**A Polarizing Read: The City in the Middle of the Night**

I recently finished reading **The City in the Middle of the Night**, a science fiction novel that left me feeling both frustrated and confused. As I reflect on my experience with this book, I'm still trying to make sense of what it was trying to say, which is part of why I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

One aspect of the story that really bothered me was the way the author handles relationships between characters. There's a scene where two female characters are in danger and one is holding on to the other, repeatedly telling the other that she's keeping her safe in her love. Now, as someone who values deep conversations and romance elements, I felt like this scene was trying too hard to tug at my heartstrings. It wasn't just the sentiment itself that bothered me, but also how it felt like a convenient way to convey emotion without actually showing or exploring the complexities of their relationship. I've had very close female friends who are not in relationships with each other, and I couldn't fathom saying something like this to them, even in a life-or-death situation. It's just not something that feels natural or authentic to me.

The conversations between characters were also quite deep and meaningful, but they felt like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it was great to see characters discussing complex themes and ideas that resonated with me. On the other hand, I couldn't shake the feeling that these conversations were happening out of nowhere, without any real context or setup. It was like the author was trying to cram too much into a single conversation, making it feel forced and unnatural. And then, just when you think things are starting to come together, the rug would get pulled out from under you, leaving you feeling disoriented and confused.

Speaking of confusion, **The City in the Middle of the Night** has some serious issues with pacing. The story is all over the place, moving at a glacial pace one moment and then speeding up to breakneck speeds the next. It was like I was stuck in a rollercoaster ride that I couldn't get off of. At times, I felt like I wasn't even reading a book, but rather just following a series of events as they unfolded without any real narrative thread to hold me together. The lack of clarity and coherence made it difficult for me to become invested in the story or its characters.

One aspect that did work for me was the writing style itself. There are some truly beautiful lines scattered throughout the book, which I found myself highlighting and underlining as I read. However, even these beautiful passages didn't quite redeem the overall narrative for me. And then there's the issue of world-building, or rather, the lack thereof. The story takes place in a unique environment that's supposed to be some kind of futuristic city, but I never felt like I was truly immersed in it. The author seemed more interested in exploring themes and ideas than in creating a richly detailed world for me to explore.

The ending is also worth mentioning. As a standalone novel, **The City in the Middle of the Night** has a very vague conclusion that left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. I don't want to give too much away, but it's basically like the author said, "Hey, life is complicated and sometimes things just happen!" And then just dropped it there. Now, I do think that sometimes books are meant to be intentionally vague or open-ended, and that's okay if you know what they're getting at. But in this case, I felt like there was no real point or purpose behind the ending, other than to leave me feeling confused and unsure.

