Heart warming, cute with really likeable characters. A very fun read, whilst also being a very emotional coming of age story. Great for teenagers and young adults.

Read April 2021.

This guy really knows how to write characters! Josie and Delia co-host a cult horror themed TV show. For Josie TV is what she wants to do with her life and her parents have even organised an opportunity in a different town for her. For Delia horror is the thing she loves, it's the thing she shared with the father that abandoned her. She's scared because everyone leaves.

I loved the friendship between Josie and Delia, it was such an authentic relationship. Lawson was amazing as well, he defied stereotypes and I loved it! The writing throughout was really fun and genuine. Delia and her mother's depression was treated so well and the use of medication was totally normalised and they had a great relationship. The stuff with Delia's dad was handled brilliantly as well.

I only have a couple of tiny criticisms. I wish we could have had a little more of Josie with her family, on the whole "family" was skewed heavily towards Delia. There were a couple of idiotic jokes that were too bad for one person to know, never mind multiple (2022 note: why did I not include these specific jokes in my initial review?). Also the entire convention section was absurd and went way too over the top with trying to jam too much into just a few hours.

This was both heartwarming and goofy, so if you want to sniffle and giggle...this book is for you. It's most wholesomely about friendship: Josie and Delia are BFFs and like, the really tight kind who are on the same wave-length and are so close they practically share a brain. I honestly don't read enough YA books with dedicated female-friendships that don't turn catty, so this??!? This was GOOD for that. It also had a super cute romance for Josie that I just. Lawson was like this super Hufflepuff soft loving wholesome attack dog. Look, what I'm saying here is HE IS ADORABLE and he and Josie = the best.

A+ friendships, A+ wholesome romances. A+ dialogue. I seriously died at how funny and epically flowing the dialogue was.

It definitely was...goofy though. Like it's not going to gut-punch you at all. I admit, I did adore The Serpent King like nothing else for being so wholly feels wrenching. Whereas this was good, but it just got so bizarre at the end. And I don't really click with people doing crappy TV etc as an art form. (I also barely watch TV shh. I'm sorry. There are too many books to read.)

I really enjoyed the narrative of this book and I loved getting to hear the perspectives of the two main characters. Although at points it was a little unrealistic, I found myself drawn to Delia as she went through a few life experiences similar to ones I have experienced in the past. Her experiences with her Mom's depression, as well as her own, were familiar and I appreciated her perspective on the matter. I enjoyed the romance aspect of the book and was glad that it didn't feel overwhelming and it was able to blossom alongside the main friendship of the book rather than taking over or delving into a cliched love triangle. Ultimately I enjoyed how the friendship of Delia and Josie developed as they start to realise where they want to go with their lives and that it's okay if they aren't always glued at the hip.

I couldn’t get into this novel. I felt it was slow and ultimately did not finish it.
The story started off well, introducing the matinee show and the characters, but then it just drifted and I didn’t enjoy it. It seemed to try too hard with its humour,

As someone who often takes fun in reading/watching things because I know it's going to be entertainingly bad, I completely relate to the premise of the book - a pair of high school girls start a public access TV show where they show terrible horror movies and lightly mock them.

The very short chapters and the swapping between the two protagonists every time is a little disconcerting at the start of the book. Their voices are very similar - which is actually realistic if these two are best friends. It does, however, make it difficult to tell the two apart for the first 10% of the book, but if you stick with it and remember that one of them has an absentee father and the other has aspirations to be on TV, then you're good.

After that initial problem I found it hard to put the book down because it's so sweet and realistic and fun, but not mindlessly so. It's got a sadness to it but the friendship between our two protagonists does a lot to move the story forwards and add heart to the book.

The love interest for Josie is so sweet and adorable and perfect. Slightly too unbelievably perfect, but I loved him regardless.

