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The Voice

Wink Poppy Midnight falls flat

     “Wink Poppy Midnight” by April Genevieve Tucholke is about the complicated relationship between Wink, Poppy and Midnight. The three teenagers are all connected somehow, whether they show it or not. Wink is the imaginative girl who lives beside Midnight. Midnight is the awkward boy who is quiet and analytical. Poppy is the pretty blonde bully. Their lives converge and their interactions lead up to an event that alters the lives of all three, while uncovering some truths in the process.

     What I like about this book is how introspective the characters are. Poppy eventually realizes the error of her ways and leaves her home to be happy by herself. Midnight learns that he shouldn’t let other people take advantage of him as often as he does. Wink learns that it is easy to manipulate people in order to entertain herself.

     Though I found that aspect of the book wholesome, it also had many problems. To me, something that makes a good story is characters that have their own personalities, mannerisms and speech patterns. The characters in this story sound too similar. They start out different, each character with their own personality and unique phrases, but they eventually all sound the same.

     They adopted one another’s speech patterns and habits and started to reference too many books that either don’t exist or that I haven’t read. I understand that another sign of a good story is character development, but these characters just developed into the same person.

     I kept coming up with acceptable excuses for the characters’ behaviors because I needed excuses that would make the book worth reading. I first thought there was some supernatural activity that made these characters so strange. But that wasn’t it. Next, I thought one of the characters suffered from a mental illness.

     It would have been the perfect twist to keep me interested in this book, but she wasn’t mentally ill. She was simply manipulative and too imaginative at an age where I found it to be odd. I ran out of excuses for the characters and decided to be disappointed instead.

     I had a hard time figuring out what Wink’s motivation was. I decided that she wanted to bring a story to life. This seems like a very juvenile thing to do, but this teenager decided manipulating those around her would be her source of entertainment. She seems innocent, the girl too invested in fairy tales, but she has a master plan, one that I had to read the whole book to uncover. It wasn’t worth it.

     The synopsis for this book instilled hope and excitement in my naïve mind. It’s too bad it had nothing to do with the story. It seemed like all of the events that were described were going to lead up to a life-changing event, but nothing too noteworthy happened. This book was anticlimactic.

     I can understand how this story could appeal to someone, and if you enjoy reading books about complex relationships that change over time, this one might be for you. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get over the antagonist’s vague motives. So, give it a read if you want, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again.

 

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