Good Morning, Midnight

I was so excited to receive an Advanced Reader Copy for Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton.

My requests are normally turned down by the big publishers, but Penguin Random House approved this one, and I did a happy dance.

Within the first few pages I read a paragraph describing the scenery (long-time readers know why I pay attention to descriptions of scenery), and a feeling of calm passed over me. Unlike the other ARCs I’d been reading lately, this one was well written.

The novel alternates between two story lines: an astronomer at a facility in the Arctic who decides to stay after the military comes to evacuate all the researchers because of unnamed troubles, and an astronaut returning from a mission to study the moons of Jupiter when ground control stops communicating.

You can see why I would want to request this book. It’s got space and dystopia. What more could a girl ask for?

For me, the most interesting part was seeing how the isolation (and its implied ramifications for the future) affected everyone. Does research still hold meaning if no one will ever read it and expand upon it? It made me wonder if any of our actions have meaning if our future is taken away. Are ritual and routine calming in that situation or perceived as a waste of time?

I’ve talked about how during times in my life when I’ve lost direction, I can flail about and end up doing nothing. When my purpose is gone, motivation to do anything is hard to come by.

As you can see, this book really got me thinking. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction. It has well-developed characters and a plot that your mind will keep coming back to it over and over.