Book #3 in The Hardest Reading Challenge I’ll Ever Do
Challenges Complete:
- A-Z Challenge (C for Coles in author’s last name)
- Spell Your Full Name (M for Midnight in Book Title)
- New Release Read in the Month It Was Released (July 2024)
- The Genre Challenge (Horror)
- The Rainbow Challenge (Black)
I should begin this review by saying that I am a HUGE fan of gothic novels, especially Gothic horror and romance.
Midnight Rooms slots just beautifully into that category, as both horror and romance are abundant throughout the story.
Set during the early 1800s, Midnight Rooms features a weird and creepy Gothic estate that is almost as much of a character as the protagonist, Orabella.
Orabella is a black woman who has been under the care of her uncle and aunt. Her uncle arranges a marriage for her and although she is apprehensive, she doesn’t foresee a better option coming along. In fact, she worries it could be worse.
So, her new husband Elias Blakersby whisks her away to his family estate, known as Korringhill Manor. And that’s where things start to get weird.
Although he comes from a wealthy family with a massive estate, Orabella finds the mansion in a state of disrepair. Although her room is well-kept, she’s instructed not to wander the house and especially not to enter any closed doors.
Coles does a masterful job of creating a sense of growing dread throughout the tale, even as she imbues it with a side of wonder. Strange things are happening, and the reader, like Orabella, is trying to understand whether they are sinister and supernatural in nature.
I love that Coles leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions on that front. It reminded me of the Unseelie Court of Scottish lore, malevolent fae who exist on a different, parallel plane but can impact the “real” world. In my own imagination, I like to think that Orabella was experiencing an encounter with these or similar beings.
If you love Gothic-themed stories and don’t mind a bit of ambiguity, I strongly recommend Midnight Rooms. It fits right in alongside other classics of the genre.
Next Up: Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
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