Book Review: The Midnight Knock by John Fram
With otherworldly happenings, monsters, and an odd rendition of Groundhog Day, The Midnight Knock by John Fram brings a lot of mystery with more than its fair share of gore. Check out my full review of The Midnight Knock below!
Book Information
Eight strangers all find themselves at an odd hotel where a pair of twins run a tight (if not creepy) ship. At the hotel, the gas has run out, but the guests all desperately need to leave. When staying is their only choice, they find that the hotel is not what it seems and something strange is going on around them. As night falls, disturbing noises are heard around the hotel. When the generator fails, everything changes in an instant. But when each of them wake up the next day with no recollection of what happened and a seemingly perfect repeat of the day before starts to play out, these strangers must learn to work together, remember how each day repeats the exact same, and stop the cycle before it’s too late. All of their lives are at stake when the clock strikes midnight.
Review | Heidi Dischler
Alright, this book was downright strange. SO many things were happening and there was more than once that I had to rewind my audiobook because I thought it was glitching out. Let’s start with the good: characters and setup.
As far as characters go, I think John Fram did a wonderful job of making each of his characters in The Midnight Knock feel relatable, real, and very in-depth. Each of them had their fears, their regrets, their hopes and dreams. I loved Kyla and Fernanda (even if they made an odd pair on the run). Hunter seemed very complex and I SO wish we would’ve gotten a more in-depth background of him and his upbringing that led him to the choices he made and places he had gone. Ethan was okay, but I just didn’t connect with him personally. The twins were odd as heck, and John Fram did a very good job making them feel horror-movie-esque. I wanted more of Ryan, and honestly, the only character that felt super underdeveloped to me was Penelope.
With the setup, you get a very typical Groundhog Day plot going. I liked this setup with the idea off a horror/thriller genre because they have to figure out “who killed who” before time runs out. However, the good stuff about the setup is its typical Groundhog Day fashion. That is where it ends because, with this setup when each day repeats, the author starts over with the same introduction: “The Midnight Knock” by John Fram. Part I, Deja Vu. In the audiobook, it was SUPER trippy and I honestly thought it was a glitch/editing screw up before I realized what was happening. I wasn’t really a fan of that at all. It was too confusing for me as a reader. Not only was that confusing, but man was the rest of the plot confusing as well.
The Midnight Knock went from “murder mystery” to “otherworldly beings” to something a little stranger. It honestly got to be too much for me and it seriously went downhill once all of the lore and otherworldly stuff got pulled in. I didn’t like it and it felt like it was completely underdeveloped, rushed, and a subpar ending.
Spoilers ahead.
So, it basically gets into gods and this toddler god is trying not to destroy the world, but he has all this pent up energy that could combust at any moment (basically it was anxiety about being left alone). Not only that, but man when they were in the ghost city? That was confusing as heck. Why was Ryan so old? How did Hunter know everything? Where the HECK did Penelope go and why did we never get to know if she lived, died, or something completely in between? It was a very underwhelming ending and left me super unsatisfied.
Overall, I rated this book 3 on social platforms, but I’d give it closer to a 2.5/5 if they let us do half stars. I just didn’t like the ending, felt like it was rushed, and the whole plot after the midpoint was just confusing as heck. A meh book for me unfortunately.
Source: Audiobook from Audible
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Everand, which gives you one free audiobook or ebook of your choice!)
