Cover Image: The Midnighters

The Midnighters

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Member Reviews

I was lured in by the pretty cover and the setting, I’m going to be honest but I wasn’t let down at all!

This brilliantly combines adventure, mystery a mysterious guild and most importantly: magic! What more could you want?!

I really liked the character of Ema, she was brilliant but I also loved the anxiety representation she brought! I feel like I’m saying this a lot lately because I’ve had a run of books with this kind of rep in it but I WISH I’d had middle grade books like this! So many things would have made sense to me and I think this representation is important and it was so wonderfully done within the book!

I also kind of related to her with her family and how she felt, and I think perhaps a fair few readers may relate as well. You can’t help but empathise with her and wish for her to succeed!

Aside from all of that, there’s a really fun cast of side characters and the writing was beautiful! It was so atmospheric and descriptive without being overly complicated meaning that it was still very easy to read while also creating such a vivid world!

I’ll definitely be checking out more of the authors writing!

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Interesting story with some great characters. I’d like to see more from Hana because her books so far have intrigued me!

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Enjoyed this book very much. I preferred the first half set in the family home and uncles house when she went on her midnight adventures more than the mystery section. Some great characters. Will recommend to year 5/6/7

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I was enjoying this but my copy expired before I finished it, so I don't know how it ended. I read almost 70% but I was busy with my writing deadlines and didn't realise until I couldn't read it . So sorry. It was an interesting setting and premise.

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If you are a fan of middle grade books with mystery and amazing characters then you need to go pick this one up right away. ⁣

I adored this book. The characters are just amazing and I couldn't help but loving Ema and Silvie. ⁣

This is an action packed story that is fast-paced and honestly addictive. I love the world that Tooke has created and could easily read another book with these characters! I loved her writing so much that I was only a few chapters in when I added her previous book to my wish list! ⁣

Honestly go pick this one up, it was brilliant and I cannot stop thinking about how much I loved it.

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What a fantastic and heart-warming story!

I don't read much middlegrade but this book was just amazing! I loved the setting and the characters and the writing was so immersive. This book is enjoyable for all ages and i really dig this cover! I did think it could've been longer, but I will definitely be purchasing a copy very soon now that it's out!


Highly recommend!

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Born at midnight on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, Ema is the twelfth born child in her family. Unsurprisingly, twelves tend to follow Ema through her life.

‘There is something very troubling about the number twelve’

At twelve years old, Ema has yet to find her place in her scientific family. Màma is a meteorologist who can predict the weather with incredible accuracy. Her older siblings are skilled in various fields, including archaeology, anthropology and zoology. Ema absorbs all of the knowledge her siblings teach her but she doesn’t have her own socially acceptable scientific passion.

“The great enigma of her life had presented itself: how was she ever supposed to understand a world that didn’t understand her?”

What she does have is the ability to constantly surprise people with her presence, an acute awareness of shadows and a semi-regular sense of impending doom. And fears. Ema has her fair share of fears.

When her parents join one of her sisters on a research expedition, Ema is sent to stay with Josef, an uncle she’s never met, in the home where her “unmentionable grandmother had lived.” It is there that she meets Silvie. Silvie helps Ema confront her fears and introduces her to the wonders of nineteenth century Prague at midnight.

‘We will banish these fears of yours, but we will also banish the idea that normal is something worth striving for. I will make you proudly peculiar.’

Along the way, there’s a murder mystery to solve, secrets to uncover and an adorable bat to fall in love with.

I really liked Ema and her family but the standout character for me was Silvie. Silvie’s unbridled optimism was the perfect compliment to Ema’s “apocalyptic pessimism”. Her enthusiasm was contagious, her sense of adventure inspired me and she stole my heart. She also reintroduced me to ‘splendiferously’, which the people around me are going to ask me to stop saying any day now.

The Midnight Guild intrigued me and I desperately need to visit the Moonlight Garden.

