From NetGalley:
Fans of Susan Lee and Dustin Thao will be enchanted by this soulful YA romance about how we love, how we heal, and how we find the strength to go on
“Where were you thinking of going?”
“Nowhere.”
“Great,” he says lightly, putting the car in gear. “Then we’ll go there.”
Seventeen-year-old Deedee's life is full of family ghosts and questions she can't ask. She longs to escape her stifling home, but guilt holds her back—that, and the fact that her strict Filipino single mom won't let her learn to drive.
But one sleepless night leads Deedee down a road she never thought possible: secret driving lessons with the new boy next door, Jay, whose turbulent family life also keeps him up until sunrise.
As midnights stretch into days, Jay helps Deedee begin to unravel her past, and as shared secrets blossom into love, Deedee starts to imagine a life where happiness is possible. But the deeper she digs into the trauma that has shaped her, the more that trauma threatens to tear Deedee and Jay apart. Together, these two must decide if the pain they've both inherited has the power to choose their fate, or if they have the power to choose for themselves.
A YA romance for the ages! Midnights With You is a devastating examination of learning to love yourself through deep-seated trauma. This book breaks your heart and stitches is back together in a whole new way. Readers will be forever changed by Clare Osongco's debut novel. With multi-layered Asian representation, a wide scope of generational trauma and the ways it can span an entire family tree, and raw emotional processing, Midnights With You has something everyone can relate to.
Told from the perspective of Deedee, an emotionally closed-off and isolated night owl, who's dealing with an extremely strained and volatile relationship with her mother. The inexplicable toxicity in her mother's behavior remains a mystery to Deedee, along with her mom's past. She has no way to empathize with her beyond her being "a single mom who works too hard" (thanks Reba). Deedee's confusion is made all the more frustrating when her mom begins disappearing in the middle of the night. All of which would be a lot easier to figure out if she could drive.
But she's not allowed to learn how.
In comes Jay, the new boy who lives across the street from Deedee. The two of them strike up a deal: Deedee's English tutoring in exchange for driving lessons from Jay. As they grow closer during their late-night driving sessions and secret tutoring picnics, Deedee learns that Jay's home life is also strained and stressful. Their commonalities bond them and help them understand themselves, and each other, in ways no one else ever has.
Unfortunately for them both, the poisonous effects of generational trauma can't be healed so easily. Venom seeps its way into their relationship, too, despite how they begin to blossom with each other. Secrets, lies, and abuse catch up with Deedee and Jay, and threaten to tear apart more than the two of them. They're forced to confront their family traumas and the effecs on their frienships, school life, and coping mechanisms.
It all implodes as Deedee hunts down the truth behind her mother's hurtful and harmful behavior. Jay's past family problems catch up to him. And we, the reader, are left wondering if these two will make it out in one piece.
The ending is satisfying, I promise!
Clare Oscongo's debut is the kind of raw and vulnerable love story that touches your heart and leaves a warm imprint for years after you finish reading. It's the kind of honest book that's relatable to so many children of immigrants, no matter how old they get. Clare does an excellent job of not romanticizing toxic behavior, of addressing the pain of her characters, and adding to the conversation of familial abuse in such a real and respectful way.
This is the kind of book I needed as a teen in high school and I know there are teens who need it NOW.
Please read the trigger and content warnings BEFORE reading Midnights With You to avoid depictions of harmful emotional abuse, slapping, grief, racism, and a scene that briefly includes sexual harassment.
Beyond the heartache and pain, this book is for the lovers of romance who like enduring characters that fall apart and come together and fall back apart again. It's a beautiful tale about learning what love looks like; self love, parental love, romantic love. Fans of Eleanor and Park, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and All My Rage will enjoy.
You need to READ THIS BOOK!
Thank you so much for the e-ARC, Disney Publishing Group!
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