Ema Vaškova is the twelfth child born at midnight on the 12th December, 1877. Of course she will have a special destiny. Ema has an amazing talent but because it does not seem to be scientific her family are not interested in hearing her ideas. Ema does, however, have several very special talents. She can predict disasters - usually connected with the number 12; she can move around her home and through crowds unseen and over looked; and she can 'read' people by observing tiny changes to facial expressions. She is also sensitive to shadows. She can spot lies and her skin itches warning her of impending disasters.
Over time all of her eleven siblings leave home to pursue their scientific studies and then quite suddenly her parents declare they are leaving too and Ema finds herself living with her eccentric uncle and his Maine Coon cat named Ferkel. From her attic window Ema sees a young girl hanging upside down in an upstairs room of the building next door. Silvie is not a ghost, she is a real girl and she will be the best friend Ema could ever hope to meet. Silvie meets Ema once a month and she takes her on wild and daring adventures through the city in the middle of the night. Then one day Silvie disappears. All Ema has is fragments of information from Ema and a set of cryptic words which she found under the wallpaper in her attic room - the same room where her mysterious grandmother Liliana died on the night Ema was born.
There are some wonderful words used in this book such as a favourite of mine - splendiferous. Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this story:
"It was a night so dusky the streetlamps looked like fallen stars. A night seized by fierce frost, which crept up the spires of Prague until they glimmered like diamond stalagmites .... It was a night that would bear a new small life. And, alas, a smidge of death."
"The twelfth child born into the Vaskov family was a girl with hair the colour of spider silk, and candle-smoke eyes flecked with the palest blue."
"When I'm out in the city, I'm constantly being bumped into and trodden on. when I'm home, it seems I'm always startling someone with my presence. That's why I got this bell collar but I've come to realise that no matter what I try, no one notices me. There must be a scientific reason."
"During the day, Prague was a phantasmagoria of colour. The spires gleamed, the red-tiled rooftops battled the turquoise church domes for attention, stone gargoyles grinned downwards and saintly statures gazed upwards."
"Fairy tales breathe truth into the world. They are more real than you and me."
If you have seen the movie The Greatest Showman the scenes in The Midnights, where we enter a strange midnight full moon circus, have a similar, slightly surreal feel.
When I saw Hana Tooke had a new book I eagerly purchased it from my local bookstore. I adored her previous book The Unadoptables.
Read some reviews of The Midnighters:
The Kids Books Curator (this review contains a detailed recount of the plot).
Books for Topics - An interview with Hana Tooke
Up to page 99 I was enjoying this book thoroughly and I filled the pages with markers to note passages I wanted to share here on my blog then from page 100 to page 347 the story expanded into something unexpected and complex with a huge cast of characters and my reading became a little more disjointed. In the final scenes from pages 348 to 392 everything finally fell back into place and my enjoyment was restored. So all of this means I was going to give this book 5 stars, then 4 and now I am not sure. I think readers aged 10+ with good reading stamina, a love of fantasy, and readers who pay attention to tiny plot details will enjoy this book.
There is some delicious sounding food in this book including kolache.
And babovká and rohličky:
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