The girls are relatable and random and mildly funny. Not as funny as the book thinks it is though, unfortunately. I'm baffled as to why every idiot these two meet have the same random quirks. Like thinking that holding a fart damages your liver and keeping bread in your truck for snacks and claiming that something that they've been told is physically impossible is 'just my opinion'. The amount of people that have these specific traits must be a severely small amount because I've never met anyone with any, separately. Yet we meet 5 or 6 characters that do exactly this, to prove they're idiots and continue a running gag that they'd have no way of knowing anything about. Minor thing but it's really been pissing me off.

No matter what niggles I have with book, I cannot emphasise enough how fun and sweet it is. It grabbed me and didn't let me go.

This book is pure YA gold and it may claim to be a book about mediocre people for the mediocre in all of us but the characters inside it are as amazing as this book and they are so real that is able to make us feel less alone.
Delia and Josie are extraordinary and flawed at the same time, with pasts, dreams, weaknesses, and strengths intrinsic to themselves. Reading this book honestly feels like watching a conversation between two best friends from the back of the car.
The secondary characters are never simple or forgettable, every one of them being totally irreplaceable in the story.
This is the book you read when you don't want to grow up but know you don't have a choice. It deals with mental illness, adulthood, following your dreams and learning to let go.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Books for Young Readers for this Arc.

Alright, let me start by saying that what caught my attention when it comes to this book was the cover and title, really, I am in love. And the fact that Jeff Zentner is the author just added to my curiosity for Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee. Indeed, I have read The Serpent King and really enjoyed it and was left feeling all sorts of things.

Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee follows two girls, Josie and Delia, as they finish high-school and are confronted with questions regarding both the future and the past. I have to say that Delia’s storyline interested me a lot more than Josie’s because of the family aspect of it. Moreover, I found Josie to be hard to like at times because of the way she says certain things. However, I did enjoy both our MCs and, mostly, their friendship. Although I had trouble liking Josie and her storyline, I really liked her relationship with Lawson because let’s admit it, he’s a a complete sweetheart.

I found Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee to be sweet and raising good questions regarding family and expectations. However, I did not have this gripping feeling when finishing it like I did with The Serpent King. I would still recommend this book if you’ve enjoyed Zentner’s previous books and if you want to read a contemporary YA with really good writing and relationships.

Delia and Josie...best friends...stars of their own rather odd TV show...rather off-the-wall characters, but they got under my skin.
The plot is not actually that appealing. We watch them preparing their show. Delia is struggling with being abandoned by her dad and Josie is under pressure to do something more purposeful with her life. Through a rather random meet, Josie gets a boyfriend. The girls want to meet with a well-known producer to try and boost their show, so the three go on a road trip. They come home and start moving on with their lives.
This is the kind of book that I’ll really struggle to tell people about, particularly if they’re all about the plot.
As I was reading I found myself really envious of the friendship between these two. They’re struggling with their own demons, but have the kind of friendship I’d bite your hand off for. Silly jokes and random conversations won’t appeal to everyone, but there was a genuine love of the quirkiness these two exude.
Progressing through the book there were moments that I felt detracted a little from events (the very surreal ‘meet’ and restaurant scene) but then there’d be these quite beautiful moments snuck in that made me pause, smile wryly and just feel as if Zentner got it (whatever it was).
Definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it blended humour and seriousness just right.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance of publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Full of emotion & characters who leap of the page! I am a huge Jeff Zentner book and find myself recommending The Serpent King to anyone & everyone, and Rayne and Delilah are just as wonderful. If you're looking for a book full of heart with characters who will stay with you long after you turn the last page, pick this up! 5*

Do you like friendship? Cheesy old horror movies? When everything hinges on an epic, cross country quest? Well, this book is for you.

I'll admit, I wasn't sure at first. I'm not a big contemporary reader and usually when I request them from Netgalley I end up disappointed. And yet I keep trying! Luckily, Rayne and Delilah did not let me down.

The book follows best friends Josie and Delia. Their show is a bit cheesy and on really late but for both of them it's something important. Josie wants a career in television and isn't quite sure about the opportunity her parents have set up for her once senior year ends. And Delia uses her father's old horror videos after her walked out on her and her mom, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'll see their show and come find her.

