ARC Review: Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Title: Wink Poppy Midnight
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Publisher: Dial Books
Publication date: March 22nd 2016
Pre-order the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble



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.

(Image and summary taken from Goodreads)

My thoughts:

Wink Poppy Midnight was one of my most anticipated reads of 2016 and trust me, I was not disappointed. April G. Tucholke took my expectations in her hands, crushed them into beautiful rainbow dust and blew them into the air for everyone to breathe in. Weird description? Exactly what I was going for because Wink Poppy Midnight was hella weird. I felt like I was either dreaming or high on something the whole time I was reading this book. It was wonderful but also incredibly alarming. It was such a surreal experience, but one I would love to relive over and over again.

Let's be honest, that synopsis is insanely vague. And when I read it the first time, I had a feeling that this book would be one hell of a trippy ride (I mean, look at that cover! It's really gorgeous but super odd and disjointed, you just know that this book is going to mess you up but in a way that you'll love). I was 10000% right. I felt like I had my head in the clouds the whole time I was reading Wink Poppy Midnight. I didn't know if what I was reading was real or some beautiful constructed metaphors that I needed to take the time to unravel for me to really understand. This is actually my first novel by April G. Tucholke but I already know how special her writing is, it was evident not just in the actual text, but in the messages lying beneath the printed words. Like I said, the whole experience was surreal and April G. Tucholke's writing just enhanced those odd but wondrous feelings.

Wink, Poppy and Midnight were three very distinct and unique characters. As I always mention, I am normally very impressed by authors who can tackle multiple POVs and do them justice, which is what April G. Tucholke did. She gave each of them their own voices and differentiated their characters in such a way that you would not confuse any of them for the other. (I was reading the ARC and I noticed that a Wink scene was labeled Midnight-- yes, those are actually their names-- and I immediately knew that it was mislabeled because their personas were so different from each other.) While Midnight seemed to have the most scenes in the books, I felt that Poppy and Wink were the real main characters in the novel. They were the beginning and the end, and they made the whole book. It was great seeing and feeling things from each of their eyes and bodies. It made the whole experience all the more otherworldly and interesting.

I think because so many things were up in the air, it was hard to ground and really concretise the different events in the novel. There were moments wherein I got confused but the characters would slowly lead me back onto the right path. I definitely had a lot of questions, most of them were answers but some of them were not. But I guess that's how April G. Tucholke planned her novel to be, one that would inspire questions and speculations within a reader.

I was very pleased with how Wink Poppy Midnight turned out, it was really the writing that gripped me and did not let me go. April G. Tucholke has turned me into a fan and I am definitely buying her other novels because I don't think I can stand not reading all of her works. Wink Poppy Midnight was a dream, one that stays in the back of your mind and slowly takes over your soul when you wake up. It was a wonderful and very unique treat!

Rating: