I went into this with some reservations, but fortunately, it wasn’t a disappointment. That said, it wasn’t particularly remarkable either—it was just an okay read.

The story leans more towards mystery than thriller, offering an intriguing exploration of Southern folklore, hidden secrets, religious undertones, and the unique charm of small Appalachian towns. However, I found the pacing a bit slow, and there wasn’t anything that made me eager to pick it up again, though the plot did keep me curious enough to see how it all unfolded.

So interesting, but not extraordinary.

This book by Ashley Winstead was Heather Webber meets Delia Owens. It has the innocent southern feel mixed with a mystery but for me that was where it ended. Ruth was Twilight obsessed, which was fine until it was mentioned every other sentence. To be honest, if all of that was removed, it would not have changed the plot and it would've reduced the book by about 100 pages.. This was my third book by this author and I am realizing that maybe I just do not like her writing style.

I found Ruth do be ridiculously immature , I found no love for any of the characters, and the ending...well...I am missing those hours of my life that I cannot get back! With that said, it's maybe me and not all the yous that gave this book 4-5 ⭐'s. Because I have FOMO, I will probably read another Winstead and again realize she isn't for me so that's something,; she definitely holds some power over her readers!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the opportunity to listen and review this title.

Ashley Winstead has done it again with Midnight Is the Darkest Hour! This atmospheric and beautifully written Southern Gothic thriller kept me hooked from the very first page. Set in a small, eerie Louisiana town steeped in religious fanaticism and sinister secrets, the story brilliantly weaves together mystery, romance, and deep, dark family legacies.

The characters are incredibly well-developed, especially Ruth and Everett, whose complex relationship adds a layer of emotional intensity to the suspense. Winstead's skill at building tension is masterful—each chapter unravels more chilling details, making it impossible to put down. The twists are unpredictable, the writing is lyrical, and the exploration of morality, desire, and darkness is both haunting and thought-provoking.

This book is an absolute masterpiece in audiobook form! The narration by Sarah Welborn truly brought this gripping Southern Gothic thriller to life, adding layers of tension and emotion that made it impossible to stop listening. The voice work captured the dark, eerie atmosphere of the small Louisiana town, with its deep-rooted secrets and unsettling religious undertones, perfectly. Winstead's lyrical prose, paired with such an engaging performance, made the audiobook an immersive and unforgettable experience.

If you're looking for a gripping and immersive read that will stay with you long after the final page, Midnight Is the Darkest Hour is a must-read. I can't recommend it enough!

Thank you Tantor Audio and NetGalley for an advanced listeners copy in exchange for my honest review.

A religious small town. A plucky heroine. A dark love interest. Gossip galore.... this book has everything I could ask for.

What in the Twilight meets Where the Crawdads Sing is this?! Full of religious bias and persecution. Aggressive small town gossip. And a twisted love affair. I could not connect to the characters. The only redeeming quality was the twisted secrets that emerged toward the end. Be warned, the end is a head scratcher!

I read via audiobook. The narrator, Sarah Welborn, is easily understood at faster speeds; however, I was not a fan of the Southern drawl. It was appropriate to the character, but became distracting at some points for my ears.

Thank you NetGalley, Tantor Audio, and author Ashley Winstead for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. “Midnight is the Darkest Hour” was published October 3, 2023!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for my gifted copy of Midnight is the Darkest Hour Unfortunately, I messed up with this one and the audiobook achieved before I had the chance to listen to it. I have plans on listening to this one soon but will give it five stars because I feel really bad for not downloading it in a responsible time frame.

This one is great and I have recommended it to a lot of my customers. It inspired a reader’s advisory list about “Cults and Strange Towns.”

Content warnings: sexual assault (on and off page), domestic abuse (off page), child abuse (on and off page), drugging of a minor by parents (on page), soooo much psychological abuse, animal death, murder, arson, gun violence, references to addiction, drug use (on page), forced abortion (off page), blood (on page)

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars

There is nothing so evil as a predominantly white small town being run by a dictator religious figure. Given how many content warnings you can tie to Midnight is the Darkest Hour, there are a lot of heavy topics involved in this story.

Honestly, Winstead lost me with the constant references to Twilight - even though I totally understand why a teen like Ruth would latch onto the "love" story of Bella and Edward as the ultimate romance, it was exhausting as a reader to constantly have to hear Ruth praising the book and the characters while imagining herself as Bella looking for her Edward. I do also think Winstead leaned a little too heavily into Ruth being this naive doe-eyed sheltered children of a hyper religious family because some of her more serious actions are in direct conflict with how she behaves 99% of the time in the book. I don't think it's believable that "good" Ruth and "bad" Ruth are the same person. I also didn't love how much Everett's storyline seems to pull from the major themes of Dexter. The romance for me seemed a bit convenient to the plot, but I can see options being few in Bottom Springs, Louisiana so life would lead to some unlikely pairings that wouldn't make sense in more worldly towns/cities.

The plot was interesting even with how predictable it was, but I think Winstead missed a big opportunity with the folkloric Low Man. I was really hoping that would play into the overall plot more than it did, same with the cult that Ruth and her librarian coworker discovered.

Reader's beware - this is one of those endings you're either going to love or hate. Personally I hated it, but I do think it fits with the rest of the story. This one is definitely just a me thing, I don't like open-ended conclusions. That being said, I did enjoy this book.

