The Midnight Feast Book Review

I’m sorry, but I didn’t like “The Midnight Feast.” First and foremost, it was boring. Nothing much really happens throughout. The whole story takes place in the span of three or so days, not counting the flashbacks to 15 years prior.

In that time, we are introduced to a host of insipid, lifeless characters that I never cared about. There is a nauseating array of POVs that all have nothing interesting to offer. Sometimes, I feel like all the POV switches were only meant to prevent the story from ending faster, wringing out the shriveled-up plot as much as possible.

Watch as we get glimpses of characters walking through the woods/beach, chatting with their coworkers, or — most likely — having internal monologues with themselves. It was especially cumbersome to switch POVs and then see the same scene through a different character’s eyes. There is nothing interesting enough in this book that we need to see it from a different perspective twice, believe me. Even the big climax was, despite a few red herrings along the way, entirely predictable and dishearteningly unsatisfying.

There was never any tension throughout the whole story, and it was never much of a mystery, either. I suppose we didn’t know who died or why until the end, but I was never invested enough to care.

There’s also the fact that this book is like the amalgam of all the popular thriller plots/characters. We’ve got the rich white woman who “collects” poor people for her amusement. We’ve got the foreboding flash-forwards to an anonymous dead body/crime scene. Of course, everything happens in an exclusive resort, which is, for some reason, becoming a trope I keep reading.

There is an odd number of things that happen for no reason and then are never mentioned again. For example, two characters commit infidelity, and then… things just go on as normal, without there ever being a confrontation or consequences? Or there’s a scene when a background character displays inhuman levels of singing ability, foreshadowing their rise to stardom… that never happens? I think these scenes were just added in to pad the story and add SOMETHING interesting.

I also couldn’t keep track of the age differences. This book takes place over the span of 15 years, so we see some characters as teenagers and adults. It seems like some people age either incredibly fast or slow over those 15 years, because characters who were teenagers end up marrying little kids? Either that, or the mother of one of the characters was either like 12 when she had them or is like a late 20-something hanging out with teenagers… so it’s a little weird.

Also, there’s a drug dealer who supplies drugs to one of the adult characters in the flashbacks, but I thought he would have been a little kid at that time. If he wasn’t, then again, he’s a late 20-something dating a 19-year-old, which is weird.

It’s also important to mention that NO ONE recognizes each other 15 years later. People do change, but when you hang out with someone for an entire summer, you should at least recognize their face.

One positive: I listened to the audiobook production, and I think it was really well done. Each character had their own voice actor, who performed their lines very well.