**The Verdict**

I'd give **The City in the Middle of the Night** two out of five stars. While it has some beautiful writing and meaningful conversations between characters, its lack of coherence, pacing issues, and vague ending make it a skippable read for many people. If you're a fan of slow-burning stories with lots of emotional depth, you might find this book resonates with you. However, if you prefer more structured narratives with clear plot threads, you might struggle to get through this one.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam and this is my spoiler free review for the city in the middle of the night by Charlie Jane Anders this is an adult standalone science fiction story and it follows two perspectives one is Sophie and at the beginning of the story she is involved in an altercation involving her very sort of militarized her least force city that she lives in and so she is exiled and then that sort of sparks this communication that she has some of the creatures that live on this planet because she lives in this planet where one side is permanently de and one side is permanently night and people live right in the middle where it's just kind of inhabitable and for some reason she finds out when she is exiled that she has this communication with some of the creatures that live in the night and everything kind of goes from there with her the second POV is mouth and she is part of a band of smugglers and she comes in contact with Sophie or other character at some point when they smuggle some things into sophie city and mouth is kind of trying to find their place in the world they grew up as a nomad and they're trying to find some things about their identity and their people that they lost and things like that so their paths intersect with some of the political movements that are going on in this city and everything kind of goes from there so first off we'll talk about the world-building at the beginning there's a little prologue that basically says this is a story that's being told it's being told in like English using some words that aren't actually correct but because the people reading it will recognize those words that's the words they're using so this is pretty applicable for the beasts and the like monsters and things like that that are in this world and so they use names like bison and crocodile and things like that they look nothing like those things and they will describe those things sometimes when they pop up but it doesn't make any sense because when your brain reads bison you're still going to picture by sit and crocodile and things like that but they look nothing like it so I really just wish then instead of doing this like you'll recognize these names the author just used new names for these monsters and these like creatures and animals and things because using names that we already know of very like harmless well I guess crocodiles aren't completely harmless but like other creatures doesn't make sense and was constantly pulling me out of the story I did like a lot of the other world building in here as far as there's like a couple different cities that you go to and the way they've kind of structured themselves in the political systems and things like that was cool but it also didn't have a ton of backstory to it I would have liked to kind of know like a little bit more about why things were the way they were and I'll talk about that a little bit more later too was just like the plot in the writing but it did make sense for how these places are sort of like stationed and how they're living in sort of this in-between world about how some of these cities were formed and things like that so I did find that very different and interesting next time what our characters are characters are kind of interesting because we are definitely I feel like kept at a distance from them they're also told that the writing is a little bit different because so if he's told the first-person POV mouth is told in third-person and then occasionally you'll get like little lines and not a whole POVs or anything in second person which was a weird thing that I noticed towards the end I wasn't really even picking up on it until later and then I was like oh the second person keeps like flipping in here sometimes and that's kind of odd so I did find that I just was at a distance from both of them these characters are definitely more realistic unlikable type characters in a lot of ways I actually kind of liked our main characters but I did find Sophie a lot very naive to a point that she kept doing things and trusting people I'm like you should've learned this by now so that was really frustrating to read from just like a plot perspective because a lot of the like miscommunication or mistakes that remember is kind of made over and over to where you're like I get that this is a conflict that has to happen for a story but at the same time like you've kind of done this already so that was little bit irritating so I feel like I did like mouth more mouth is from this like nomadic tribe and has experienced a lot of loss and things so I kind of feel like I did connect to her more there is a lot of exploration of relationships and friendships as a theme that I also found a little bit confusing and that I wasn't quite sure what the author's trying to do with it so both characters have close bonds with other women and like one other woman and it feels like it could be romantic in both cases and it's sort of never confirmed or denied in at least of them and on one hand I'm like well that's kind of cool because this could also be a really good representation for like ace relationships or things like that but the same time I'm like I want that to be confirmed then and so I'm really not sure because like there's a lot of like bed sharing that's involved in things like that but these characters are never really having any like physical contact there is some explanations of like love and family so it's just like this very blurry thing that I think some people are really going to enjoy if you are up for more ambiguity there I just wanted more like if you're gonna have something that's maybe a strap for example I want you to like tell me that's what it is you know like I want there to be this like were romantically involved but not sexually or something like I just like ask somebody who does fall within I believe that ace spectrum I haven't quite no label feels right for me really I've said different labels before but nothing quite feels right I still don't feel like that I liked that because I wanted something more concrete there there also I feel might be a little bit of I'm not quite clear baiting but one of the characters is attracted to her friend and I've made if you don't want to hear anything at all about relationship hints or whatever then don't keep listening I guess at the same time I feel like I want to tell people this in case you're going to this thinking that there might be like a female female love story at some point and there's really not but there is it's irritating because you have this like very much set up as a romantic connection especially from the one character and then you never have that fulfilled and you also have these leg lines that it's like how could the other character who rejects this this romantic love think it was anything but because at one point there's a scene and I'm not gonna go into details about it there's a scene where they're in danger and one is holding on to the other and she's throughout this whole scene as telling the other one I am keeping you safe in my love over and over and over again and I'm like I have really very very close female friends I do not say that to them and I wouldn't say that to them in even like a near-death situation the the talking