I'm sure there are plenty of people who will find this a beautiful and meditative read about the nature of loneliness and connectivity. I was not one of those people. Not by a long shot.

Maybe it's the result of years of studying literature and writing, but I could not stand the way this book was written. I know a lot of people enjoyed the prose, but again I was not one of them. There was no developed voice, and the style of the writing feels very much like the product of a writing program rather than an author developing a distinct voice. The metaphors were often tortured and the language repetitive and rote. More damning, I found the characters unbelievable, especially the astronauts (and cosmonauts). I did not believe these people and I did not like them. And the twists? I called them Very Early in the book (maybe page 20?), and they were aggravatingly pat. Perhaps I've read too many stories in workshop, or too many books in general, but I found the story laughably trite and predictable.

Here's the thing: I feel like Brooks-Dalton wanted to write a story about the nature of loneliness and the human condition. Which is great. The mistake is that she decided to shoehorn this story into a sci-fi genre and she totally dropped the ball. You can write literary sci-fi, but it's a tricky beast. You need to understand both literary trappings and genre trappings, and make them work in tandem. In this book they were fighting against each other. For example, the book kept pointing at science, and trying to make it a core part of the story, without ever understanding it. Science isn't a magic system you can just slot into your story to make it more interesting. It became evident that the research done was only very surface level, and the discrepancies became distracting. (Don't even get me started on all the errors made in regards to space and the space program.)

Not a science nerd? Maybe it won't bother you. Then again, an awful lot of people are going to enter into this book expecting at least some answers to basic questions set up by the premise, like what caused the apocalypse, and those questions are not answered. There really isn't much plot to speak of, and there is absolutely no world building. These are things many folks appreciate and expect in their narratives.

Look, here's the thing, if you're intrigued by the idea of a post-apocalyptic narrative, or you're interested in a duel narrative where a scientist and an astronaut work to solve a problem, this will disappoint you. It is neither of those things. This book is about isolated people navel gazing about how they came to a point in their life where they are alone. That's it. And a lot of people will enjoy that. Which is totally fine. Unfortunately I for one found it insufferable.

Lost. Dreams. Connection. Loneliness. Good Morning, Midnight is a drama tale of two people - Augustine, a brilliant but old astronomer whose whole life is all about the universe and the stars and Sully, an astronaut on a mission in space and left her family for a long period of time to get back to them. When the world suddenly went silent, these two ordinary people are thrown into the uncertainty of a future... one that they will never know if they can survive if humanity is lost forever.

 

Some thing I never thought I am drawn of, let alone written in beautiful prose, entails me in an understanding about humanity that we yearn to belong to. The book begins when some thing happened on Earth but was not certain what it was that throws Augustine in the Arctic research facility that may not last long to survive in a cold that seems unbearable. He was offered to transfer out of the place but he refuse. Why does he chose not to leave at such an emergency is unclear but explores throughout the book about his life, his regrets and his purpose. Above and beyond, Sully and her crew of astronauts are on their journey back to Earth when their communication systems are cut off on their space ship Aether. Sully worries that they may not be a home left but recalls of her feelings of lost and the life she led that fears of love. As the chapters unfold, the reading of Good Morning, Midnight is one at the beginning no idea where it is headed but the ending is one that is beautiful in delivering the message of beauty of life, which I find it well done. Its not really fast-pace and its meant to be that way and what kept me reading was finding out how these two characters evolve elegantly that truly shows the beauty of this book. For a debut release, Lily Brooks-Dalton delivers a nicely written drama that works but may not be for everyone. Its the patience of reading that makes this book a lovely read.

When going into this book, it is important to take into account the literary tag.

This is a book in which not a lot happens, where the two main characters are people who were emotionally on the out with society, and physically far removed from everyday life even before the world ended. We never do find out how the world ended, we just know that these two people are stranded, with few people to talk to, and they each have their own troubles to face, but very very little happens in the first 65-70% of this book.

I read the first 100 pages of this book back in August, and while I could appreciate the beauty of the writing, and while it’s only a short book (at 253 pages), there was a certain lack of drive or urgency for me. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t dread returning, I just didn’t have any great incentive to do so.

This was one of my most anticipated titles of 2016, and I put it down for nearly six months with the idea that I would get back to it someday, but without any kind of serious concern for how it was going to wrap up and where it would leave the characters.

 

The rest of this review can be found HERE!

 

Good Morning, Midnight is one of those books that are hard to officially review. It's a book that you remember not so much for the text that it contains within, but for the experience you had when reading it. Even though it's a post-apocalyptic work, it isn't one that is filled with dangers and a dramatic struggle against nature or the savage remains of humanity.

Good Morning, Midnight is quiet. It's a book that sinks you into a vacuum where sounds, thoughts, even lights don't seem to penetrate. You don't think about what you're reading, you just read it. The atmosphere the author sets settles into your mind and into your bones. It calms you down and makes you pay attention.

Lily Brooks-Dalton gives us a great main character in Augustine, who is your typical old grumpy geezer in many ways. He's lived a full life, but not necessarily a good one. He's anti-social to the extreme - one would think there's probably some sort of spectrum or personality disorder going on. And he's obstinate. So obstinate and anti-social, in fact, that he'd rather be left behind on a remote base in the Artic than have to put up with anybody.

Good Morning, Midnight is Augustine's view of the world after it ends. He's an intelligent man, and it swiftly becomes clear to him that the life in the Arctic station might very well be the only life that's left. Needless to say, he has plenty of time to reflect on his past life. Now that nothing in the future matters, there's only the past to look at.

But that's not all it is. At the same time, Good Morning, Midnight tells the story of a group of astronauts on the return journey home from a trip to the Jovian moons. From joviality to despair, and all the steps in between, it leads you through a very real feeling journey of what you would do when your only link with Earth goes completely dead.

Watching Augustine's mind - his growth - is fascinating. Sinking into life on a spaceship where everyone knows they might not have anything to return to, but can't help but hope is engrossing. Seeing how Lily Brooks-Dalton weaves the two stories together in Good Morning, Midnight will keep you thoroughly engaged. In a time when you can't look to the future, or find anything to depend on except yourself and each other, she points out the things that really matter.

And then she pulls something at the very end that violently jerks you out of your calm, quiet place, and makes you say several not-very-nice words at the pages. You can't help but immediately narrow your eyes, skip back through to see what you missed, and finally insist that other people read this book and NOW. Because you need to know if you're the only one who didn't see it coming.

So, yes, Good Morning, Midnight is an excellent read and I insist you read it now. Please.

Audiobook

This book was soooo sllooowww mooovvvinng. The narrators did a great job but they had to work with a lot of - I awoke - I went to bed. Over and over. I think if the author could have cut some of those down I would have enjoyed the book more. If this were a physical book I was reading, I probably wouldn't have finished it. Which I feel is a shame because I loved the ending.