The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

The Girl at Midnight (Girl at Midnight, #1)

by Melissa Grey

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

Reviewed by Beth C. on

4 of 5 stars

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A human girl, growing up in a world of magic. A girl without a name, until she gives herself one. A girl who, unexpectedly, finds herself in the middle of a war between her adopted Avicen and their mortal enemy, the Drakharin. Echo is 17, and she survives as a thief. A great way to get money and keep her independence. When she is tasked with finding the mythical firebird in order to try and end the constant war between the Avicen and the Drakharin, she heads out. But some truths don't just change a person - they change the world.

Melissa Grey does a fabulous job of world-building in this book, weaving the fantastic in with the normal. Moving from New York to a Drakharin prison, to the mundane merges beautifully with the extraordinary. Her characterizations were spot-on as well. Not one character within the story is "good" or "bad". They just ARE, and they have motivations that swing both ways.

There are a few formulaic elements within the story, but they are handled well and don't interrupt the overall flow. This is quite obviously not a stand-alone book. It could be read as such, and the ending is satisfying, but it is apparent when the last page is turned that there is more to come. I look forward to reading a sequel to The Girl at Midnight, and I hope that it is just as well done as this one.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 April, 2015: Finished reading
  • 25 April, 2015: Reviewed