Midnight Multiplayer

By: Paul Christou

Narrated by: Slade Hovick

One game. $20,000 on the line. No extra lives.

Charlie used to dominate the leaderboard. Now he's drowning in debt, stuck in a dead-end job, and running out of second chances.

When a video game tournament offers $20,000 to the last team standing, it's more than a competition.

It's his way out.

All he has to do is log in at midnight with the friends he used to play with every night. But real life doesn't have a pause button.

As midnight approaches and the pressure outside the game builds, Charlie must decide if chasing the win could cost him far more than the prize money.

Midnight Multiplayer feels like logging back in with the friends you grew up gaming with—except this time, it's not just the match on the line.

©2025 Paul Christou (P)2025 Paul Christou

A Mostly Unexciting Story With Some Decent Moments

A decent premise, but lacks an exciting hook, deliving an a normal story about a normal guy going through a normal life. I did find it relatable, but stakes felt kind of low. Charlie was kind of a dull character saved by a well told final act. Ahead of this, I often found myself bored. It relies on relatable characterization and nostalgia to deliver what is otherwise not very exciting. Even the tournament at the heart of the story was uninteresting, an average battle royale game that didn't feel like it was the great game ahead of its competitors. The writing is decent, though the constant name drops were grating after a while. There's potential here in Christou's writing. My hope is the next book is more exciting.

I couldn't put it down.

OMG What a great read, especially if you're a gamer. The story line was phenomenal. You instantly get pulled in and it keeps you engaged. You can tell the author put his heart and soul into the story line. To the author... NAILED IT!!!

Brilliant performances elevated a great coming-of-age story

This book was a surprising delight. As Christou's debut novel, it lands as a coming-of-age story. Charlie is wholly unlikable, immature, and childish at the beginning of the story. By the end of the story, we see real growth and character development, and Charlie becomes more relatable and human, which is impressive given the relatively short timeline. It also deals with some heavy subject matter in a way that felt thoughtful and sensitive. I really enjoyed the way the story ended, and wouldn't mind additional stories that focus on characters like Tim or Emma.

That said, it isn't without it's faults. Some of the writing is stilted and quite wooden -- Christou often name drops video games in lists of two or three with no context in a way that does nothing to enrich the story, instead trying to flex his knowledge of the electronic medium. At times it is even quite distracting (at one point he references sneaking around like Ezio from Assassin's Creed II and then blasting somebody with a shotgun, which is a jarring juxtaposition). It didn't ruin the story by any means, but felt awkward and unnecessary in many places.

The absolute best part of this book is the audiobook narration! Slade's reading of the story was highly enjoyable, and I'm not sure I would have read the whole book if not for his wonderful performances. The cast has a wide variety of diverse characters, including many female characters and several with distinct accents. Slade brought each character to life in a way that was immediately recognizable each time they spoke. Some standouts include Johnny, DuPont, and Francisco. Some characters like Dominic and Dimitri even have Italian or Russian accents. These accents felt natural and did not venture into the territory of a caricature or stereotype. So, I'm impressed that he decided to go for accents to lend personality to the characters without it becoming insensitive or offensive. His standout performance is probably as Charlie's pothead buddy, Johnny.

Slade also did a great job of playing with the medium. There were times in the story where he used voice effects to mimic the sound of characters talking to one another over the phone, or even layering voices when multiple characters spoke in unison. It shows an extra level of production and effort that really elevated the quality of the recording!

Overall, I enjoyed my time listening to Midnight Multiplayer and would recommend the audiobook to anybody who is looking for something entertaining and breezy to listen to while on their daily commute, doing chores, or out enjoying a walk. Slade's performance took a good book and made it GREAT, and I can't wait to see and hear more from both Paul Christou and Slade Hovick.

Great Book!

Great characters, story and loved having it take place in Chicago. I’m not a gamer and I really learned a lot and got a better understanding on why people are. Loved the family story line!