the conversations people had that were very deep and very just tinged with that romance element and then to have that like sort of pull out at the end like the rug pulled out from underneath you I just didn't like that because I could never quite get my bearings even in this story because nothing was really concrete so if you're okay with like ambiguous relationship stuff and sometimes I am too but this was just like I didn't know what it was trying to tell me and I'm just even right now reviewing it I'm very just kinda like I don't know if it is necessarily a bad thing about a book but something that I didn't like about it and I'm not sure that everyone's gonna like I feel this could be really polarizing so that's why I wanted to bring it up because I think it's one of those elements it's like either going to like that vagueness or you're really not next I'll talk about the plot as far as the plot and the writing it was very slow and then fast like throughout the story so it I feel like the entirety of the story was mostly very slow and I wasn't really getting what the point of things were but then action II type sequences would happen very fast and it sort of made me feel like I didn't really care because I wasn't really connecting to the story and the things that were happening and the bad things that were happening because it was so quick I actually would have D&F this book I think about 60% of the way through if I hadn't been reading it for the tomah infinity and beyond science fiction read-a-thon and this was our group book that we chose and you got extra points for it so I kept reading it even though I probably would have dnf'd it if it hadn't been for something like that because I just wasn't getting the point of what this story was trying to tell me it also was very clunky at times and there's a there's definitely passage of time and probably a long passage of time but I don't really know because the story never really roots you anywhere and just kind of leaves you dangling is like some things that happen at some time is past I'm like but how much like so I never really felt like I was grounded in the story at all with the characters what the plot was really anything with the world-building I just felt untethered the entire time which was not pleasant for me it wasn't a like active hating reading experience but the entire time I'm like what are you trying to say here this book did have some very beautiful lines there was a couple of them that I actually wrote down because I really liked how beautiful they were but I really don't know what the story was trying to tell me and that's what was really frustrating does every book have to have like some grand meaning no but I feel like most things that I read I still know kind of what the point was even if it deployed just to have a good time or to be funny or to show like a found family whatever I don't really know what this book is trying to say in the end this also has a very vague ending this is a standalone I looked it up cuz I was like is there I'm gonna be more like and it's a very vague ending and I can be a fan of vague endings when I know what the point of the vague ending was and I really kind of don't I don't know the point of anything that really happened unless the point is that sometimes things are pointless and life just happens and and that I don't know there's a lot that was like built up with a lot of like Sophie's connections with some of the creatures and and the political stuff and it's all kind of like but for what though so I didn't end up really enjoying this book I end up giving it two out of five stars I think if you do like relieve vague slow stories you might really enjoy this I think this is just gonna be a very polarizing read I think people are either gonna love this or hate this and I've actually heard that about this authors first book as well so kind of go into this with the middle in mind knowing that either you're probably gonna love it or you're really not going to enjoy it so comment down below let me know what you thought of the city in the middle of the night thank you all for watching I'll see all of you guys soon byehey guys it's Sam and this is my spoiler free review for the city in the middle of the night by Charlie Jane Anders this is an adult standalone science fiction story and it follows two perspectives one is Sophie and at the beginning of the story she is involved in an altercation involving her very sort of militarized her least force city that she lives in and so she is exiled and then that sort of sparks this communication that she has some of the creatures that live on this planet because she lives in this planet where one side is permanently de and one side is permanently night and people live right in the middle where it's just kind of inhabitable and for some reason she finds out when she is exiled that she has this communication with some of the creatures that live in the night and everything kind of goes from there with her the second POV is mouth and she is part of a band of smugglers and she comes in contact with Sophie or other character at some point when they smuggle some things into sophie city and mouth is kind of trying to find their place in the world they grew up as a nomad and they're trying to find some things about their identity and their people that they lost and things like that so their paths intersect with some of the political movements that are going on in this city and everything kind of goes from there so first off we'll talk about the world-building at the beginning there's a little prologue that basically says this is a story that's being told it's being told in like English using some words that aren't actually correct but because the people reading it will recognize those words that's the words they're using so this is pretty applicable for the beasts and the like monsters and things like that that are in this world and so they use names like bison and crocodile and things like that they look nothing like those things and they will describe those things sometimes when they pop up but it doesn't make any sense because when your brain reads bison you're still going to picture by sit and crocodile and things like that but they look nothing like it so I really just wish then instead of doing this like you'll recognize these names the author just used new names for these monsters and these like creatures and animals and things because using names that we already know of very like harmless well I guess crocodiles aren't completely harmless but like other creatures doesn't make sense and was constantly pulling me out of the story I did like a lot of the other world building in here as far as there's like a couple different cities that you go to and the way they've kind of structured themselves in the political systems and things like that was cool but it also didn't have a ton of backstory to it I would have liked to kind of know like a little bit more about why things were the way they were and I'll talk about that a little bit more later too was just like the plot in the writing but it did make sense for how these places are sort of like stationed and how they're living in sort of this in-between world about how some of these cities were formed and things like that so I did find that very different and interesting next time what our characters are characters are kind of interesting because we are definitely I feel like kept at a distance from them they're also told that the writing is a little bit different because so if he's told the first-person POV mouth is told in third-person and then occasionally you'll get like little lines and not a whole POVs or anything in second person which was a weird thing that I noticed towards the end I wasn't really even