REVIEW: Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke


DNF at a little less than halfway through. I just...didn't like it.

 CHARACTERS
There are three main characters in Wink Poppy Midnight: Wink, the quirky girl-next-door, Poppy, your standard mean girl but somehow worse, and Midnight, a sweet boy who needs to grow a spine.

 Poppy is a terrible person, honestly one of the worst characters I've read about. Reading her perspective just made me angry, which I am sure was somewhat intended, but I didn't like it even still. I found her to be, quite frankly, infuriating, and the closest thing to a psychopath (or someone with antisocial personality disorder, for those who like psychology like me) that I've ever seen in a novel. She manipulates others for fun, as well as her own gain, and doesn't seem to care that she's a terrible person...unless it's Leaf telling her so.

 Wink, on the other hand, is kind of cool on first read, but with some time away from the book, I came to realize that she is every manic pixie dream girl trope with a side of withholding information. So, not necessarily a good character. It was interesting to read her short sections, but I couldn't help but feel she was hiding something from everyone - even herself, as the chapters are written in very close first person. Wink is the only character I felt this distance with, which really tipped me off to the twist ending.

 Midnight, on the other hand, is a sweet guy and I could root for him in another book, but he is very much a wimp and needs to separate himself from most of the people he speaks to. He is very clearly being manipulated and abused by Poppy, and even when he has made up his mind to get away from her, he doesn't argue when she forces her way into his life. Now, I know abuse is difficult to get away from, but I do believe Midnight could have done it with help - he doesn't tell his father, who he seems to be close to, about any of what's going on, nor does he pick up the phone and call his brother, who he states at least once he misses and looks up to.

 PLOT
I couldn't help but be confused. This book couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be. Did it want to be a contemporary love story/love triangle focused novel that dealt with teen angst and backstabbing? Did it want to be a somewhat spooky magical realism novel with hints of ghostly activity and a general creep factor? Or did it want to be a magical teen novel with lots of fairy tale elements and wonder? Wink Poppy Midnight had all of these elements, which confused the point and feel of the novel for me. I was never sure if I was meant to be enchanted, creeped out, or find the characters relatable. 

 Because of this confusion, I couldn't figure out the plot. I tried to figure it out, but I just couldn't. I was never sure what was going on because every element pointed to a different kind of story, and these elements sometimes contradicted each other. Zoe and Buttercup (Butterfly? it doesn't matter she barely shows up), two of Poppy's "followers", have a weird psuedo-twin thing going on that points to the creepy side of things, but Wink's whole everything points to a whimsical tale more along the lines of Furthermore. It doesn't make sense.

 Added to this is the fact that the first....30% or so is all the three main characters thinking. Sure, time passes and they do things, but none of it really matters. It is, essentially, the intro chapters that writing teachers recommend to let the readers get to know the characters, but it's half the book. I was almost bored.

 I cannot speak on the remainder of the novel, but I am sure there are reviews that cover the rest of the plot!

 WRITING
At first, the writing enchanted me. I love whimsy and the air of magic in pretty much everything, and this book sure delivered on that. However, before long it started to annoy me. The whimsy seemed to be a cover-up, and was one of the reasons mentioned above that I couldn't determine the plot of the novel. It also seemed very...pretentious. You know the kind of writing I mean: the John Green style, where teenagers are philosophers and also extremely horny. I can't speak to how actual teenagers feel about this trend in YA novels, as I am 22 years old, but I can say that I hated it. A lot.

 On the technical side, I noticed several comma splices, which should have been caught long before publication, especially since Wink Poppy Midnight is not the author's first novel.

 RATING
2 stars, and it's only that high due to the realistic feel of the characters, unique storytelling, and amazing cover.

 RECOMMENDATION
I would not recommend this novel to anyone. I do not think this is the novel it thought it was, and I don't think it even knew what it was trying to be. Save yourself the money and time, and read something like The Hobbit or Furthermore instead.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YA Materials, Literature Logs, Book #20: Dear Martin

Title:  Dear Martin Author:  Nic Stone Category:  YALSA's Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Justyce is an intelligent boy in his senior year of high school at a private, highly acclaimed school. That doesn't matter, though, when one night he finds himself the victim of racial profiling when he was simply trying to get his drunk girlfriend home. Even months later, Justyce suffers from painful memories of handcuffs being snapped around his wrists and the fear he felt that night. In an attempt to combat this racial injustice, Justyce begins to write letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and tries to "live like" him when he can. However, the more time goes on, the more Justyce notices racial microaggressions everywhere at his predominantly white school, and he can't sit by and let it happen, not after what he experienced. Dear Martin is such a powerful book, much like Long Way Down . Its characters feel real, like kids that really exist in many communities all over
Read more

TBR: July

Image
For the month of July, a Goodreads group I'm a part of ( The Reading Frenzy ) is doing a TBR challenge! The theme is "Run Away With the Circus". The above are my choices, designed to match the categories as follows: Menagerie: Read a book with an animal in the title - The Bear and the Nightingale  by Katherine Arden, which I've already started and am enjoying so far! Big Top: Read a book with red and white on the cover - The Night Circus  by Erin Morgenstern. I've not yet read this novel, despite a desire to for years, so I'm very excited to get started on it! Cotton Candy: Read a light and fluffy book - Grimm's Fairy Tales . I don't have many "fluffy" books, so I thought fairy tales were a good substitute! Flyers: Read a book about/set in space - Artemis  by Andy Weir. I love Weir's first novel, The Martian , so of course I bought this one when it came out. I hope it's just as good! Grandstand: Read a hyped b
Read more

YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #11: The 57 Bus

  Title:  The 57 Bus Author:  Dashka Slater Category:  YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults title On a bus trip home from school, the skirt of agender teenager Sasha was set on fire by another teen, Richard. The two did not know each other, and went to different schools. Richard and his friends, who dared him to set Sasha's skirt on fire, thought it was funny that they looked like a boy dressed as a girl, and Richard impulsively caused damage. He did not intend for Sasha to be hurt as badly as they were. This book covers the lives of both teenagers before the incident, Sasha's recovery in the hospital, and the court case that followed, as Richard was charged with hate crimes for his actions. I must admit, I had not heard of this event before choosing this book to read this semester, and I found it very interesting. Through reading the book, I feel like I gained an understanding of both Sasha and Richard, and how nuanced things like this are. I feel that this book cou
Read more