Book Review: Midnight on Beacon Street by Emily Ruth Verona

 

Title: Midnight on Beacon Street

Author: Emily Ruth Verona

Pages: 182

Pub Date: January 30, 2024

Source: Edelweiss

GoodReads Description: A suspenseful and entertaining debut thriller—and love letter to vintage horror movies—in which a teenager must overcome her own anxiety to protect the two children she’s babysitting when strangers come knocking at the door.

October 1993. One night. One house. One dead body.

When single mom Eleanor Mazinski goes out a for a much-needed date night, she leaves her two young children —sweet, innocent six-year-old Ben and precocious, defiant twelve-year-old Mira— in the capable hands of their sitter, Amy. The quiet seventeen-year-old is good at looking after children, despite her anxiety disorder. She also loves movies, especially horror flicks. Amy likes their predictability; it calms the panic that threatens to overwhelm her.

The evening starts out normally enough, with games, pizza, and dancing. But as darkness falls, events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn —unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight, little Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a dead body at his feet.

In this dazzling debut novel, Emily Ruth Verona moves back and forth in time, ratcheting up suspense and tension on every page. Chock-full of nods to classic horror films of the seventies and eighties, Midnight on Beacon Street is a gripping thriller full of electrifying twists and a heartwarming tale of fear and devotion that explores our terrors and the lengths we’ll go to keep our loved ones safe.

I absolutely loved this!  I have read a lot of mixed reviews that have essentially said that this book was very slow moving, but I didn't think so at all.  First of all, it 's pretty short.  I mean at 182 pages, how slow could it possibly move?  Second of all, I thought there was a lot of focus on characters that reminded me of some Stephen King books. So maybe it was disappointing as a slasher book? Not enough blood and gore for some people? I don't know, but not disappointing as a book in general.

Midnight on Beacon Street took me back to my childhood in the 90's, it definitely had all the nostalgic feels!  And I was not a slasher movie kid, like Amy, because I was probably more of Ben's age in the 90's and I've always been more of a horror book than horror movie person.  But Are You Afraid of the Dark? Yes, yes I am.  And I watched that show as a kid, from under my blankets, with half closed eyes and all the lights on in the entire house.  

Anyways, this was the author's debut novel and I will definitely be looking for more from her in the future! I enjoyed her writing style in this book, the focus on character and nostalgia.  I read it nearly all in one sitting and I was a big fan of the ending!