Okay I really enjoyed Winstead's previous work. This did not land for me. It was weird Twilight fanfic and the book was long and all over the place.

The writing is impressive and captivating, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concept and location of the story. The characters were thoughtfully crafted, though I did have one minor concern, which was cleared up by the author's notes regarding the open-ended conclusion. Personally, I prefer a more definitive ending, and I was left wondering about the fate of the characters. Did she remain with him? Was he a serial killer? Nevertheless, the descriptive atmospheres were fantastic, and I would undoubtedly recommend this book.

This was a dark yet hopeful story with interesting characters living in an isolated community in Louisiana. Ruth is a wonderful main character and the story was told so well from her perspective as she unravels dark truths while trying to reconcile her beliefs. Her counterpart and best friend Everett is intertwined with Ruth’s life in ways that are so well-plotted and unpredictable for readers. After reading this book I’ll definitely be looking for more from this author.

When I saw on @NetGalley that Ashley Winstead had a new book - with this intriguing title and this gorgeous cover - I couldn’t have hit “request” fast enough.

I loved In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Last Housewife, so my expectations for Midnight Is The Darkest Hour were high… unfortunately I was let down.

Honestly, I was bored. I found myself rushing through just to finish it (and it was 400 pages, far too long). I didn’t like any of the characters. It was giving Where The Crawdads Sing and then hit some major Twilight fanfiction vibes - weird combination. And lastly, the male MC was named Everett, with the nickname “Ever”, which really bothered me for absolutely no real reason.

I guess I’ll give it a 2.5/5?

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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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 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 on moonless nights to kill them. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into an uproar. And now Ruth realizes that only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the secret underbelly of the town in search of true evil.

A dark and powerful novel, the kind fans have come to expect from Ashley Winstead, Midnight Is the Darkest Hour is an examination of the ways in which we’ve come to expect love, religion and storytelling to save us; the lengths we have to go in order to take back power; and the monstrous work of being a woman in this world.

This book is not what I expected – it was so much darker and spookier than I thought it would be and quite disturbing at times and a little too feminist for my taste. But this book will appeal to a lot of readers so why does it matter if I like it? 😉 It wasn’t a" bad" book, it is just a deeply triggering book on so many levels: it is hard to explain without referencing a good half of the book but I will say that if you like the supernatural and books about it, this is a great pick.

This is my first Ashley Winstead book. Content warnings include child abuse, religious idealization, SA, gun violence, gang activity, and drug use.
This book follows the unlikely friendship formed between the preachers daughter and the town outcast in a tragic incident. I enjoyed the Louisiana small town setting. While I found the FMC to be so naive and annoying, I can recognize the trauma that might come with the strictest of religious upbringings. That being said, I found the mystery storyline to be compelling and dark. This book takes a very critical look at the kinds of abuse that happen in fundamentalist's religions and how people vastly loyal to these groups can allow these kinds of abuses to continue. The FMC's eyes are opened to brainwashing, lying, and betrayal. However, having these eyes opened and the light shed on this world, ultimately turns her into a serial killer and that just wasn't believable to me, though highly entertaining.

For fans of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and The Last Housewife, welcome back to Winstead's twisted mind.

This time, Winstead takes us to the Bible belt of Louisiana, where the word of Ruth Cornier's preacher daddy is higher than the law. Ruth has long felt like an outsider in her community and her friendship with Everett- the town's Edward Cullen (yup that is a Twilight reference and the book is full of them)- is the only thing holding her together. Ruth and Everett both have their secrets, but when the town's more sinister side start to come to light, it is apparent to Ruth that not all darkness hides in the shadows and evil isn't just a bedtime story to frighten little children.

Honestly, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished it. All the different layers keep swirling around in my mind. It's dark and broody and atmospheric, and there are undertones of truly evil things a la True Blood- Satanism and the occult, vampires and blood suckers, and (literally and figurative) rattlesnakes in the grass.

As always, Winstead's thriller has deep roots in feminism and the expected behaviour of women, this time with some questions about all-consuming religion and the line between good and evil. She is also the queen of the anti-hero and the characters in this novel wear an especially prominent shade of morally grey.

This book is more of a slow build than her previous ones, but each reveal- quick little snake bites you don't see coming- had me reeling and sent goosebumps down my skin. And that reveal at the end will have readers gasping in their seats. A must-read thriller for fall (pubs Oct 2023)! 4.5 stars rated up to a 5.

Thank you to Ashley, NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced arc.

1.5 stars

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins Canada for the opportunity to read this ARC.

