Moving
to Highgate, London, April Dunne must start a new life and a new school, stuck
in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn't even have proper mobile phone
reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted students
(financially and academically) - and for reasons unbeknownst to April, her
father insists on enrolling her here even though they are struggling financially. April grows suspicious of her father's motives when she suspects there is more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Nobody ever says what they mean, or means what
they say. April soon discovers that her father is working on
a secret investigation surrounding Highgate, and when she encounters a dead
body in the cemetery (and is saved from an unidentified attacker by the mysterious Gabriel Swift)
her suspicions that Highgate is more than it seems is confirmed. Gabriel seems aloof and avoids April as best
he can, but when April’s incessant snooping places her life in danger he
finally entrusts her with the truth: Highgate, especially Ravenwood, is a
playground for vampires; and he is one of them.
By
Midnight by Mia James is not the worst book I’ve ever read, but it contains way
too many similarities to Twilight: Girl
moves to gloomy, rainy town infested by vampires. She’s drawn to a moody boy who’s initially
rude to her. He’s all “it would be
better for you if we weren’t together”.
Surprise, surprise, he’s a vampire, and soon he must protect her from
another vampire intent on killing her for fun; there is even mention of Robert
Pattinson!
The story builds very slowly, and while the slow-burner
pace of the book might work for some, I personally prefer a fast-paced
plot. The major problem while reading
this book, though, was that I didn’t particularly like April. I found her to be immature, unreasonable,
selfish and whiny. She’s so obsessed
with “hot boys”, she might be a bigger blow to feminism than Bella Swan! I also worry about April’s intelligence. She realises her town is infested with
vampires, mysterious murders occur around her, she suspects she’s being
followed… does she carry any kind of weapon with her? No.
Does she learn how to protect herself from vampires? No.
Does she attempt to identify all the vampires in her midst? No. She’s too obsessed with why Gabriel hasn’t
called. And then the author tries to
convince me that *spoiler alert* April is destined to become a vampire
slayer? I don’t believe she has what it
takes – when you have no faith in the protagonist, a book becomes very dull
very fast.
Gabriel
is a strong character, but as the protagonist’s love interest his page time is
ridiculously limited. He is probably the
least featured character in the whole book.
As he is supposed to be the romantic lead, this was a huge mistake by the
author. There’s a fine line between
mysterious and absent, and Gabriel verges on being a non-character.
As
for April and Gabriel’s “relationship”, I didn’t find their chemistry very
believable. They have a moment,
April ruins it by being unreasonable and rude, they don’t see each other for
days – this becomes a very annoying pattern.
They don’t spend enough time together to convincingly fall in love; by
the time Gabriel tells April he loves her, my first thought was “really?!” They hardly spend any time together
throughout the course of the novel; when did he have time to fall in love with
her? When they are together, April is
being a brat - the fact that she’s not very likable also comes into play here;
how on earth did he fall in love with her?
It must be destiny again. It comes
across as a very superficial relationship – they make no effort to create a meaningful connection.
The sad
thing is, this book isn’t all bad. In
fact, it has a lot of potential! The
vampire lore is excellent, and the mysteries of Highgate as a whole are
gripping. The author strengthens the
book by using actual London landmarks and drawing on historical London happenings such as Jack the Ripper,
the plague and the legend of the Highgate Vampire. Building fiction on a foundation of reality always makes it
stronger and more believable. If this story had a stronger
protagonist or even a better developed romantic element, it would have been
amazing. As it is, when the reader
doesn’t like the protagonist, and doesn’t believe the chemistry of the central
romance, there’s something really wrong.
By Midnight concludes on a a cliff-hanger, and is followed by two more
books in the Ravenwood Mysteries series. However much I like
Gabriel and wonder about his fate, I am so annoyed by April I doubt that I will
continue following this series.
Product information:
Title: By Midnight
Author:
Mia James
Number
of pages: 448
Publisher:
Orion Publishing Co
Year:
2011
ISBN: 9781780620459
ISBN-13: 9781780620459
