Wink Poppy Midnight

WTF did I just read? The writing in this book is lyrical and captivating but it only serves to briefly disguise the fact that nothing happens. There's no story for the first half of the book and what character development there is doesn't actually make you feel like you know the characters more. The characters are so intentionally “quirky” that it creates a divide between them and the reader, making it virtually impossible to care about them. The synopsis made it sound like some kind of psychological thriller but that's sadly not the case. I honestly have no idea what happened at the end and, frankly, but the time I got there I no longer cared. When it comes down to it, this is the story of a spoiled rich girl, an “eccentric” girl, and some guy with serious self-esteem issues trying to manage a sort-of-relationship with them both at the same time. Not for me.

The cover is pretty, though, so it has that going for it.

Well, that was unexpected... and I didn't mean it in a good way.

The writing is lovely, but there's no mystery whatsoever since the blurb literally tells you none of the characters are what they seem. There's just not much happening in the first half of the book, it's just pages and pages of Midnight comparing Wink to Poppy, while the plot is going nowhere. It didn't help that the characters didn't grow on me either.

At least the chapters are short though, so it was a quick read.

First off I want to say that this book has an AWESOME cover. It's what drew me in first. I also loved the names of the three main characters...POPPY - MIDNIGHT - WINK. The writing was lyrical and had an almost mythical quality to it, and the quick 3 POV transitioned moved the story along at a nice pace.

NOW, that being said. I think this book was over my head. I feel like I missed some sort of deeper meaning or message. Because honestly, I have NO frigging clue what this book was supposed to be about.



None of the characters in this book were likable in the least. POPPY was an OTT bitch queen bee. Her and Midnight have a sexual relationship for the past year, well she has been having sex with him and two hanger-ons. Playing them all against each other. Which seemed a bit calculating for a 17-year-old. Then you have WINK who is WEIRD and not in the cute and quirky way, but in the “perhaps a physiatrist visit is in order” way. Last but not least you have MIDNIGHT who comes across as a spineless idiot. None of the teenagers in this books speak or act like 16/17 olds. At least not like the ones I am subjected to on a daily basis!



That brings me to the ending. A more frustrating ending I could not imagine. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND IT. The whole thing with the Tarot cards and WINK dying young?? Say what now?? The fact that the whole book the author had been working towards a romance between WINK and MIDNIGHT just to have MIDNIGHT move to Paris without so much as a GOOD-BYE to WINK. Then WINK apparently going to get with one of the hanger-on boys??!! The whole fairy tale thing??!!

Quite frankly, this whole book made my head hurt, and NOT in a good way...sigh.

I'm sorry, but I just really couldn't get into this. The narrators were great, honestly, and made this story bearable. They brought life to each of the characters and, of course, multiple narrators is always a bonus with audiobooks. And, to be quite honest with you, the narrators are the only reason this didn't get one star.My problem is, this story is just so weird. So much of it doesn't make any sense at all and I imagine I'll be trying to wrap my head around it for days to come. Also, the plot is so terribly confusing. I honestly don't know what the point of this book was. The characters leave much to be desired. Wink is extremely annoying, Poppy is extremely unrealistic, and Midnight is like every other “chosen one” to have ever existed. I understand what Tucholke was trying to do with Wink, to make her this dreamy, vivacious character, but it was so overdone. Half the things Wink said or did made me groan. Poppy is supposed to be a popular mean girl. But she is as heartless as they come. And, honestly, I find it hard to believe that people like Poppy truly exist. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like Tucholke took the popular girl stereotype and cranked it up from “bratty and cliquey” to “loathsome bitch”. And Midnight... Midnight was just okay. He wasn't special. Hell, he even had a sad little backstory like 99% of all “chosen ones”.The writing style was whimsical but terribly repetitive. I feel like half the things that happened in this book happened every 3 chapters or so. Such as, of course, Wink reading to the orphans. My god, it was practically every other Wink chapter. I also found it annoying when some of the POVs repeated events that had literally just happened. With the characters involved. It was as if Tucholke was trying to bump up the word count but didn't have anywhere else to go.Honestly, this wasn't the book for me. It was described as [b:The Raven Boys 17675462 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1) Maggie Stiefvater https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477103737s/17675462.jpg 18970934]-esque, and I would have to whole-heartedly disagree.