Oh boy... this book made me feel feelings. The struggle with the "what might have been" each of these characters went through felt real and tangible. I loved the concept of "the memory drug", and while I would have loved for it to have been fleshed out a little more, I felt like it worked for this story. This story was about grief, and man did it hit.

These characters embodied the tension of a group of people, once close, split apart by tragedy. That reunion vibe of seeing people you were once close to, with whom you spent some of your most formative years, but have moved on from.

Nostalgia, retrophilia, regret, grief, loss... with a nice mystery whodunnit plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I found the Midnight Club to be highly entertaining, original and a fun read! This unique time travel novel is about a group of college friends who meet as adults and try to figure out how a friend died by ingesting a substance that takes their mind back in time to relive those moments before their friend’s death.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the story to be engaging, the characters were well fleshed out, and the time travel elements quite imaginative. It was a quick read because it was so engrossing, and I was fully invested in finding out who was responsible for their friends death.

Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Midnight Club is like a forgotten melody—a haunting tune that resurfaces unexpectedly. Margot Harrison’s prose wraps around you, pulling you into the shadows of our shared past. The Midnight Club isn’t just a book; it’s a séance. It beckons you to revisit your own midnight moments, the choices that shaped your life. As I turned the final page, I wondered: What would I do differently if I could relive that fateful night? The Midnight Club lingers, like the scent of pine needles after rain. It’s a whispered confession, a stolen kiss, and a promise unfulfilled. Dive in, my friend, and let the past envelop you. 🌌📖✨

3.5 stars

The Midnight Club by Margot Harrison has such a cool premise - there’s a new psychedelic that has been discovered by college students in Vermont. This drug has the ability to show anyone under 30 visions of their future selves — while offering forgotten memories of the past to those over 30. Nostalgia is unreliable - we are always wishing for the past even when we are in the present thinking about how this current moment will one day be distant memory. Our physical bodies have already lived through our entire lives but our minds are catching up.

The execution of this sci-fi mystery didn’t deliver what I was hoping for. A group of college students came together to create a literary magazine in the 80s — one of them dies and in the year 2014 they meet up to take the psychedelic drug once more to try to better understand what happened to their friend. Murder? Suicide?

I do enjoy stories that allow for multiple POVs, I appreciate being able to understand what each individual character is going through and their perspective on the big picture. Unfortunately, the character development through this piece makes it challenging to really connect with any one character deeply. I found myself most drawn to Sonia and Byron.

Thank you so much to Harlequin Trade and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. If you are a fan of psychedelic experiences, the multiverse, alternative realities, time travel and solving a mystery with a group of friends then give this book a try when it is released on September 24, 2024.

DNF at 35%. I really thought this story had so much promise based upon the synopsis. You can’t take a substance when you’re young and see your future, or when you’re old and see your past? Sounds like tea and heartache, sign me up. Oh we’re going to use this to solve what happened to our friend the night she died? I love time jumping detectives! Unfortunately, with these kinds of stories, you need to understand and be invested in the characters. Even at 35% I don’t think any of these people have ever actually been around one another, let alone spent any significant amount of time developing friendships.

2.5/5 ⭐️
This was an interesting book to say the least, but it was very different from what I was expecting. I thought this was a thriller but it is more of a sci fi and magic type of book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6427956509

I tried, but I just really couldn’t get into this.

The premise was interesting and that’s what initially pulled me in, however, there was nothing to latch onto. The characters weren’t relatable and the mystery was lacking for me. I loved the idea of a drug that could show you the past or the future, but something about this couldn’t hold my attention.

I would say out of everyone’s story, I was most interested in Sonia’s. I liked her best personally. I also liked how it was told from multiple povs.

I think I would be interested in reading other works by this author, but this one just fell flat for me.

This is my first sci-fi read in a long, long time. As a not sci-fi reader, this book was really good. I was nervous about the dual plot lines, but the author did an amazing job with the transitions. I did struggle through some parts that just read slow, but I would definitely recommend this for people who love mystery and sci-fi.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

There were a lot of things about The Midnight Club that were interesting but, unfortunately, it’s definitely lacking.

The premise is promising but I don’t know if it delivers. A group of friends, loss, the opportunity to see your future and relive your past. Would you do it if it meant finding out the truth about something horrible?

Told from multiple perspectives The Midnight Club is about a group of friends coming together for a reunion to hopefully relive a bit of their past and find out what happened one terrible night in May of 1989.

The time travel drug element of this book should work really well. It’s an enticing idea that anyone would consider. The problem is that the rules are never really outlined. Beyond when you’re young you see you’re future and when you’re older you see your past the pieces of what make this work and how it operates are never explained. Why is the past more vivid than the future? How does this exist? You can get unstuck in time (whatever that means) but what makes that happen? It almost seems to change depending on what needs to happen next and it seems to cheapen it.

This weird concoction is not the most unbelievable part of the book, however. No. I struggled to connect with any of these characters. They all come off as pretentious and selfish - which I suppose is just being human - but they also never really feel like they’re friends. Even when they’re young and supposedly close they don’t seem to know much about each other or care what’s going on and it really made me dislike all of them. It’s really hard to believe that after twenty five years four people would return for a multiple day reunion, staying in the same B & B when they never seemed to like each other in the first place.

I think that was why I struggled to enjoy this book. I do believe it has an audience and there is something to be said about nostalgia being unreliable which is a big part of this book. I guess I just am not the target for this one.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harlequin Trade for this ARC.

The premise of this book is really interesting - a drug that can open up the past and give you glimpses of your future? Except it’s just not that well executed. I wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. It could use a trim down.

At times the writing is confusing and I couldn’t figure out who was speaking. The book also dragged on in the middle.

