REVIEW: Good Morning, Midnight - Lily Brooks-Dalton

• Year first released:  2016
• ISBN of the version I read:  9780812988192
• Publisher of the version I read:  Random House Publishing Group
• My rating (out of 5): 4

You’ve heard your pessimistic friends say, “I’m not being pessimistic – I’m being realistic.”

That’s cute and all, but if you think about it, here’s what they’re actually saying: “Maybe I’m being negative, but reality is negative.”

…which is still just pessimism, isn’t it?

I wonder: isn’t there a beautiful side to reality, too?

Good Morning, Midnight is not, per se, the most “realistic” book you’ll ever have read. This is not only because of its mildly surreal elements, but also because, considering that it’s a post-apocalyptic book, it is remarkably beautiful, and shies away from everything about itself that you would assume would be dreary or hopeless.

There’s an important distinction to be made here, though: though Midnight may not explore as much of the negative and the ugly of the world as we might expect or envision for such a tale, it deftly focuses on the beautiful side of reality. And isn’t this a form of “realistic?”

Midnight features dual-narratives alternating between an elderly astronomer trapped in an arctic observatory and a team of astronauts en route back to earth from a mission to Jupiter, when life as we know abruptly comes to an end. As usual, though, the actual details of the plot aren’t what’s at stake here. Rather, what we have is an elegant, moving narrative exploring many of the themes that make us human – and, as Brooks-Dalton seems to propose – will still continue to make us human when we’re faced with the veritable end of humanity.

The fantastic cast of characters is relatable, distinguishable, and fluidly covers most of the attitudes you’d expect in an end-of-life scenario. (Except for The Panicker. Yes, in our world there would doubtlessly be panickers, but Brooks-Dalton wisely excludes them from her story. Sometimes there’s no need to point out the obvious.) The two settings give us a rich, imaginative viewpoint for watching these intertwining stories of the final humans unfold brilliantly.

It wouldn't be completely fair of me to gloss over the few missteps in Midnight: the pacing was just a hair slower than I’d have preferred – but it’s a rather short book, and so certainly I never felt that I was wasting time – and I would say the ending could have used just one or two more sentences to really drive home the impact of the final moment. In fact, the overall plot is one in which not much of note really comes to pass. Then again, this is a book about the storytelling more than the story.

What we are left with, then, is a book which positively excels in its form, light years beyond the vast majority of books you see on the shelf at the store. The questions the book answers – and even the questions that it asks but doesn’t answer – make this book well worth your time, giving you glimpses of the beautiful side of the real side of humanity.