Item: Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee
Rating: 4.00
Author: stephaniedreads

by Jeff Zentner

"Anyone can break your heart--Jeff Zentner can also make you laugh out loud!" --RAINBOW ROWELL, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carry On and Eleanor & Park

From the Morris Award-winning author of The Serpent King comes a contemporary novel about two best friends who must make tough decisions about their futures--and the TV show they host--in their senior year of high school.

Every Friday night, best friends Delia and Josie become Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood, hosts of the campy creature feature show Midnite Matinee on the local cable station TV Six.

But with the end of senior year quickly approaching, the girls face tough decisions about their futures. Josie has been dreading graduation, as she tries to decide whether to leave for a big university and chase her dream career in mainstream TV. And Lawson, one of the show's guest performers, a talented MMA fighter with weaknesses for pancakes, fantasy novels, and Josie, is making her tough decision even harder.

Scary movies are the last connection Delia has to her dad, who abandoned the family years ago. If Midnite Matinee becomes a hit, maybe he'll see it and want to be a part of her life again. And maybe Josie will stay with the show instead of leaving her behind, too.

As the tug-of-war between growing up and growing apart tests the bonds of their friendship, Josie and Delia start to realize that an uncertain future can be both monstrous...and momentous.

"I laughed, cried, and fell over-the-moon in love with Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee." --JENNIFER NIVEN, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe

"A testament to the power of friendship and big dreams, Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee had me laughing aloud on one page and sobbing on the next. A resounding triumph." --NIC STONE, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin

"Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee starts as comedy about the wildly imperfect, and ends as poetry about the ever-hoping heart. I don't know how you write that book. Fortunately, Jeff Zentner does." --JESSE ANDREWS, New York Times bestselling author of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter

I read Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner because Zentner is an auto-read author for me. I read The Serpent King because it had come in my first ever Owlcrate box. After that I was hooked. Goodbye Days sealed the deal.

Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee is the first novel that I didn't full on ugly cry for but it was still a great book! It was just different than I had expected it to be.

It wasn't until the end that I got a bit choked up because I could relate so much to Delia. I didn't go to college with the rest of my friends. Long story and was not my choice. I know what it's like to feel left behind even when no one is really at fault. It makes you feel small because you don't have great plans for your life. It makes you feel childish because only babies get upset about being left out.

Graduation is; however, the first real time in your life when you make major life choices. This really resonated throughout Midnite Matinee. I really think Zentner did a great job exploring what it means to be out of high school and all the little things that get lost in the big moment. He really capitalizes on the day to day things that change that get swallowed by the actual act of graduation and freshman year at college.

Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee wouldn't be the first Zentner novel I'd recommend but it's still pretty solid.

Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee

by Jeff Zentner

Reviewed by Stephanie on May 8, 2019

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