picking up on it until later and then I was like oh the second person keeps like flipping in here sometimes and that's kind of odd so I did find that I just was at a distance from both of them these characters are definitely more realistic unlikable type characters in a lot of ways I actually kind of liked our main characters but I did find Sophie a lot very naive to a point that she kept doing things and trusting people I'm like you should've learned this by now so that was really frustrating to read from just like a plot perspective because a lot of the like miscommunication or mistakes that remember is kind of made over and over to where you're like I get that this is a conflict that has to happen for a story but at the same time like you've kind of done this already so that was little bit irritating so I feel like I did like mouth more mouth is from this like nomadic tribe and has experienced a lot of loss and things so I kind of feel like I did connect to her more there is a lot of exploration of relationships and friendships as a theme that I also found a little bit confusing and that I wasn't quite sure what the author's trying to do with it so both characters have close bonds with other women and like one other woman and it feels like it could be romantic in both cases and it's sort of never confirmed or denied in at least of them and on one hand I'm like well that's kind of cool because this could also be a really good representation for like ace relationships or things like that but the same time I'm like I want that to be confirmed then and so I'm really not sure because like there's a lot of like bed sharing that's involved in things like that but these characters are never really having any like physical contact there is some explanations of like love and family so it's just like this very blurry thing that I think some people are really going to enjoy if you are up for more ambiguity there I just wanted more like if you're gonna have something that's maybe a strap for example I want you to like tell me that's what it is you know like I want there to be this like were romantically involved but not sexually or something like I just like ask somebody who does fall within I believe that ace spectrum I haven't quite no label feels right for me really I've said different labels before but nothing quite feels right I still don't feel like that I liked that because I wanted something more concrete there there also I feel might be a little bit of I'm not quite clear baiting but one of the characters is attracted to her friend and I've made if you don't want to hear anything at all about relationship hints or whatever then don't keep listening I guess at the same time I feel like I want to tell people this in case you're going to this thinking that there might be like a female female love story at some point and there's really not but there is it's irritating because you have this like very much set up as a romantic connection especially from the one character and then you never have that fulfilled and you also have these leg lines that it's like how could the other character who rejects this this romantic love think it was anything but because at one point there's a scene and I'm not gonna go into details about it there's a scene where they're in danger and one is holding on to the other and she's throughout this whole scene as telling the other one I am keeping you safe in my love over and over and over again and I'm like I have really very very close female friends I do not say that to them and I wouldn't say that to them in even like a near-death situation the the talking the conversations people had that were very deep and very just tinged with that romance element and then to have that like sort of pull out at the end like the rug pulled out from underneath you I just didn't like that because I could never quite get my bearings even in this story because nothing was really concrete so if you're okay with like ambiguous relationship stuff and sometimes I am too but this was just like I didn't know what it was trying to tell me and I'm just even right now reviewing it I'm very just kinda like I don't know if it is necessarily a bad thing about a book but something that I didn't like about it and I'm not sure that everyone's gonna like I feel this could be really polarizing so that's why I wanted to bring it up because I think it's one of those elements it's like either going to like that vagueness or you're really not next I'll talk about the plot as far as the plot and the writing it was very slow and then fast like throughout the story so it I feel like the entirety of the story was mostly very slow and I wasn't really getting what the point of things were but then action II type sequences would happen very fast and it sort of made me feel like I didn't really care because I wasn't really connecting to the story and the things that were happening and the bad things that were happening because it was so quick I actually would have D&F this book I think about 60% of the way through if I hadn't been reading it for the tomah infinity and beyond science fiction read-a-thon and this was our group book that we chose and you got extra points for it so I kept reading it even though I probably would have dnf'd it if it hadn't been for something like that because I just wasn't getting the point of what this story was trying to tell me it also was very clunky at times and there's a there's definitely passage of time and probably a long passage of time but I don't really know because the story never really roots you anywhere and just kind of leaves you dangling is like some things that happen at some time is past I'm like but how much like so I never really felt like I was grounded in the story at all with the characters what the plot was really anything with the world-building I just felt untethered the entire time which was not pleasant for me it wasn't a like active hating reading experience but the entire time I'm like what are you trying to say here this book did have some very beautiful lines there was a couple of them that I actually wrote down because I really liked how beautiful they were but I really don't know what the story was trying to tell me and that's what was really frustrating does every book have to have like some grand meaning no but I feel like most things that I read I still know kind of what the point was even if it deployed just to have a good time or to be funny or to show like a found family whatever I don't really know what this book is trying to say in the end this also has a very vague ending this is a standalone I looked it up cuz I was like is there I'm gonna be more like and it's a very vague ending and I can be a fan of vague endings when I know what the point of the vague ending was and I really kind of don't I don't know the point of anything that really happened unless the point is that sometimes things are pointless and life just happens and and that I don't know there's a lot that was like built up with a lot of like Sophie's connections with some of the creatures and and the political stuff and it's all kind of like but for what though so I didn't end up really enjoying this book I end up giving it two out of five stars I think if you do like relieve vague slow stories you might really enjoy this I think this is just gonna be a very polarizing read I think people are either gonna love this or hate this and I've actually heard that about this authors first book as well so kind of go into this with the middle in mind knowing that either you're probably gonna love it or you're really not going to enjoy it so comment down below let me know what you thought of the city in the middle of the night thank you all for watching I'll see all of you guys soon bye\n"