I need a sequel for many reasons, the most pressing of which are to find out what’s next for Ema and Silvie, and to learn more about ‘Polter-granny’.

‘So, let’s go murderer-hunting, shall we?’

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Random House Children’s UK, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 4.5 stars.

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I absolutely adored Hana Tooke's debut novel, The Unadoptables, so was excited to be given the chance to read The Midnighters. The Prague setting is magical and well realised, and Ema made an engaging heroine as she learns to find her talents within a complicated, over-achieving family. The ideal middle grade adventure, will be much loved by fans of Katherine Rundell and Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

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I absolutely loved 'The Unadoptables and so was really looking forward to 'The Midnighters'. It didn't disappoint. I was immediately drawn into the family set up with Ema and her eldest sister, Frantiska, being the only siblings who weren't a set of twins. I also loved how Ema was different to all her scientific sisters and how her sense of impending doom set her completely apart.
There's mystery, tension and intrigue from the outset and the world-building was exquisite. I was memerised by the gothic world of Prague and enthralled by the brilliantly plotted storytelling. I loved the mystery of Sylvie and the Midnight Guild and the way Sylvie contrasted with Ema. However, I did feel that the novel was a bit long and drawn-out at times and I wasn't sure whether readers would care enough about the murder of Alois as we never knew the character. However, I really enjoyed the focus of Ema's internal journey and the very close third person narrative. Ferkel provided a bit of humour and the touches of kindness from Ema's uncle, Josef, added warmth.
Overall, this is a beautifully written, intriguing novel where science meets superstition. The characters, world-building and mysterious plot all serve to draw readers into 19th century, Prague, and make it come alive with wonder. Hana Tooke is a real talent and I felt that this novel was both wonderfully similar in tone yet wonderfully different in plot to her first.

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I very much enjoyed The Unadoptables by Hana Tooke, so as soon as I saw The Midnighters, I snapped it up.

I really enjoyed reading this story. I think that Ema is such a great character. Although she has a large and loving family, she is somewhat isolated by being so different (and not well understood). I loved her character arc across the book. Seeing her come into her own was so rewarding, and I was rooting for her the whole time. I loved Silvie too, and the way the two of them interacted.

I also loved the plot, it’s hard to explain why without giving things away. The Midnight Guild is both a wonderful invention, and rather creepy. The book is so well written, that it feels like you are really there with Ema and her friends. I really liked the way they worked together to solve the murder mystery.

Overall, this was a fun and interesting adventure. I loved the illustrations at the top of each chapter. I definitely recommend it.

I was given a free copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

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The Midnighters is the story of a girl called Ema who is scared of everything and can feel things in her bones and she is trying to define it as a science. Her parents want her to follow a traditional field of science and try to push her toward studying rocks. However, when Ema's parents have to go away she studies with her Uncle Josef and when she meets the mysterious Sylvie her life changes as she discovers the importance of friendship and how if a friend is in trouble then you can and will overcome fears to help them, because without friends and family then what do you have?

I loved reading this book and I fell in love with the Prague that Ema inhabits. I didn’t want this story to end and it takes you to the deepest places in your imagination .

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What a beguiling tale!
I must admit, this story begs for a re-read almost immediately as there is so much to discover, take in and enjoy!
I think first and foremost, it is vital to know the language in this book will wash over you and bring you into the mysteries of the The Midnight Guild.
Ema is brought up as the youngest in a large and extremely clever and talented family. Formed of several sets of twins, each with unique scientific abilities, Ema is an enigma. She has different skills and abilities to her family and at times, feels invisible within the group, even taking to wearing a bell so they can know when she is near them.

I rather hope that there will be more from this series….the Midnight Guild is a society full of dreamers, inventors, illusionists and more. Each month they open their doors to amaze and enchant patrons who want to be beguiled and intrigued.

Ema ends up there after new friend Silvie goes missing…presumed kidnapped by someone who had also committed murder…just what has she let herself into! Her determination, certainty and courage ensure she is a character to invest in.

