I swooned, I cried, I laughed out loud. I love this book and I wish I could read it for the first time again.

Such an achingly beautiful book that captured the feeling of existing in a hazy in-between place so perfectly. Gorgeous prose, the kind that makes you fall into the character, seeing and experiencing everything through her. DeeDee is familiar, though, a girl I’ve known and sometimes been. I really appreciated how honest, layered, and complicated the familial relationships were for both Dee and Jay as they cycled between isolation and connection, struggling with identity and finding self-worth. A tender, empathetic, and real love story that I adored.

4.5 stars
Thank you to author Clare osongco and NetGalley for the arc.

In my opinion, this book is more of a mental trip. It sends us into the mind of our protagonist Deedee. She’s not the perfect girl, she’s confused most of the time and that’s what I love about her. She’s me or you or your classmate. You can reason with her even if you can’t agree or understand.

Being seventeen is hard. Being seventeen while having an immigrant mother? Harder. Clare did such a good job putting that struggle and dynamic into words. It’s a real struggle and it’s not easy to understand as an individual going through it, leave alone as an outsider. But with Deedee, we could feel it as if it was our own.

Deedee and Jay have an interesting dynamic to say the least. It’s not perfect yet with the way it’s put, we could just see ourselves in the situation. I love the ending as well, I’m usually not a fan of that type of endings but it just felt right with them considering how different readers may feel about their relationship.

devastated me, pulled me into a soft haze of night running and running until the sunrise. i loved how prickly and complex this was allowed to be and how incredibly real it felt, how soft the want for wonder. ya contemporary at its finest.

This book was so incredibly beautiful, filled with gorgeous prose and oozing with honest emotion. The characters all felt so lovable and real, and the relationship at the center of the story was impossible not to root for. Adding in themes of loneliness, yearning, diaspora, complicated family dynamics, and the stories we tell ourselves and others, this is such a special book that I know is going to be important to so many readers! Prepare to feel seen, and also to most definitely cry a little. Osongco is a massive talent!!!

The kindle formatting is broken, so not able to comfortably read. Leaving five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney for the ARC.

thank you to netgalley, the publisher and clare osongco for sending me this e-arc. it in no way affected my review.

deedee is seventeen. she can’t drive, she isn’t allowed to practice photography and her relationship with her mother is worth at least a mitski album or two. her filipino heritage raises a horde of questions that her mother isn’t willing to answer and most days, deedee feels completely alone.

until she meets jay - the new neighbour, the boy who sits on the roof across hers, lets her photograph him and teaches her to drive.

this is the most beautiful story. it’s full of the aching and yearning of your favourite coming-of-age movie, the secret midnight drives, complex family dynamics of southeast asian households and mother-daughter bonds. clare osongco somehow manages to combine everything i love about books, about love and life and family, and condensed it into a novel i cannot wait to have on my shelf (and the cover is gorgeous too??)

i cannot thank clare enough for giving me the privilege of reading this. she’s so wonderful to speak to and i cannot wait for this book to bring her the success she absolutely deserves. it’s without a doubt the best arc i have ever read and i cannot wait for you all to grab a copy 🩷


‘midnights with you’ releases nov 12th !!

This is the most gorgeous, layered, emotionally honest story—Deedee and Jay are less characters and more people who live rent-free in my head at all times! The external plot (learning how to drive and spying on Deedee's secretive mom) is a compelling vehicle for the internal arcs (grappling with feelings about family, love, self-worth, and the diaspora), and Osongco is never heavy-handed, letting her characters be messy and lovable at the same time. And there are so many laugh-out-loud moments through Deedee's wry voice! Watching these characters grow as individuals and as a couple is a moving, healing experience. Osongco is such a talented writer that you'd never guess this was her debut novel—she has a tremendous career ahead of her, and I can't wait for her next story!