I would like to thank the author for providing me with a free ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
"When you’re fighting for your life, or your family’s life, you do what you have to. You fought for your life today with all the resources at your disposal. You create and command the dead.”
‘The Midnight Society’ by Rhonda Sermon is the first installment in what is to become a new YA series. The story revolves around Cate, a girl who is in witness protection following a horrific kidnapping. Throughout the story we are introduced to a multitude of characters, many of which are known as “Timesurfers”, individuals possessing magical powers and the ability to travel back through time. What follows is essentially a good VS evil tale with some refreshing, modern twists.
One thing which was really well done in this novel was the plot twists. There were so many surprises packed into these pages, however it got to the point where there were so many twists that I actually stopped being surprised by them. Despite being slightly overdone, the turns this story took were, for the most part, very effective and well executed (except perhaps for that little Polka Dot revelation!).
The characters had very complex and well written back-stories, but their actually personalities felt a bit forced and cliche to me. Especially Cate, who I personally felt seemed like a much younger character than she was, I couldn’t help imagining her as a younger teen, especially with the clip-in rainbow hair extensions as I don’t know of anyone older than 13 who wears them. I think that the reason the characters came across this way was because of the dialogue. It did feel quite forced in parts, and some of the phrases used did not suit the way modern teenagers speak at all. However, I still liked the characters for the most part; but Jonah is certainly my favourite as he is by far the most mysterious.
The time traveling concept; whilst slightly confusing at times, was still very thought out and well done in my opinion. I would love to see more of the Timesurfers adventures in future books. I got a slight Hunger Games vibe toward the end, and I don’t know that this worked very well with the story.
Overall, ‘The Midnight Society’ was an enjoyable read and I was very glad to get the chance to support an Australian author. I think I might have enjoyed it more had I read it when I was a bit younger, but nonetheless it was an easy read and quite good for a first book! Whilst I probably wont reread this book, I do look forward to book two and seeing where Sermon takes us! I recommend to those of you looking for a relatively quick, easy and interesting read!