DNF - I attempted to start this book and it just did not hold my interest. This may be a book I come back to in the future.

Midnight on Beacon Street" follows Amy, a babysitter who thinks she’s in for a routine night of watching two kids while their mom enjoys an evening out. But from the very first page, it’s clear that this isn’t going to be just another quiet night in. That opening? Drenched in blood, and I was so ready for a wild, terrifying ride.

Unfortunately, after that gripping start, the tension fizzles out rather than builds. While there are moments of suspense that kept me turning the pages, they never quite reached the level of true horror I was hoping for. The atmosphere had potential—there were glimpses of unease, a whisper of something lurking just out of sight—but it never fully delivered on the promise of that chilling introduction.

If you're looking for a slow-burn thriller with a touch of mystery, this might still be worth a read. But if you’re craving a full-on horror experience, one that leaves you breathless and checking over your shoulder? You might want to look elsewhere.

Unfortunately this book didn't live up to the plot summary.
It sounded very interesting and was marketed as horror, but it was anything but. I wouldn't even categorize it as thriller, maybe suspense at the most generous.
The biggest problem was we got a mildly suspenseful story that so obviously wanted to be a horror story. The amount of references to horror movies showed clearly that we were supposed to feel like this book belonged with them, but instead each reference just reminded me that this was supposed to be a horror novel and wasn't.

Oh lord I enjoyed this book so much that I bought a physical copy.. I'm a baby so this was the perfect amount of horror for my fragile constitution.

Way too long, not enough plot to justify a whole novel. Not sure what happened here because the premise was so good. Needed more build up!

I made it about 25 percent into this one before I had to stop. I skipped to the end, and it didn’t seem to pay off.

This was listed as horror/thriller, but I was very bored. I think the author was going for unsettling vibes, but it didn’t work for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

This is definitely a book dedicated to the 80s/90s horror....that was not for me. I could not get into this and I could not become invested in any of the characters. This is a short novel, of which not much happens. It is slow. I really struggled with this, but it might have just been me! Thank you to the publisher for the early e-copy.

girl what the hell was this? It started off so strong and I can see how she wanted to weave in tension with the time skips and different perspectives, but it just made everything so obvious (a flashback chapter would mention something that would become important in the very next chapter), clunky with how much the time skipped around, and every chapter besides Ben's would just screech the pace to a halt. Her descriptions are amazing and I can see some of the characters being very well thought-out, but oof this should've been a short, short story

**Spoilers**

The VERY VERY VERY beginning was so good! I thought everyone was going to end up slaughtered by a psychopath and only the little boy was left alive.

Boy was I wrong. This book was soooo boring! So much story that was pointless! The action didn’t even start until near the end, and it was definitely not thrilling.

Murder by self defense doesn’t qualify a book as a thriller if 95% of your story line is about babysitting.

Thank you so much Harper Perennial, Emily Ruth Verona, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and honestly review this book.

A fast mysterious read. Check it out from the local library. The library will have it. It is well written but a little predictable.

3.5, rounded up

surprised at the low rating this one has (for Good Reads). it's a little slow and meandering at times but overall, i enjoyed reading it.

A quick read that would have been better published in October, or at least September. I fear it will be forgotten by the time Halloween comes around.

The opening of the little boy standing in a pool of blood should be the factor that pulled you in to read. A statement. Yet this book went downhill soon after.

It was supposed to be a thrilling read but this end up to be a boring read. The thriller parts were so slow to get to as we approached almost more than 50% mark for it to come to a climax and yet even that felt anti-climatic. I always enjoyed books with alternate POVs and time jump but here, it was executed poorly. Its so confusing to understand at which timeline we are at cuz the non-linear timeline makes this so much harder to understand the whole thing. I dont know if its on purpose but the author should take a better approach to this so as to let reader unravel the puzzle properly.

Sad to say, didnt enjoy this one.

Thank u to Netgalley and Harper Perrenial for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!
This books was enjoyable but not remarkable for me. I enjoyed the POV changes but not the constant back and forth of the night’s timeline. The plot twist I didn’t see coming but it was somewhat anticlimactic. The villain character felt flat to me. I would read more from this author and look forward to future books. Overall a good debut, in my opinion.

I don't remember picking out this book, but I have been trying to get caught up on all of the books that have been patiently waiting for me to get to them while I've been in my slump. This happened to be the oldest on my NetGalley list, so I dug in!

This book plays out like it could be a standard slasher, however it's laid out in a way that invites the reader to gather the clues and put together the story.

The story is told in short slices from the lives of different characters, in the roughly 18 hours before midnight. While I think that the fact that each segment may, or may not, have information about what's to come, is a good way to throw red herrings and misleading paths into the story, I also think that there may be just a bit too many. Also I did get confused at times with the seemingly random time jumps between the segments. Overall, it wasn't a very big issue though, just a slight bump in an otherwise wonderful story.

I admit that I had only correctly figured out half of the puzzle before the big reveal. When I got to the segment detailing the events that take place around midnight, I was pleasantly surprised that the story didn't go in any of the ways that I had imagined.

This was an imaginative story, a really interesting take on the classic babysitter set-up. I really enjoyed it, and I'm hoping it may have pulled me out of my slump, at least a bit. My sincerest apologies to the author for taking so long to get to it.

I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Definitely a nod to the classic horror/slasher films of the 80's-90's. But this book treads new ground and delivers lots of thrills and chills. Sleep with your lights on!

Didn't finish this, was not at all what I expected from the synopsis. Certainly not bad, but don't feel that we need this in our collection.

Midnight on Beacon Street
By: Emily Ruth Verona

I was able to receive an arc through NetGalley to read this new YA horror. I actually really liked it, I gave it a 4 stars rating.

This is set in 1993 and it goes back and forth, before and after midnight, which is when a murder takes place.

This follows 17 year old Amy who is babysitting her 2 siblings while their mom is out on a date. A murder happens and some weird and sinister things start taking place.

If you like retro vibes and YA horror I would recommend this book. I felt like I was watching a movie and not reading one.

I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
So the summary of this book and the cover were a bit misleading. I expected to be reading a thriller or horror novel and this really was not. It was ok but not at all what I was hoping for.