Midnight on Beacon Street by Emily Ruth Verona
Rating: ★★★★☆
Dates Read: 12/17/23 - 12/21/23
A seemingly routine night takes a dark turn in a suburban New Jersey home. Single mom Eleanor Mazinski entrusts her two children, six-year-old Ben and twelve-year-old Mira, to their sitter, Amy—a capable seventeen-year-old with an anxiety disorder.
As the evening unfolds with games, pizza, and dancing, the atmosphere shifts with unexpected visitors, mysterious phone calls, and, by midnight, a horrifying discovery. Little Ben is found in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a lifeless body at his feet. This gripping tale explores the sinister events that transpire in a single night, weaving together the innocence of childhood, the complexities of family dynamics, and the terror that lurks beneath the surface.
Midnight on Beacon Street unfolds in two timelines: the hours leading up to midnight in 1993 and six years earlier when Amy, the babysitter, was a kid. Chapters switch between Ben and Amy, slowly revealing what led to that ominous hour. The story starts in Ben's perspective, the younger Mazinski child, just after the midnight incident. Ben's chapters managed to make me feel like I was a child too, Verona done an excellent job there.
Verona creates relatable characters who are young, naive, and charming. The book pays a cool homage to older horror films, keeping you on the edge with suspense. The atmosphere, from the setting to the book cover, is beautifully crafted. The vivid writing made me feel like I was in a 90s horror movie.
This novel is Verona's debut, and it's a great one. I am eagerly awaiting her next book, and this one isn't even out yet. Massive thank you to Harper Perennial for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Midnight on Beacon Street releases on January 30, 2024.
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