Delia hires an investigator to track down her father and Josie makes a deal with her parents - it all leads to Shivercon to see if Midnite Matinee can hit the big time. With Josie's wrestler boyfriend in tow and her dad's address burning a hole in Delia's pocket, they set off, unaware that this trip will change everything.

So, as you've probably guessed by the middle of the book I was definitely hooked. Josie falls for a guy, there's stakes for their futures and friendships and Delia struggles with who she is without Josie around. Both main characters are distinct and wonderful, on their own and together. Lawson is adorable and tbh, boyfriend goals. He and Josie seem to understand and support each other perfectly. And without too many spoilers the ending was perfect. Real. What you want isn't always what you need and even though both girls want to stay together their paths might lead them elsewhere. But I have no doubt in my mind that they'll be friends until the end of time, no matter how far apart they are.

Now, I rarely cry at books. No matter how much they move me I just don't cry at them. But I was sobbing on the bus while reading the end of this one. Sometimes characters are what you need when you need them and Delia was that for me. She struggles throughout the book with her self worth as her dad has left her and her more outgoing best friend seems to be on her way to bigger and brighter things than their little TV show with their silly vampire outfits and skits. I utterly adore her and the journey she goes through.

This was a solid 4.5 and I couldn't resist buying a copy of the pb.

The real reason I ever considered reading this book was the author. I loved The Serpent King and Goodbye Days. Both of them had me an absolute sobbing mess by the end, so of course I thought I could trust Jeff Zentner to be an auto-read.

Only the problem is. He might be an auto-read when he writes male mains but when it comes to the women? In his previous two books, they did veer a little on the two-dimensional side (slightly more in Goodbye Days but only because she was a secondary character). So, really, I should have been prepared for that.

Josie (Rayne) and Delia (Delilah) aren’t wholly two-dimensional – I am being a little harsh to call them that – but I did feel like they could have done with some developing (Josie in particular). I think, in a book where the two main characters are women, that my favourite character was a male character is probably telling.

The story goes a bit like this: Josie and Delia have this Saturday night access TV show (side note: I never realised this was a thing, like, okay), but Josie’s parents want her to do something that they think might be a bit more useful in the long-term for her career (oh horror of horrors! Your parents care, Josie). But then there’s this chance for her and Delia to go to a horror convention and hopefully get the interest of a guy in the industry. In the meantime, Delia’s hunting down her father who left her and her mother when she was young.

Oh, and there’s a romance, between Josie and this really nice guy she inexplicably dislikes to start with (and is pretty mean to?). He’s a sweetheart though (my favourite character! Also. Give me more YA love interests like this, please and thank you!).

Of the two mains, I think Josie is most hard-done-by for two-dimensionalness (dimensionality?). She’s kind of awful at the start. Like rude, unaware of her privilege in having parents who care, financial support, etc (also she has a lowkey mean relationship with her sister, which shows up once, then disappears. Is Jeff an only child, because that seemed unnecessarily harsh for a sibling relationship, especially when there was no apparent reason for it). And she doesn’t really develop? She learns to like Lawson and kind of falls in love? That’s it. Delia gets a bit more, in terms of motivations and development, so of the two I liked her more (also I was a lot more interested by her storyline).

But the main sticking point for me was that it was just boring. Nothing really happened until the last third at which point it went all chaotic and felt like a damn fever dream. The Russian mob were involved? At one point I thought they might try something dodgy with Josie and Lawson? It just didn’t fit the vibes of the rest of the book.

And then, as if that wasn’t all enough, this quote:

"My heart feels like it got elbowed in the boob."

I’m out.

