Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton

Ellesmere Island, Canada

------------------------- This entire review contains spoilers ---------------------------------------------

This novel, which contains beautiful prose and imagery, follows two stories. One story is about Augustine, an aging, brilliant, but selfish astronomer living on a research base in the Arctic Circle. The other story follows Sully, an astronaut aboard The Aether, which is on its return trip from Jupiter. Both groups realize something tragic has happened. Earth has suddenly gone completely dark and completely silent.

I really enjoyed the perspective of the survivors clamouring to figure out what happened. This is different from most apocalyptic stories that I’m familiar with. I really enjoyed it, that is, until I reached the end of the book, and there was no ending. My blood is boiling even writing this review. Why is it that authors don’t finish their books? It’s not edgy or enjoyable. It’s rude and heartbreaking.

The story ends with Sully and her almost romantic partner/commander, Harper, in the escape pod just entering into Earth’s atmosphere. Half of the crew had to stay behind on the International Space Station. The book would have been so much more enjoyable if there was some hint of what happened on Earth. Brooks-Dalton still could have stuck with the theme of the emotional weight of being a survivor. Sully and Harper could have tried to start their life together. Maybe the inability to move on from their former lives could have torn them apart. Another character (I’m thinking Ivanov) maybe couldn’t have handled it, and he could have killed himself. But what do we get instead? An extremely predictable “twist” (how many known-to-be-extremely-self-absorbed researches don’t insist on being referred to as Dr. Their Last Name??!!) and an unnecessary cliff hanger.

I’ve read other books recently that focus on prose and in-depth character analysis, but they’ve at least had endings. Call Me By Your Name was centered around creating a sense of longing and time dragging out forever. But it had an ending! Catch-22 is about creating confusion, frustrating the reader, but it also has an ending! I will never for the life of me understand what is so revered about leaving the most important part of the novel unsaid.

I am so angry that I am going to create a list of books I’ve disliked, precisely for this reason.

Good Morning, Midnight was so enjoyable while reading it - I don’t mean to just tear it apart. But why do authors insist on doing this to their readers?

Review by the Number

Overall: 3/5

Writing: 5/5

Plot: 2/5

Character Development: 1/5

Message: 4/5

Fun Fact: Lily Brooks-Dalton and I went to the same college (Go Minutemen!)

Challenges Satisfied:

- Canada (Reading My Way Around the World Challenge)

- Books about Women's Experiences (My Diversity Challenge)

- Apocalyptic (My Genre Challenge)

- The Book on your TBR List with the Prettiest Cover (2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge)

- The Arctic (The Book Girl's Guide Book Voyage 2021 Challenge)