It took Margot Harrison 35 years to publish The Midnight Club and it was worth it because it is perfection! She began the first draft as a college student fixated on the idea of reliving childhood memories. She wrote the final draft as a middle-aged person drawing on memories of being a confused, alienated young adult. Putting that all together through many different iterations came a story that is so compelling, so enthralling, so very captivating that you literally don't want to put it down to do absolutely anything else.
Four estranged friends gather for a weeklong campus reunion of "The Midnight Club", but soon learn that their host has more than just a reunion planned. She wants them to uncover the truth about the night their friend, Jennet, died in 1989. With the help of a powerful memory drug called Sog, they can not only remember the past, but RELIVE it.
Between both voluntary and involuntary memories, the truth behind the death of Jennet, becomes clearer but also opens the way for so many more questions within their circle. Can secrets and friendship coexist? How well do you really know your friends? If you could go back and change one thing in your past, would you do it? Even if it meant your future would be forever altered?
This was a 5 star read for me, hands down. This book will stay with me for a long, long time. Please, do yourself a favor, and get your hands on a copy when it comes out on September 24th, 2024. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House for giving me the pleasure of reading this arc.

Review site: Goodreads
Run date: 03/13/24 - eternity

[received arc from netgalley and harlequin trade publishing, thank you!]

ideally an emotional, claustrophobic thriller about past lives and hope for second chances, this book struggles to nail the elements that it needs to succeed where it wants to. for a character-based narrative, the characters that we spend the majority of the narrative with aren't given the proper time to stretch out and establish themselves, and the stakes of the book are hand-wavey and vague. in particular, i was never really convinced that any of these people are friends, much less why any of them are so committed to unearthing their past. i thought that certain aspects of the plot's main 'device' were intriguing, and would've loved to see a bigger payoff of those elements towards the end. sort of a letdown for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC copy of The Midnight Club.

Oof. I LOVED the idea of this story, but I did not love the execution.

The idea of "sogging" either into the future or the past was really intriguing and definitely my favorite part of the book. I liked the concept of a time travel you couldn't precisely control. Unfortunately, there was so much constant switching between discussing the past, sogging to the past, being in the present, sogging to the future that I found myself having to go back multiple times to re-read when there was a time change with absolutely no warning.

The ending was also very frustrating. I was really invested in the mystery of Jennet's death being solved but there was no clear resolution.

2.5 stars. If I could sog back in time, I would skip reading this book 😬😅

Four friends. A campus reunion. A dark new way to relive the past.It’s been twenty-five years since The Midnight Club last convened. A tight-knit group of college friends bonded by late nights at the campus literary magazine, they’re also bonded by something the death of their brilliant friend Jennet junior year. But now, decades later, a mysterious invitation has pulled them back to the pine-shrouded Vermont town where it all began.As the estranged friends gather for a weeklong campus reunion, they soon learn that their host has an ulterior she wants them to uncover the truth about the night Jennet died, and she’s provided them with an extraordinary method—a secret substance that helps them not only remember but relive the past.But each one of the friends has something to hide. And the more they question each other, the deeper they dive into their own memories, the more they understand that nothing they thought they knew about their college years, and that fateful night, is true.Twisty, nostalgic, and emotionally thrilling, The Midnight Club explores that innate desire to revisit our first loves, our biggest mistakes, and the gulf between who we are and who we hoped we’d be.

A very fun fast paced thriller. If you enjoyed The Midnight club show on Netflix, you should check this one out. It's like that, only set 25 years later as grown ups. The stories are less YA and more adult themes which I absolutely loved:)