I liked this but it didn’t light me up with joy, it was an ok read, but struggled to hold my interest at times. The characterisation of the girls is cute but some of the other characters just fell flat for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Where to begin when you love everything about a book? Thank you Jeff Zentner.
I fell in love with Josie and Delia within the first few pages of this book, they are the perfect book couple. They have the funniest one liners and quick whit I have ever come across. I mean at I spent most of the book laughing out loud at the pure comedy gold.
The love story was not forced or in your face it happened naturally and felt real and true. It was also extremely refreshing to have a story about two females whose lives did not revolve around a male and instead around each other and their own hopes and aspirations.
The story these girls travel was one that can easily be related to at some point in your life. It tells the story of growing up and the inevitability of being left behind, but it does it in such a way that it warms your heart. It shows you that sometimes it the way we perceive being “left behind” and how we choose to let it change us. It isn’t always the initial doom and gloom we might first feel. Do we feel sorrow or doing we feel excitement for what new opportunities await us?
This book just felt so natural to read and I cannot fault it. It’s a funny, heart warming story of friendship and love and how if you truly believe it never ends so long as you have that one true person in your life you can face anything.

Trigger Warnings for depression, suicidal thoughts and abandonment

I also love mediocre people because we're always getting left behind. When someone leaves you, maybe you get a reason and maybe you don't.

Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee is a beautiful story about friendship, family and love. Whereas I did have a couple of issues with the book, overall, I really enjoyed it. I related to parts of it and then thought other parts were very, very far-fetched, you know, the Russian Mafia??

Maybe it's people who feel like the world is leaving them behind. Maybe it's people who want to remember a time when they were happier and their lives were easier, that's why I would watch."

Delia was definitely my favourite character in this story. She was such a precious angel that I honestly wish I could just hug and make everything better for her. Even through everything she was going through, she tried so hard to be strong and be their to support her best friend. My heart just ached so much for this girl because every time something good happened to her, it got shot down. Florida, her dad, her best friend, I felt like I was having a breakdown with her. Also, Delia's mum was bloody awesome, I loved her. Even though they aren't a privileged family, her mum truly cares for Delia and does everything she can to keep a roof over her head and what she does for her at the end is truly so heart-warming and beautiful.

Falling in love is like that, like the most welcome sort of fever

A character I had constant struggles with throughout the book was Josie. I related to her anxieties about moving away to university and leaving her best friend behind because I've been there and done it so that really struck a chord with me because it is a really hard decision, leaving the person you love most behind you. But, I also thought she was pretty selfish at times. Josie comes from this very privileged family and I felt like at some points she didn't really consider the fact that Delia is suffering so much from the fact her dad abandoned her and obviously, that isn't Josie's fault but sometimes, I just found her so selfish and wanted to shake her. Although, I do respect her decision to leave because she wanted to follow her dreams and she did and she does truly love her best friend, you can really tell that.

Lawson, oh my goodness, Lawson. I loved Lawson so much, he was just the absolute softest character. He truly loved and cared for Josie even if she was quite rude to him at the beginning. I really thought he bought out the best in her and I loved seeing them together. My only issue with the relationship as a whole was that I felt like we didn't get much development. It felt like it was like Josie didn't like him and then suddenly she's in love with him and they were all over each other straight away and I just felt like it could have been developed more across the story.

I just want to be good enough-enough enough- that no one who's held me in their arms under an October sky wants to abandon me ever again.

Like I mentioned, Delia is trying to still deal with the fact her dad abandoned her ten years ago with no explanation or anything, he just left. And a lot of the book is about her trying to track him down and it just broke my heart honestly. Delia's father not being the person she wanted and needed him to be at the time was just so heartbreaking but I felt like that really was her catalyst at the end, the whole ordeal really felt like it bought her closer to her mum and it was just a good thing to come out of a bad situation.

Overall, I really enjoyed Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee I thought it was a very beautiful story and was about this beautiful friendship in the middle of it but was also about family and first love and making hard decisions when you're still so young. I will definitely be picking up a finished copy when it comes out and want to read more of Zentner's work in the future! Also, there were just so many beautiful quotes throughout this story, I wish I could write them all here honestly.

I received this arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. As this was an unedited proof, quotes may change in the finished copy.