Waiting on Wednesday: Meet Me at Midnight

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that originated at Breaking the Spine but has now linked up with Waiting for Wednesday at Wishful Endings. It is always a fun chance to display books that are going to be joining our bookshelves very soon in 2025!

Meet Me at Midnight by Brianna Bourne

13+

Beautiful – just beautiful.

I went into this expecting a fluffy dreamscape full of romance and while I got all of that I wanted I also got an amazing look into the dangers of erasing memory and also how difficult it is to truly see where your relationships went wrong. This book carried me through on a wave of constant enjoyment and it is definitely one I am going to be featuring for my April book club read.

The main character Aria is a joy to read, it is rare I have ever had such similar hobbies and likes as a character and I loved watching her growth throughout the book. Her struggles with her twin Cady who has swept her through life, making every decision for her naiive dreamer perspective of the word. However, her sister has gone into a coma and in this wake Aria has to unravel not only her feelings surrounding Cady but the boy who keeps turning up in her dreams and just may be more real than should be possible.

It had a slowly growing dystopian feel while keeping a really relevant feel – it felt like 2025 and whenever its set. It was a more subtle dystopian feel than most dystopian YA because it isn’t a full blown situationship after an collapse of society but it focuses on an invention that I can imagine a few hundred years later in a proper dystopian adventure and I really loved that.

World – 5/5 stars – it felt really realistic and warm (the best way I can describe it), the world, the dreamscapes and the entire world felt ethereal in places and then really acute at others.

Plot – 4/5 – I really enjoyed it, I cant say much more for spoilers but it was so good.

Characters – 10000/5 – they felt so nuanced especially Aria and Strat and their relationship (both previous and current) with each other. The supporting characters didn’t have as much detail but I felt that that was on purpose, the focus was Aria slowly removing the naive lense she had viewed the world through and acknowledging reality – both the good and bad bits.

Romance – 4/5 – Sweet Romance – I did like the romance, it had the feel of second chance while also maintaining the air of mystery of will their relationship survive the plot!

Things to be aware of: scientific mental manipulation