Almost Midnight
Rainbow Rowell, Simini Blocker (illustrator)
Macmillan Children’s Books
2017, 161p
eBook from my local library/BorrowBox
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}:
Midnights is the story of Noel and Mags, who meet at the same New Year’s Eve party every year and fall a little more in love each time . . .
Kindred Spirits is about Elena, who decides to queue to see the new Star Wars movie and meets Gabe, a fellow fan.
Midnights was previously published as part of the My True Love Gave to Me anthology, edited by Stephanie Perkins and Kindred Spirits was previously published as a World Book Day title.
Brief blurb for some brief stories!
I’m an unabashed Rainbow Rowell fan – I’ve read all of her full length titles and it was only this and Pumpkinheads that has eluded me so far so when I spotted this scrolling through one of the apps my library uses to lend eBooks and audiobooks, I knew I had to snatch it up. There are times when you just want a very laid back read, something that you know will just take a little bit of time and won’t be too emotionally draining. I read this in probably 30 minutes, it’s two short stories that are incredibly cute.
The first one, Midnights centres around Mags and Noel, who attend school together and every year they go to their friend’s New Year’s Party. Mags prefers hiding in the shadows and Noel seeks her out……..as each year passes they’ve become closer as friends. It follows several years until they graduate and their friendship group is broken up as they all attend different colleges. The first party that brings them all back together is their friend’s traditional New Year’s party but at this one, there’s a bit of a different vibe and it seems like Noel might finally be about to change the course of their friendship.
This was so sweet. I really loved both of these characters, just from small snippets I felt like I got to know them. Mags is shy, she seeks solitude sometimes, heading out the back during the countdown. Noel is more outgoing, he often tries to get Mags to dance with him as an invitation but she’d rather remain out of the spotlight. Mags describes Noel as her “person”, her best friend and I loved that. They were incredibly important to each other, in lots of ways, not just in potentially romantic ways, that the few years of parties had been building towards. I adored the ending of this, it was perfect.
The second story, Kindred Spirits introduces us to Elena, who is determined to join the queue for the midnight premiere of the new Star Wars movie. Her mother is against this, for safety reasons and it’s also cold in Omaha, Nebraska in December. There’s only two people in line when she joins and the first person educates her on the “etiquette” of the line. Elena was expecting more people but for the next couple of days it’s just those 3 – die hard Toy, bookish Gabe and her. At first Gabe doesn’t talk much but as the hours roll on, he eventually starts to open up.
I’m not a die hard Star Wars person. I’ve seen the original 3 a few times, mostly as a kid because my mother loves the series and we had a dog when I was younger that used to growl at Darth Vader every time he was on screen, which was hilarious. So whenever one of the channels would show one of the movies, we’d watch it pretty much just for that. I’ve seen the first 2 eps of “the new ones”, so Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones but nothing after that. But I get the whole fandom thing, devoting yourself fully to something that moves you, that you are passionate about. Elena doesn’t fit the ‘look’ of a stereotypical geek which prompts some interesting conversations with Gabe about how things like Star Wars used to be the domain of geeks and nerds but it’s become “cool” to like them and so that leaves him sometimes, questioning his “geekiness” and how it defines him. Elena and Gabe had a lot of really interesting conversations and there’s also some stuff in here about expectations and reality as well in terms of Elena’s thoughts about the line. Like the first one, this also had a very cute ending with the unexpected twist about Gabe and Elena…I enjoyed it a lot.
This was a perfect quick read – I like to read every day, even on days when I’m busy with kids and stuff so sometimes the thought of starting a new book can be a bit exhausting. Something like this is perfect.
Both of these are illustrated and the drawings add to the story hugely. They’re just enough to give you something to picture in your head as you read through each part of the story. Very well done.
7/10
Book #87 of 2020
All The Books I Can Read 
I love Rainbow so much. Midnights was my favourite story from that anthology.