Review: Midnight Sun

Midnight Sun by Trish Cook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Trish Cook’s Midnight Sun is one of those books aimed at fans of The Fault in Our Stars, cashing in on teenagers’ obsession with the morbidly heart-breaking. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, nor am I trying to sound judgemental, I’m merely pointing out how this book is aimed at a very specific crowd.

With such a limited blurb, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going into with this one. It sounded interesting, yet beyond being able to say it was a contemporary young adult romance, I wasn’t at all sure what I was getting into. In all honesty, I had a bit of a debate as to whether I was going to pick this book up or not. I was looking for a final book to complete an offer, and it was between this one and another. In the end, it was the mystery surrounding this book that won me over – there was potential, and I hoped it would live up to it.

Being such a short read, Midnight Sun was something I was able to complete in no time at all. I picked it up, and not long after I was finished. For such a short read, there was quite a lot happen throughout. Although there were plenty of things throughout the story, I did not feel as though there was enough development. It felt as though the author tried to include a set number of things, and in doing so the development was lost. Events hit us one after the other, and due to this the impact of the book was not all it could have been – we sacrificed emotional impact to receive cliched young adult contemporary romance moments and forced lines.

Honestly, this book could have been a truly emotional read if done right. The end did hit hard, at least, but it could have hit harder – had I been more invested, had we had a deeper attachment, and had we delved deeper into the characters’ lives. In other words, it all felt too quick to me, and due to this the emotional reaction the book could have brought from me was lost.

Overall, this book had potential but it did not live up to it. If I’m being painfully honest, had there not been the slight redemption through the ending hitting some emotional buttons this one would have been a two-star rating.

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