Sarah Welborn does a great job with the audiobook narration and their performance really helped set the vibe of this book.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book had all the creepy and spooky vibes and I really wished I would have listened to this in the fall as it would have been really fitting. I really enjoyed this book, it was poetic and I loved the writing. The Twilight references in the book made my inner teen smile and kick their feet and I enjoyed the parallels between Twilight and this book at times. I really enjoyed how layered the deception was in this town and Ruth got to the bottom of what had been happening and the corruption. This was a great mysterious thriller.

Midnight is the Darkest Hour was my first Ashley Winstead, and I was excited to try her books as many of my friends love her. However, I had heard that Midnight is considered a bit disappointing by even her most ardent fans. After finishing, I fully understand the warning.

There is a lot I enjoyed. Winstead is fantastic at creating a tension-fueled atmosphere. I found many elements creepy, and despite knowing the ending very early on, I kept turning the pages. I appreciated the first half of the story more than the back half. I found the back half to be quite hokey and silly. There are far too many Twilight references. Despite the disappointing ending, I enjoyed the writing and vibes enough to try another Winstead novel.

I listened to this one and found Sarah Welborn's narration easy to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one was an audio book for me and I throughly enjoyed it, I do caution you to check the trigger warnings. This book had a Gothic feel and over zealous religious townsfolk. The protagonists love for Twilight gave life to the Low Man. The narrator did an excellent job at drawing you in and captivating you with her Southern accent she embodied Ruth. The author and the narrator definitely made me feel like I was in the Louisiana swamps and forest very vivid descriptions. Thank you Netgalley and Tantor audio for the ARC in exchange for my review.

“𝒜 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇, 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃.” ℋ𝑒 𝑒𝓎𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒. “𝒟𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝓆𝓊𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁.”

The ending?! I was literally asking myself: this is how it ends?

I really enjoyed this book, it was mysterious gripping and an exciting story with dark but also lovable main characters. The writing was incredible!

I would highly recommend this book if you want a gripping and fascinating dark read!

Ashley Winstead is a master of writing sophisticated and captivating thrillers! Once I started listening to Midnight is the Darkest Hour I was captivated and I did not want to stop listening. Highly recommend!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had to try think twice before I made it through. I just couldn’t get into the storyline. Ruth was so immature and backward. Some of it seemed so far fetched. I thought it was kind of predictable and I couldn’t really root for any of the characters. Also, the ending was so abrupt and unresolved.

I wasn’t a fan of the narrator. Her voice was just hard to listen to for such a long book.

Review of Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

I read this book quite some time ago but will try my best with this review. I really enjoyed this one a lot and this author will forever be an auto buy for me, however, I do have to admit that this is my least fave of hers so far. Now that isn’t as bad as it sounds because all of hers have been five stars for me and this one is at least a four. I loved the creepy gothic vibe to this one and I loved the main characters.

Quick synopsis:

For fans of Verity and A Flicker in the Dark, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all...even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar―and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town's secret underbelly in search of true evil.
A dark and powerful novel like fans have come to expect from Ashley Winstead, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is an examination of the ways we've come to expect love, religion, and stories to save us, the lengths we have to go to in order to take back power, and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world.

This one was just mediocre for me. I couldn’t stand Ruth’s family. The Twilight references were repetitive and excessive, and I loved Twilight back in the day.

Ruth’s friendship with Everett was interesting. They were an unusual pair. I could see how much Everett cared about Ruth, even though most thought it was an unacceptable friendship. I liked the mystery portion of this book. Questioning how these two were connected made the story.

I read this one with a book club, and I’m glad that I did. It was enjoyable to discuss the murder and mystery of this one, and the influence on religion in the story. There were a lot of different feelings in the chat I was in.

I listened to this one and I enjoyed the narration. I’m not sure I would have finished it if I hadn’t had an audio copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for my ALC of this book

Ashley Winstead will always be an autobuy author for me. I loved the dark southern themes in this book. Highly suggest this thriller to everyone

A wild ride till the very last pages. I have adored everything I've read by Ashley Winstead so far--she's talented in so many genres--just a really, really good writer. Midnight is the Darkest Hour grips you in its atmospheric clutches right away. There's a quiet, sinister-ish vibe woven into the story that works so well. I wasn't sure what exactly Ruth was hiding, but enjoyed how the story unfolded. It's excellent on audio, and the narrator really worked well with the slightly meandering pace of past/present unraveling.

I really liked this author's previous book, In my dreams I hold a knife, so I was super excited to get this one. Unfortunately, this was not for me. It felt too YA and as another reviewer said, it was like reading Twilight fan fiction. As for the narration, that was one of the bright spots. As I was listening, I could really envision who was speaking.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝘼 𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙎𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙇𝙤𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙣, 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙨―𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧'𝙨 𝙙𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨―𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝.

This was such a fun thriller!! I had seen mixed reviews on this book so I was honestly quite nervous, but I ended I enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting to.

Ashley Winstead has become one of my favorite authors after reading and loving In My Dreams I Hold A Knife. I was so eager to pick this book up and I’m glad I did, it was so fun and interesting.

I recently figured out that I’m a huge fan of Southern gothic thrillers. The murder mystery in this small town was phenomenally terrifying and enjoyable. I’m so glad I listened to the audiobook because it added a much more pleasant experience to me. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through and was immediately hooked on the story.

The book did have a religious element to it, which I honestly quite enjoyed. I did find myself confused at times with what was going on. I can see why many readers didn’t get the thriller vibe, but I honestly didn’t mind it. The drama in the book was just as interesting.

The book itself has major Twilight vibes, I can see where the influence came from. Also, I will say the flashback chapters were a bit irreverent in my opinion and the ending wasn’t my favorite, but I had such a blast reading this and I can’t wait to see what Ashley Winstead comes out with next!!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!