I found Sonia and Byron to be compelling characters. Byron was the most well thought out character. At times Sonia seemed pathetic and directionless.

In the past it never landed that all these characters were so close. They seemed to just be background characters in each others stories.

Aura’s obsession with the past made zero sense to me and she felt distracting and it felt like the author was trying to make a higher brow revelation about our past and our memories than she did.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

The beginning was a bit slow for me but I loved the time jumps!

I had a hard time connecting with the characters because it was in 3rd person but I did love that it was multi pov and the dialogue was entertaining.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be beautiful. Everything about this book was wonderful and it tells such a touching story of aging and life. The mystery, the characters, the plot, everything was captivating and intriguing. The idea of sog was so original and it made me think about the past. This book had an overhanging feeling of nostalgia the entire time which really fit with the theme. I also loved the way Auraleigh’s character arc was written, she became a better person overall by the end. The ending of the story was amazing, and Byron finally realizing that he had to let go was so moving. This book tells such an astonishing story, and I would totally recommend you guys checking it out!

So, this is a book where you just have to trust the process and trust that the author will be able to tie it altogether. Spoiler alert, Margot Harrison was able to deliver.

I do think the format is a little weird (at least reading it on a kindle)- I am sure that will get fixed before publication. I also would not recommend listening to this as an audiobook, unless you're going to take notes on the "magic system" and pause every so often to gather your notes together. Could also just be a me issue!

This was such an interesting concept where you take a secret drug and you not only remember the past, but also relive it. And of course, everyone has secrets and don't want them to be revealed as we try to figure out what happened to their friend Jennet.

Side note, something I really enjoyed was the behind this book excerpt at the end of this book which shared how this book came to be. There are some books, especially murder mysteries, sci-fi and fantasy books where I would love to know how the author came up with the characters, plot points and world building.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

O my goodness!! I wasnt sure what to expect going into this book but I was blown away.

The plot follows a group of friends from college who experience a new type of drug that allows you to time travel in a sense, and catch glimpses of the future. Although your physical body stays in the present, your mind is opened to memories and flashes of experiences in the future.

The premise is that our bodies have already lived through our whole lives and our brains already store the knowledge and experience of our future, and the drug just unlocks parts of the brain that allow us to access those memories.

In the Behind the Book excerpt at the end of the novel (something I wish more books had), Harrison confesses that The Midnight Club was decades in the making. A project born from a college idea that required the vantage of a life more lived before she could tell the story in its current form.

Definitely check this book out for something different or if you enjoy mystery/suspense, magical realism, or deep thinking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4/5 stars. Thank you NetGalley for the arc! This book had absolutely beautiful writing. I loved the storyline, such a unique concept. It was a little confusing at the beginning but the time jumps got a lot better after a while. I loved this mysterious plot line and the lesson the characters learned at the end. If you enjoyed If We Were Villians, and want to try sci-fi check this book out when it comes out!

This book didn't do it for me. I could never buy into the idea of 'sog' and couldn't buy into the idea of time travel as provided in this book.

(Thanks NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC! This is my honest review.)

The formatting on the Kindle made this book challenging to read (hopefully that gets fixed), but overall I really enjoyed the content. It’s different from what I would typically read; it’s a murder mystery, with just a hint of sci-fi. The middle part of this book dragged on a bit, and I felt the portrayal of Bryon was a little wishy-washy towards the end. However, it had me in its grip as the plot climaxed and it provided a number of lingering thought provoking questions. If you could go back in time to relive memories, the good and the bad, would you?

I wanted to like this one but the formatting was wonky which made it hard to read and I struggled to connect as it was 3rd person. Decent plot overall, but not for me

Following the story of 4 college friends coming together for a reunion to honor a mutual friends death, Margot creates a story line that gives us mystery and friendship that makes us want to put on our detectives hat. It took me a little bit to figure out the book and to follow along but I really enjoyed this idea of a “sog” and getting to know each characters relationship with each other and the passing of their friend.

It definitely was an interesting ending that I did not predict, which was great on Harrison’s ideas and writing skills. Unfortunately, I felt like there was something missing besides going into the sog to uncover memories. I wanted more. Though a great book overall.

Imagine finding a secret passage in your attic leading to a time-travel adventure, but instead of a time machine, you've got a magical drug called "sog" that lets you peek into the future or revisit your past. That's the wild ride "The Midnight Club" offers, where a group of old college friends reunite not just for laughs and old tales, but to solve a mystery from their youth involving their friend's mysterious ending. It's like diving into a pool of memories, wondering if you could change the bad parts without messing up the good ones. The book, cooked up over 35 years by the author Margot, mixes the excitement of youth with grown-up reflections, kind of like realizing your childhood ice cream tastes just as good, but now it makes you think about calories.

However, this story feels a bit like being promised an all-you-can-eat buffet and then finding out it's just appetizers. It teases your brain with cool ideas and heartfelt moments but leaves you hanging like a TV show canceled on a cliffhanger. You get into the mystery, the time-traveling brain trips, and the drama of trying to fix the past, but in the end, you're left wanting more. It's as if the story sets up a fantastic party, complete with balloons and confetti, but forgets to invite the main course to the table.

In the end, "The Midnight Club" is like a rollercoaster ride through a funhouse mirror maze of time, full of twists and turns, friendships, and a dash of mystery. Margot's effort to stitch together this wild tale over decades is like trying to complete a giant puzzle with pieces from different boxes; it's ambitious and sparkles with potential. But as you turn the last page, you might feel like the ride stopped too soon, leaving you dizzy and curious about what just happened. It's a light-hearted, quirky trip down memory lane that makes you wish for just a few more loops on the rollercoaster.