Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The intrigue of The Raven Boys and the "supernatural or not" question of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer coalesce in this young adult mystery, where nothing is quite as it seems, no one is quite who you think, and everything can change on a dime.
Every story needs a hero. Every story needs a villain. Every story needs a secret.
Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.
What really happened? Someone knows. Someone is lying.
For fans of Holly Black, We Were Liars, and The Virgin Suicides, this mysterious tale full of intrigue, dread, beauty, and a whiff of something strange will leave you utterly entranced.
Read by Michael Crouch, Caitlin Davies, and Alicyn Packard.
From the Compact Disc edition.

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke is a book that left me wondering what exactly did I just read and am I interpreting what happened correctly? Straight up, this felt a lot like a Holly Black book with its touches of whimsy and the fantastical in a contemporary world. Or maybe even Francesca Lia Block. Wink Poppy Midnight was certainly a different read, and in all honesty I am still not sure how I personally feel or think about it. I would certainly recommend Tucholke’s book to my reader friends, but with the caveat that you’ll probably find yourself confused here and there.

Wink Poppy Midnight is about three characters whose names comprise the title – Wink and Poppy and Midnight. Wink and Poppy are girls. Midnight is the boy whom both are romantically interested in, sort of. It’s a bit more complex than all that. It’s also about summer and this awful betrayal that happens. And there’s a lot of questions in regards to who is the hero, who is the villain, and who is the liar. I still don’t quite have this all figured out in my head. So, anyways, Midnight used to live next door to Poppy and they had a secret sort of FWB situation going on. Then Midnight moves next door to Wink and she’s a whole lot more innocent than Poppy and Midnight finds himself really into her, with good reason.

Wink is this character with wild red hair. She’s really into fairy stories and reading them to her brothers and sisters, whom she calls the Orphans and who are basically like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan. She also is bullied a bit in school, but doesn’t react and seems to be just above it all. She’s very smart and kind of reminds me of a sprite or a nymph. There’s something ethereal about Wink’s character.

Poppy is blonde and beautiful and I would imagine looks a little like the Instagram model type. She’s also very mean and very much a bully. She uses people and that includes Midnight. She’s got this posse of friends with a special nickname and she’s been playing the two boys within her friend group against each other. However, there’s a different side of Poppy that comes out when it comes to Wink’s brother, Leaf, who is no longer at their small town. Either way, Poppy comes across as a villain at first and I just find myself still really unsure about what to think of her.

Midnight is the boy and he’s sensitive. I mean, he feels things quite deeply. I suppose that’s normal, but I think you’ll better understand when you read Wink Poppy Midnight. Anyways, he was hooking up with Poppy and really into her, but she is sort of venomous and so, he relishes the chance to move away from her and be free of her, but he’s not. She actually walks the full distance to see him and he keeps running into her. Regardless, some things really do go down involving Midnight and while he is a title character, I kind of thought he was periphery to the story.

I feel like if you’re into books with unreliable narrators, you’ll be really into Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke. I am okay with those kinds of books, but in this case I just wasn’t feeling the love. I know that this is a good book and there’s such an interesting plot line, but I never really felt entirely invested or cared all that much about the characters. I think, however, anyone who loves the writing styles of Holly Black and Francesca Lia Block should absolutely get their hands on Wink Poppy Midnight IMMEDIATELY.

Other reviews of Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke:

Dear Author – “I personally thought the narrative structure was very effective and the correct choice for this book”

Read. Breathe. Relax. – “It pulled me in and repulsed me in turns.”

My Friends Are Fiction – “April Genevieve Tucholke’s writing is like a dream or fairy tale.”

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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