After loving In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, I was really looking forward to Midnight is the Darkest Hour. Unfortunately, I did not end up enjoying this book. The multiple timelines of this book seems a bit all over the place and confusing. The plotline didn’t grab my interest, and I found myself bored. I didn’t feel connected to the characters, and felt that they lacked depth. It felt like a mash-up of a bunch of plots that were all forced together into one book that didn’t really work for me. It left me feeling a bit icky, and I didn’t enjoy the ending at all.

To be honest, I’m not even sure where to start with this review. This book was extremely dark and I spent the majority of my time with it feeling very confused or very uncomfortable.

I felt that the plot was pretty confusing - there was a lot of moving pieces that I just kept hoping would come together in a way that would make everything click! Unfortunately, the twists were pretty predictable and the pieces felt very disjointed so overall I was left feeling pretty dissatisfied! The pacing of the story also felt a bit imbalanced - overdeveloped in some aspects but lacking in others. The past timeline was pretty dull until the last 20% and I think this was part of the problem as it prevented the plot from progressing at a steady pace.

The characters were all very interesting and complex, but they were pretty hard to connect to with there just being so many secrets preventing readers from understanding who they truly were.

Ohhh boy. I was not a fan of this book at all. Which is super disappointing because ‘The Last Housewife’ was my top thriller of 2022, it was incredible! Also loved ‘In My Dreams I Hold A Knife’ !

If I could describe this book in simple terms, it would be like a mash up of ‘Twilight’ and a story about a very religious community with some sketchy things going on behind the scenes.

There was soooo many twilight references that I literally wanted to gag each time another one came up.

There was no emotional aspects of the story that allowed me to connect with the characters or even believe in the love interest. Also the characters were so flat I wanted to cry 😭

The whole aspect of religion and Christian faith in the story was waaay too heavy for my liking.

Very small plot twists in the last 20% ish of the book that were super underwhelming. Also an open-ended ending that was unremarkable.

Blegh. I’m kinda shocked I sludged through the whole thing 🤦🏻‍♀️

I hate to say it because I LOVE Ashley Winstead.. but this one wasn’t my favourite. It did not pull me in like her books usually do. The dual time lines were so all over the place that I had trouble keeping up. The killer was very obvious from the beginning that I kept waiting for it to be a set up.. and it wasn’t. There was still a twist I guess but overall this book just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for this eARC!

WHAT DID I JUST READ. I’m reeling, hold this review while I go back and check what I just read to see if I got that right. This book has all the best part of the last housewife for me with a little less “ickiness” aka with a bit more recommendability from my end because sometimes I have to be careful who to rec the last housewife to because of the content.

When I say Ashley Winstead has RANGE. She has raaaange, I swear she could write any book. This one was much closer to The Last Housewife than In My Dreams I Hold A Knife. The ending pulled this one to a 4.5⭐️’s for me. I wasn’t sure what way it was going to go but the ending really had my eyeballs popping out of their sockets a lil bit. All the Twilight references had me 🤣☠️ though hahah.

I would classify this one as a “dad” thriller. A dad thriller for me means I can rec it to the readers in my life who like mystery thrillers that are about as far from YA thrillers as possible in terms of content, subject matter and writing style. I thought the way Ashley used the main relationship in this book was genius. I normally don’t like storylines based around one single friendship/relationship but this one produced so many other things as we confronted the relationship over time that I was engrossed the whole way.

DYING for this one to release so we can CHAT.

This was really quite good. Very intriguing, Winstead never fails to keep me captivated with her writing.

WOW 👏🏼 I went in expecting a thriller and this gave the most epic love story I didn’t know I needed! While there was romance, it was also thrilling, twisty, dark, heartbreaking and I fell completely in love with the two main characters. Not to mention all the Twilight vibes stole my heart!

I love when a book completely surprises you and throws a story at you that you never saw coming. Ashley Winstead’s creativity is unmatched! The Louisiana setting, the creature feature vibes.. it’s hard to even explain this one but read this book, I think it has a little something for everyone and easily takes a spot in my top reads of the year!!

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐈𝐟…
✨You love Edward Cullen
✨You’re interested in religious cults
✨You like Bonnie and Clyde

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was in the wrong mood for this novel - I was expecting a thriller read and this was more a novel about morality, sexism, religious fundamentalism with suspense. There was also too much reference to the Twilight series and its characters. The novel dragged on for me and I skimmed the last part. I have read several glowing reviews of this book so my review will be a minority view.

Thanks to Harper Collins Canada and Netgalley for this copy. All opinions are my own.