matters her whole life?
Ashley Winstead does it again. This book follows right along with her previous work. She takes on dark subjects and let's the reader digest a story and form opinions. Midnight focuses on religion and community, not as dark as The Last Housewife.

I just texted a friend (who also has a NetGalley account) to request this title and read it today as I MUST discuss. Oh, if there were more books like this out there. This is the best book I've read in a while. Shoot- I can't even give a preview without giving it away or repeating the blurb. All I can say is do not wait. Read this book right now. As a Louisiana girl, I get it. As a church girl, I get it. As a loved of the "bad boys," I so get it...and Ever is the best of the bad. I could not put it down and can't wait to see the splash it makes this fall!

3.75

i am so in love with ashley winstead's first two thrillers (in my dreams i hold a knife & the last housewife). so i hate to say i struggled with this one. probably because it was less on the thriller/cerebral side, and spent most of its time on a slow burn romance between the two mc's that i honestly did not care for.

a lot of the undertones of this book (esp. regarding the romance) are heavily based on twilight, which i thought would be kind of fun but most if it was just a big eyeroll. i love all of the book's themes on paper: misogyny, organized religion as evil, morality/justice, and the specific violent hatred people have toward teenage girls. but something wasn't adding up here for me!

of course, the sentence-level writing was wonderful as always, and there were some truly stunning lines. i wish that we had seen more of ruth's home life, and more scenes with the reverend in general <spoiler>so that the climax would have felt more earned</spoiler>. i haven't quite figured out how to interpret the ending yet, but in the discussion at the back of the book, the author encourages the reader to play god and decide what happens. i guess i'm just a fickle god.

thank you netgalley for the arc.