Review : Past Midnight
Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen
Pages : 216
Genre : YA, Paranormal
Series : Past Midnight, Book 1
My Rating : 
What it’s about :
Charlotte’s life is anything but ordinary : her parents are ghost-hunters tv celebrities, traveling around the country to investigate paranormal cases and documenting it all. Charlotte isn’t really a believer – that is, until some ghost gets attached to her, ruining her chance of a normal life.
As she starts a new school year in a new school with new friends, Charlotte tries to understand what is going on : how are her strange dreams linked to the ghosts hunting her? And what is her friend Avery’s secret?
I hadn’t heard of Past Midnight prior to getting a copy of it, so I was pleasantly surprised with it! Charlotte and her family were fun characters to read about, and the ghost scenes were definitely scary!
Honestly, the storyline isn’t anything super original, but it’s extremely refreshing to read just a good old ghost story, without heavy romance going on between the scary scenes! And scary, they were. While I sometimes thought the writing was a bit awkward, the author really wrote some chilling scenes. I’m thinking about one scene in particular, in Charlotte’s bedroom, where she feels someone sitting beside her, but there’s no one : I suddenly felt really small in my huge, badly lit living room!
I liked Charlotte as a character. Charlotte was a normal teen living her family’s different lifestyle, which made her easy to relate to but also interesting. I loved her relation with her sister, which was full of love but not necessarily without some conflict. Same thing with her parents : sometimes you try the best for those you love, which doesn’t mean you can’t make mistakes. Also, I have to say, I love a teen book where the parents aren’t dead or disappeared or just conveniently absent. As peculiar as their occupation is, Charlotte’s parents were really present and concerned with their daughter’s life. I loved that they worked with each other instead of against each other.
I really enjoyed this one, and I’ll be getting the next book as soon as I can.
Series Reading Order :
- Past Midnight
- One Hundred Candles
- Beyond the Grave (2011)
Book number two, One Hundred Candles, is coming out this week. But before getting your hands on it, make sure to read Raising the Dead, a short novella taking place between book one and two. You can find it at Harlequin.
Some ghost stories are too scary for me, but I might be able to handle this one.
Hmmm. The novella was a free Kindle download this week (I think maybe it still is?), so I’m definitely intrigued, but I get creeped out really, really easily, too. Not that that has ever stopped me from reading scary stories, but it does at least give me pause.
I like the covers! (and ghost stories!)
Great review! I really enjoyed this one as well, and let me tell you the sequel (One Hundred Candles) is even better. I think you’ll enjoy it a lot when you read it.
I love any kind of ghostly element to a story so this one sounds like a winner for me. Especially as it’s part of a series. 😀 I really like the sound of the story.