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, though 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.
Title: The Girl at Midnight
Author: Melissa Grey
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: April 28, 2015
Brooke's Review:
I want to thank Delacorte Press for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.
Until recently I have not been a fan of fantasy. I've always found it starts so slow because you really need to be brought into the world and that takes a lot of building. But I can see that when the world building is done right, it's not slow. It's a burn that builds and gives you exactly what you need.
Echo has grown up among creatures who hide from the humans in a world that's full of magic. A human taken in because she had nowhere else to go and no one else to go to. I loved Echo. She's snarky and smart and so so sneaky. And when war threatens her world, she is the first one to jump in and try to save her people. But she doesn't expect things to be different than she's always been taught. She doesn't expect to connect with the prince of her true enemy.
Caius is fierce and loyal. He has strength beyond what you would figure from a young man. And he will do anything to try and save his people even if it means going against what his sister, Tanith, believes is right or working with those who are supposedly the enemy.
The world building in this book is fantastic. Grey does not bog the story down with overwhelming details, it's just the right amount to get you into the story. And I love that it takes place beneath the streets of New York City, my home town! I love that it's fantasy set in the modern world. Having grown up in NYC, I can totally see things happening in the tunnels beneath the city, and have always thought there could be more underground then anyone ever expected! And of course there's more than just the main story going on, which I find consistent with most fantasy stories. There are always subplots that turn out to be extremely important to the main plot. And, while there is romance in this story, it does not overtake the main course of the story: good versus evil.
The story is filled with a lot of action and suspense from page 1 to the end. While I kind of figured out the relationship between the main characters before it is revealed, it didn't take away from the overall story. And the author's writing truly spectacular.
In the past I have had a lot of issues with books told in third person. For me, they have to be done very well to keep my interest. This is one of those books. And the third person voice is necessary in this book. We need to know all the characters from different points of view and the author does this well.
Fans of Throne of Glass and The Mortal Instruments will fall in love with the characters and world in this book. I highly recommend it as a suck you in, blow you away fantasy read.
Melissa Grey penned her first short story at the age of twelve and hasn't stopped writing since. As an undergrad at Yale, she learned how ride a horse and shoot a bow and arrow at the same time, but hasn't had much use for that skill since graduating in 2008. Her debut novel, THE GIRL AT MIDNIGHT (Delacorte/Random House), is out now. The second book in the trilogy, THE SHADOW HOUR, will be published July 2016. The third and final book of the series will come out summer 2017.
To learn more about Melissa, visit melissa-grey.com and follow her on Twitter @meligrey.
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