The Midnight Club is a novel that delves into the complexities of memory, friendship, and loss. It follows a group of college friends, reunited after 25 years by a mysterious invitation. The reunion stirs up long-dormant feelings as they confront a shared tragedy: the death of their brilliant friend Jennet.

The plot thickens when their host introduces a unique method – a substance that allows them to relive their college years. As they delve deeper into the past, secrets begin to unravel, and their understanding of the fateful night Jennet died is shattered.

Strengths:

Intriguing premise: The idea of reliving the past to uncover a hidden truth is a compelling hook that keeps the reader guessing.

Character exploration: Each friend has their own secrets and baggage, creating a complex and dynamic group dynamic.

Emotional depth: The novel explores themes of nostalgia, grief, and the impact of past choices on our present lives.

Twisty and suspenseful: As the friends uncover forgotten memories, the plot takes unexpected turns, keeping the reader engaged.

Drawbacks:

Reliance on unreliable narrators: The use of memory as a narrative tool can be frustrating as it's unclear what is real and what is distorted.

Focus on introspection over action: The novel prioritizes internal struggles over external action, which may not appeal to readers seeking a fast-paced read.

Overall:

The Midnight Club is a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant novel that will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven stories with a touch of mystery.

Recommendation:

This book is a good choice for fans of character-driven literary fiction with a touch of suspense. Be prepared for a journey into memory and the complexities of past friendships.

I love the premise of this book! I enjoyed the dark academia feel with a return to as a tight group of college friends sets out to solve the mystery of the death of one of their own. As these estranged friends gather back on campus for a weeklong reunion, their host gives them the opportunity to find out what happened to their friend with the help of a secret substance that not only helps them remember the past but also relive it.

The idea of "sogging" either into the future or the past was really intriguing and definitely a fun plot device. I liked the concept of a time travel you couldn't precisely control which makes the stakes higher for the characters. 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 it hard to keep track of. I also found that for a character-driven narrative, none of them seemed to be given the time or opportunity to develop for me to be fully invested in their story and its outcome.

I feel like this will be an interesting concept at release, especially as a different twist on the thriller genre. This just didn't totally hit the mark for me!

Do you ever dream about a book, that you are witnessing the story play out from a first person POV? This book had me dreaming I was another character in the story.

I loved the plot of this. It made me want to jump in and join the characters. Such a fun read!

Rating: 3.75 - Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for providing this ARC to me!

This book has such a cool premise. College friends reunite and take a psychedelic drug that allows them to travel back in time—25 years ago—to solve the mystery of their friend’s murder.

My favorite part of this story was reading about the experience of taking Sog. I thought Margot Harrison did a phenomenal job at making readers feel like they were there, experiencing it themselves. Seriously, those pages were strong examples of creative, palpable, and immersive writing. I also really enjoyed the ending, which I did not see coming AT ALL. I could not stop thinking about the ending when I finished The Midnight Club.

However, I just do not think that this story was meant for me. I think I assumed that this book would be more of a low fantasy since it involved time travel, but it really is more of a classic mystery.

When I was reading this book, I was reminded a lot of Ninth House. I prefer The Midnight Club to Ninth House though, and I think this book would be best suited for someone who enjoyed Ninth House.

I look forward to encouraging friends that I think will enjoy this book to read it upon its release this year.

I had to DNF this. I loved the premise of this book but nothing happened in the beginning to grip me and keep my attention.

*Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own*

Unfortunately this book isn’t for me. The premise sounded very interesting - going back in time to change the fate of a friend.

I just don’t think this was quite for me. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and didn’t really care what they were doing and why. The setup seemed like it took a while to get going and while I usually like duel timelines, I don’t know if it worked here.

The concept of this book was super interesting and the writing is fluid, easy to digest. I sometimes felt like there were too many characters and most were unneeded aside from having multiple people with motives.

This was a fun story! A bit of a slow burn, which is usually not my thing, but the author did a great job of keeping the mystery just ahead of the page so it kept my interest! What a great concept. College friends reunite to try to revisit the past and solve a mystery around a shared tragedy. I didn’t see the twist at the end coming!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
Unfortunately, I could not get into this book. It was all over the place and characters seemed superficial. I was here for the dark academia meets Atlas Six meets time travel vibes but had to DNF.

This book wormed (sogged?) its way into my dreams. No, really! Over the course of the days I read it, I kept dreaming that I was asleep but I was also standing next to my sleeping body, watching it.

Partly fantastical, partly mysterious, wholly suspenseful, I had a blast with this novel. Naturally, I loved that it takes place in Vermont.

