The Midnight Club

By: Margot Harrison

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus

A twisty, nostalgic, emotionally thrilling novel about a group of estranged college friends who experiment with a secret substance that allows them to re-live their memories—and the fallout when they uncover startling truths about a dark event from their past

“A strange, riveting, brilliant fable. Like a fever-dream of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.” —LEV GROSSMAN

“How could you leave the past undisturbed when it was hiding parts of you from yourself?”

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 darker: 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 motive: 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.

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.

Nostalgic and Riveting right down to the last page

This book was so very good. It was not exactly a dark academia book, in the traditional sense but I could very much see why the publisher would market it as such. There’s pursuit of knowledge albeit maybe more of a personal sort of knowledge, there’s a tragedy a group of friends are desperately trying to solve. There’s finding oneself and coming to terms with one’s self. Grief and acceptance and friendship. It’s a bit of a twist on what long time DA readers would consider the genre but it does fit in a strange way. In a good way I suppose?

The word nostalgic is ironic (once you read it) but it truly does feel nostalgic. Even though I was not born during the initial time period of the book it still resonated with so many parts of me. The storyline was so intriguing and unique. The aspect of memory visiting, and how even what we think we truly know is not ever truly real. What is real? Reality? The here and now? It’s a kaleidoscope of emotions, moments, and pieces of time. Where everyone you meet or will meet or have met hold a singular fragment of that same meeting only through a different piece of color. And depending where you target your thoughts, you could end up catching a glimpse of another life in another time with another person.

DNF - Couldn't get into the story or the characters

this book was way too confusing and seemed erratic. I wanted to like the book and forced myself to get halfway through but the characters were thin and lacked any depth.