Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

The dark. It was thick as drying blood, so thick I could have held it in my hands, if they were free, palms filled with it. I could feel the blackness breathing, panting, panting, the dark, the dark, the dark.

Good heavens.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was a book I was a bit "Eh?" about, but learned to love, simply because of how much Linnea loved it. 

Well then Wink Poppy Midnight's synopsis came out and I needed it.

So needless to say, when I received an arc, I cried a lot.

Warning: Very vague review. This book is dense even in it's 260 pages. It's hard to review.

This book will be released March 22nd 2016

Stats:

Genre:  ?????????????

Feelings: HAHAHAHAH -dies-

Happiness: Um

Cuteness: UM

Fast pacing: Paced wonderfully

Series: Nope

Read if you like: The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma. Poetic prose, dark deep twisted stories, with dark twisted characters 

Content: Plenty of sex, but nothing graphic or described.

Trigger warning? Suicide talk. Psychological fear

In one sentence... Two girls, one boy, secrets, forests, and how far someone will go.

Thoughts: Strawberries, splinters, wood, mud, ice cold water and silk. The smell of hay, the feel of old book pages under your fingers

Messages: ???

Overall

Rating: 5/5

I had few expectations. I knew it'd be amazing, but I was so confused as to if it'd be paranormal or realistic or what??

I was instantly smacked in the face with sense and descriptions and words. My face was the :O during most of it. 

-The characters-

Oh my. These characters. Their flaws and quirks and Midnight. 

Midnight, sweetheart. His poor good soul and his confusion and how lost that child is. His voice stood out. Then came Wink, with her freckles and curls and whimsy. And then Poppy. Poppy, Poppy, Poppy, her lies and anger. 

The voices were so strong. Midnight was reading nostalgia, Wink was reading fairy tales, and Poppy was reading salt. 

These characters stood out and even with as nasty or blind they could be I loved them. 

April has a knack for taking characters who do terrible things and making you somehow care, even if distantly. I should have been rageful at Poppy, to the point where I stopped reading but instead I cared. 

-The writing/structure-

April. Genevieve. Tucholke.

This woman knows how to write books. She knows how to spin webs and capture you and keep you there. Her writing flows, one word after the other. It reads like poetry but feels like something darker and more real. 

The story is like this collection of events that keep getting bigger and BIGGER AND BIGGER and it works. Nothing feels slow and disjointed, even with it's lack of the standard Obvious Story Starting Events and Things. 

To say I couldn't put it down is an understatement. I was being fit for my formal dress and my mom's trying to fit the skirt and she's maneuvering around me while I hold this book, frantically flipping pages.

-Other

The setting. It felt so vibrant and strong, each detail about it captured this image. This place, and this forest, and the hayloft. It felt so intensely real and it supported the story in the strongest way. 

This book is one that is full of teens being nasty and good and having too much dirt flung at them. It's rich. It's a story of drama that never feels dramatic. 

I don't know how she does it?? 

You look at this story and even read the synopsis and think "is this a dramatic love triangle paranormal" but the story behind those covers is something so much bigger? 

It's definitely not for everyone. It's vaguely edgy, new, raw and something some people may not be insane about, but this story snaked it's grip around my wrists and I definitely won't stop thinking about it for a good while.