A sure sense of finding yourself and being true to yourself lies within the pages of this book and I was full of wonder throughout. It reminded me of The Nowhere Emporium, where things are not always as they seem

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Imaginative and charming, this was a rollicking adventures with lots of heart. I adored our main character, Ema, and the journey she went on throughout the story.

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A lovely magical read! Full of everything you could want for a young magical read! Well written with likeable characters. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher.

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I really enjoyed this book.
Right from the start, I found Ema to be a really likeable and intriguing protagonist. Her family was equally intriguing and I really liked that they were a house full of scientists.
I thought the setting was atmospheric and had a very gothic vibe that suited the story really well.
There was a lot of story to get my head around with Silvie and the Guild etc, but I enjoyed finding out more and feeling like I was delving right into the depths of a mystery. I could definitely see this book making a great tv series so that you could really explore the characters and the setting in the detail it deserves.
All in all, a great read that was just as good as the author's first book which I loved.

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Charming and magical! Ema is a great sleuth and a joy to follow with quirks and ticks that made her very interesting. An excellent book that younger readers will find engaging and whimsical.

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My daughter found this a wonderful book, saying it was intriguing, cool, and very mysterious, and she kept coming back to it wanting to know what happened next. She loved it.

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My first thought on reading this tweenaged fantasy was that if it is set in Prague, prove that it had to be set in Prague – give us something definitively Czech, that isn't the Charles Bridge and the fancy animated clock the heroine starts out living opposite, and other bits of the architecture. My second thought, a couple of hours later, was that this is far too stuffed and overblown for me to have got my wish. It really is a heavy pudding of a thing.

Our heroine is born at the stroke of midnight, on December the 12th, and yes is the twelfth child in the family. At the same instant her psychic-minded gran passes away. Until they're packed off to school, all Ema's siblings take her under their wing in turn, educating, teaching, turning her mind to this body of science and that discipline. But throughout she is only wanting to learn one thing – what of her grandma is in her, especially when she feels bad news literally in her bones?

Packed off to an uncle who makes bicycles (because..., er, no idea) she finds a friend, who tries to train her each month on the stroke of midnight to get over a fear – heights, water, insects, heights of insects over water, that sort of thing. But the friend has just as much of a mysterious backstory as Ema, and Ema is then determined to find out both, even if it involves her going into the bowels of Generic City and finding out what is going on down there...

What I sought was something much lighter than this, which left me guessing the percentage it could be cropped by and lose nothing – I was not limited to very low numbers, for sure. Instead of the sprightly fantasy this might have been we have this element, that element, a sentient breeze, an annoying cat thing – and that's before anything really engaging is allowed to happen. Instead it just felt unfair that the big reveals were delayed needlessly by the author, both for us and for her characters. It may be that it caught me on the wrong day, but I didn't take to this nearly as much as I expected, and struggled with the idea of wading through all 400pp, before quitting with her return to Generic Subterrania. I don't wish it too much ill, but it is flawed, and needed both an injection of levity and a much greater editorial hand on it.

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Tooke's world building is wonderful! The mysterious and magical scene is set from the very opening with the birth of Ema, a 12th child for the Vaskova family, on the 12th of December at midnight just as her maternal grandmother passes away.

Lots to enjoy with a large eccentric family, the descriptions of Prague, midnight meetings between Ema and her friend Silvie who is encourages fighting fear by embracing curiosity and adventure.

The premise of a murder having occurred at the Midnight Guild - a society with factions between curators and acolytes - is great, but I did get a little confused as to who was who in some of the guild scenes.

Overall I'd recommend this and would be interested in following characters in another adventure.

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I thought that this was a great original story. A bit darker then children might be used to. So a great start to the more gothic and darker books for children. So a great transition books. That said thou it isn't scary at all. Just a little darker then they might be used to. Overall a good storyline too.

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