Find the courage to be extraordinary . . .
Ema Vašková has always felt different. In a family of famous scientists, there's not much room for superstition or omens - but they seem to follow Ema wherever she goes. It doesn't help that she appears to predict events before they happen, and has a peculiar fear of shadows . . .
When Ema is sent to stay with her eccentric uncle in Prague, she fears she'll lose the chance to ever fit in. But then she meets Silvie - a girl who finally sees Ema for the extraordinary person that she is. Soon the girls are meeting for secret midnight adventures, and facing Ema's fears together.
But then disaster strikes. Silvie goes missing - and it's up to Ema to find her. Now she must gather the courage to hunt the city, find her friend, and uncover the secrets of the one clue Silvie left as to where she might be - inside the mysterious Midnight Guild . . .
Many thanks to Kaleidoscopic Tours for having me on the blogtour for this brilliant adventure. Check out other stops via the links below:
Hana Tooke grew up near Amsterdam, in a house filled with peculiar clocks and a head filled with a peculiar imagination. She's been a singer, a teacher, and even a mad-scientist, but these days she spends her days writing stories, sculpting puppets, and collecting curiosities. She lives in Bath with two humans a cat and a skeleton marionette.
Hana’s debut novel, The Unadoptables, was one of the bestselling middle-grade books of 2020.
Find out more about Hana via her Instagram: http://instagram.com/hanatooke
My thoughts:
This is a great book...it had me so hooked that I nearly ( and deliberately!) missed my stop on the train so that I'd be able to keep reading and have more time to immerse myself in the fantastical world of Ema and Sylvie.
It has magic, family secrets, mysterious strangers, danger....and animal sidekick in Bartok the bat and ...what more does an adventure need??
I loved the character of Ema...a misfit in an already unusual family right from the start, and I loved her journey and development as she found her true self, discovered her powers, and found her sense of self and place as the story developed and her confidence and bravery grew.
Funny, feelgood, gripping fantasy...perfect for fans of Katherine Rundell and Kirsty Applebaum, I loved this...the descriptions of the secret world of the Curators, secret midnight meetings, the hunt for a missing friend, and the great range of characters in the story too ( from a knife-thrower and a bicycle making uncle, to a giant badly-behaved cat!)
You'll love this...it has all the elements of a brilliant book to hook and engage readers 8+
The Midnighters is published by Puffin, and is out now.
You can read an extract and download resources to use with the book via this link:
Thanks again to Puffin for a copy of the book, and to Bee at Kaleidoscopic for having me on the blogtour.
Review by Rich Simpson (@richreadalot) July 2022. All opinions my own.