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I came across this in the Lending Library. I liked the odd title and the gorgeous cover and the fact that I had really no idea what it was about.

When I started reading it, I was instantly conflicted. I really liked the poetic narration. However, the characters were two-dimensional cardboard cutouts you can find in any teen book. They aren't unique or fully-formed or even that interesting.

Also, the loose plot that is strung through the book didn't interest me. It just kind of went along without any real story, just the boring, annoying characters describing their lives with oddly similar narration styles. Also, Midnight's sections were so long that I just ended up hating him. I would go days without reading this if I was on Midnight's section or would just put it down partway through his dull narration because I had no interest in it.

My main problem with the book was that I just didn't care about any of the characters. The whole time you're supposed to be trying to determine who is the hero, who is the villain, and who is the liar. However, from the start, it's pretty obvious it's not going to be as clear-cut as presented. The book didn't make me feel invested in anyone so whenever something actually happened, I just kind of shrugged and moved on.

Once the big reveal comes about, it didn't even affect me because of this lack of investment. I was mostly just annoyed because it felt like the author was just trying to "trick" you with unreliable narrators, rather than coming up with an interesting twist.

Despite my initial excitement, I was left feeling dissatisfied when I finally finished this. Nothing happened, the message was fairly obvious, and any of the unpredictable twists just didn't seem to matter because the characters just felt like shadows on a page.

However, the narration was quite lovely at times with beautiful lyricism and interesting descriptions. I did enjoy the writing style overall. It was almost like reading a really long poem. I may check out more by this author, but I am definitely going to need a more interesting plot and more compelling characters.

First things first: I received this book through NetGalley.

German and english review

 

 

Ich bin mir immer noch nicht sicher, was ich über das Buch und die Geschichte denke. Oder über die Charaktere. Aber erst mal zum...

 

Inhalt: Wink: ein bisschen seltsam, zurückhaltend, mit wildem rotem Haar und einer ausufernden Fantasie. Poppy, das schöne Biest, das alle manipuliert, aber den nicht bekommt, den sie eigentlich haben will. Midnight, ein unsicherer Junge, hin- und hergerissen zwischen beiden. Sie alle erzählen ihre Geschichte. Eine Geschichte, in der die verrücktesten Dinge wahr sind. Was ist wirklich passiert? Jemand weiß es. Jemand lügt. Wem kannst du trauen?

 

Anfangs war ich total begeistert, die Charaktere waren alle drei ziemlich spannend. Wink hat sich von Anfang an in mein Herz geschlichen.Doch im Laufe des Buches, je weiter wir in die Geschichte kamen um so weniger wusste ich was ich von den einzelnen Charakteren halten soll. Was wahrscheinlich auch so gewollt war, schließlich soll in dem Buch keiner so sein, wie es auf dem ersten Blick scheint.

 

Was mir von Anfang bis Ende wirklich gefallen hat war die Art wie die Geschichte geschrieben wurde. Der Schreibstil war wirklich anders aber wirklich unheimlich schön. Fast schon poetisch. Und das hat am Ende auch das Buch für mich ausgemacht. Nicht die Charaktere, nicht die Story an sich, sondern wie alles geschrieben war.

 

***

 

I'm still not sure how I think about the book and the story. Or the characters. But first...

 

Summary: Every story needs a hero.
Every story needs a villain.
Every story needs a secret.

Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.

What really happened?
Someone knows.
Someone is lying.

 

In the beginning I was totally excited, all the three characters were really intriguing. Wink stole my heart in the very first pages. But the more I got into the book, the more I got into the story, the less I knew what to think of the characters. That was probably the intent, since the book is about people not actually being the way they seem to be.

 

What I loved from the beginning until the very end, was the way the story was written. The writing is just so different and so beautiful. Almost poetic. And that was what made the book for me in the end. Not the characters, not the story itself, but how everything was written.

 

This is the story of the mysterious girl next door, the bitchy queen bee, and the boy who is feeling lost and detached from his family and they ways they are connected.

 

I think I liked this book I’m not really sure. The writing was good and I enjoyed the story, and I’d be interested to read more by Tucholke but I seriously this book was bizarre. I heard about this book when Jay Kristoff mentioned it at an event for Illuminae, and I can’t remember what he said about it but when I saw it on Overdrive I decided to pick it up. When it ended I took out my earbuds and was just left feeling somewhat confused. Like I understand what happened but I just felt a bit overwhelmed. I don’t know if I’d recommend this book because I still feel like I’m not sure about it. I felt like I could see real humans inside these kinda cliché characters. But then maybe I feel like these characters are cliché because this book is so short everything happens at breakneck speed which is kinda fine and kinda annoying and clearly I don’t know how I feel about this book.  Two things I do know: The cover is beautiful, and the audiobook helped shape the characters and get me through this book.

Quick review for a quick read. I feel like I am giving this a higher rating for the experience of the story rather than the foundation of the story itself. This isn't so weird considering I listened to it via audiobook, but at the same time - the writing drew me in. I was hooked from point one (which began quite strong) to a somewhat lackluster ending for events but made sense for the fates of the characters.

Wink, Poppy, and Midnight are all teens with vastly different motivations in the book. You could almost call it a warped coming of age story, set with the backdrop of fairy tales. Wink is the whimsical girl lost in tales and tarot cards (I thought her name was appropriate given her dreamy qualities. ) Poppy is a firecracker of a girl who is very cruel to those around her - very amped up highs and lows. I kept thinking of the poisonous flowers from the Wizard of Oz for some reason coming across her name. Then there's Midnight, who seems to drift between phases and seems afraid to call out the things in his life that unsettle him. He's been rejected by Poppy (yet she uses him), his mom is in another country with his brother with no point of contact, and he tries to emulate his brother's attitude only to come out on the losing side.

The three have such complicated ties to each other in the scheme of the book that it leaves you wondering who's playing who in terms of how they act on this stage and why. I enjoyed the journey for sure but I'm still at odds because as short and quick as this read was, I wanted to sink my teeth into it more. I wanted their actions (or inactions) to have more weight.

But it's enough to make me curious for reading more of Tulcholke's work in the near future.

Overall score: 3.5 / 5 stars.

First off I want to say that this book has an AWESOME cover. It's what drew me in first. I also loved the names of the three main characters...POPPY - MIDNIGHT - WINK. The writing was lyrical and had an almost mythical quality to it, and the quick 3 POV transitioned moved the story along at a nice pace.

NOW, that being said. I think this book was over my head. I feel like I missed some sort of deeper meaning or message. Because honestly, I have NO frigging clue what this book was suppose to be about.



None of the characters in this book were likable in the least. POPPY was an OTT bitch queen bee. Her and Midnight have a sexual relationship for the past year, well she has been having sex with him and two hanger-ons. Playing them all against each other. Which seemed a bit calculating for a 17 year old. Then you have WINK who is WEIRD and not in the cute and quirky way, but in the "perhaps a physiatrist visit is in order" way. Last but not least you have MIDNIGHT who comes across as a spineless idiot. None of the teenagers in this books speak or act like 16/17 olds. At least not like the ones I am subjected to on a daily basis!



That brings me to the ending. A more frustrating ending I could not imagine. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND IT. The whole thing with the Tarot cards and WINK dieing young?? Say what now?? The fact that the whole book the author had been working towards a romance between WINK and MIDNIGHT just to have MIDNIGHT move to Paris without so much as a GOOD-BYE to WINK. Then WINK apparently going to get with one of the hanger.on boys??!! The whole fairy tale thing??!!

Quite frankly, this whole book made my head hurt, and NOT in a good way...sigh.