The story is straightforward, in a circuitous kind of way. Back and forth-ing in time. What was? What is? So many questions. So many gaps in information. She's a skilled puppet master, Harrison is.

And a skilled verbologist as well (yeah: I made up a new word).

This passage, in particular, reverberated inside me like a cannonball:

"Being young is like being on drugs. The sky is bigger and the sunsets are redder and every new outfit you buy is gonna change your life. Every new friend you make is going to be your friend forever. Time is so deep you could drown in an afternoon."

Lots to think about in this story. Lots to love about the setting, the characters, and the big mystery at the center of it all.

A darn good read.

So far fetched and boring i couldn’t even finish it. None of the characters were likeable and the premise was just bizarre and not fun.

This was such an amazingly unique experience! I love books that make me question deeper, think harder and notice my surroundings more. This was very engaging until the very end!

A time travel novel that will keep you hooked! A drug that allows you to hack into memories of your life? Yes, please! This was an easy, fun read! We have mystery, time travel,

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC. I loved the concept, it's a bit different from what I usually read but also familiar. I enjoyed reading the book, the prose was pretty and the mystery intriguing.

Thanks to NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for the e-ARC!

**3 stars** One of my favorite book genres happens to be dark academia so I was SUPER excited to receive an arc for this one. Though it didn’t turn out to be my most loved DA novel, this was still a solid read.

Told in two POVs, we follow two estranged friends, Sonia and Byron who were part of a literary magazine. 25 years after the death of their close friend Jennet, they receive a letter from another member, Auraleigh, inviting them to a reunion at her B&B. Sonia and Byron reunite with a few more estranged friends only to discover Auraleigh has an ulterior motive–to solve the mysterious death of Jennet. She hosts sessions involving a psychedelic that puts them to sleep and allows them to relive the past. Complications arise, secrets are revealed, and we readers are constantly questioning the events of that tragic night.

What I loved about this story is the focus on the delicate nature of time. It really makes you question whether you’d want to revisit your past. It’s deeper than solving a mystery and Margot Harrison really captures this well. The idea of bringing psychedelics and time travel into this was genius. Harrison also includes a series of questions at the end that made me contemplate what I would do if I was able to travel back in time.

It did take me a while to get into but once the story really got into the time travel sessions, it got really interesting. Even though the story is told in alternating timelines, I did find the character’s personalities were almost identical to their past selves which I found off-putting at times because it doesn’t show they grew in age or maturity. The similar character portrayal across timelines sometimes made it difficult to distinguish which timeline I was reading upon picking the book back up.

Overall, was I satisfied with the ending? Yes but no. I understand why it ended that way but I couldn’t help but feel unsure whether I liked the way things ended. I do think this is a great read and it included many elements that define a great dark academia book.

If you had the chance to go back in time and see how your friend truly died or had the chance to save her would you? This is the question a group of friends ask themselves 30 years after one of them dies. Dual timeline between 1989 and 2014. A drug allows them to see the future when they are young and see the past when they are old.

3 stars

The premise here is great, but it needs a lot more character work. It’s hard to relate to these characters and it seems that they can’t even relate to each other.
The plot is good, but needs a bit more tightening up. Make me want to keep reading and turning the page, give me someone to hate and someone to root for.

This book gave me Clue vibes. It was definitely a "who done it" type of book. I enjoyed it very much! The ending was a little predictable towards the end but I still was shocked once I figured it out. Overall an amazing book! Now I need to go read some more of Margot Harrison's books!

This novel is quite an interesting transformation of the Dark Academia sub genre. Set primarily decades after the unresolved death of their friend, Jennet on their college campus, the four living members of a friend group called “The Midnight Club” are forced to reckon with their past. What makes this book truly intriguing is the structure of the novel. The flashback scenes to when the group was attending college are broken up into “voluntary” and “involuntary” memories. This structure humanizes the trauma experienced by the characters in an unprecedented way. I personally loved the scenes where the characters discussed writing and books. (There is one specific moment when the characters discuss the work of Proust that really elevated the story). These moments of clear dialogue on cultural influences enhanced the sense of reality of these characters. I do feel like the beginning and ending felt disjointed which gave the overall story a lack of cohesion. This disjointed aspect leads into my difficult with this novel: the overall pacing. I feel that it took a very long time for the book to pick up the story, which made the reading experience feel quite long.

I keep finding myself pulled toward dark academia books since they're all the rage at the moment, but haven't found one that sticks. I've read that the authors make these characters esoteric and pretentious for a reason, but to me that makes the book unreadable! I really wanted to love this one, but there was little going on that made me want to spend my time reading it.