A review by kylielovesbooks
Shattered Midnight by Dhonielle Clayton
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This series is really cool, as it spans over generations of a family through 4 books written by different authors. This is the second installment and takes place in 1920's New Orleans. It gave me a little bit of The Diviners vibes taking place in the same time frame which was fun. We don't immediately know how these characters connect to the ones in the previous book and they actually connected in a way I wasn't expecting.
The characters were well done. We have the main character Zora who has been forced to hide out with her aunt and cousins in New Orleans because of something horrible she had done with her magic (we learn what this is later on in the book). She is trying to navigate being a young black women in a time where it was hard to be a young black woman. Her only friend is Jo, who sings with her at the nightclub she sneaks out to. I thought they had a wonderful friendship and it was a joy to read about. Zora meets Phillip at the nightclub and even though he is white and they are not legally allowed to be together, they form a relationship that is absolutely sweet.
While I was able to fly though this book, it wasn't super exciting. The writing style was wonderful though, and I could picture New Orleans and the clubs and parades perfectly. I did really enjoy the bittersweet ending and so many things happened that I didn't see coming. I had it all planned out in my head how I wanted it to go but I knew something bad was going to happen.
I'm actually really interested to see where the next book takes us in this family's story!
This series is really cool, as it spans over generations of a family through 4 books written by different authors. This is the second installment and takes place in 1920's New Orleans. It gave me a little bit of The Diviners vibes taking place in the same time frame which was fun. We don't immediately know how these characters connect to the ones in the previous book and they actually connected in a way I wasn't expecting.
The characters were well done. We have the main character Zora who has been forced to hide out with her aunt and cousins in New Orleans because of something horrible she had done with her magic (we learn what this is later on in the book). She is trying to navigate being a young black women in a time where it was hard to be a young black woman. Her only friend is Jo, who sings with her at the nightclub she sneaks out to. I thought they had a wonderful friendship and it was a joy to read about. Zora meets Phillip at the nightclub and even though he is white and they are not legally allowed to be together, they form a relationship that is absolutely sweet.
While I was able to fly though this book, it wasn't super exciting. The writing style was wonderful though, and I could picture New Orleans and the clubs and parades perfectly. I did really enjoy the bittersweet ending and so many things happened that I didn't see coming. I had it all planned out in my head how I wanted it to go but I knew something bad was going to happen.
I'm actually really interested to see where the next book takes us in this family's story!