Quick Synopsis

A suspenseful and entertaining debut thriller—and love letter to vintage horror movies—in which a teenager must overcome her own anxiety to protect the two children she’s babysitting when strangers come knocking at the door.

Publisher’s Synopsis

October 1993. One night. One house. One dead body.

When single mom Eleanor Mazinski goes out a for a much-needed date night, she leaves her two young children—sweet, innocent six-year-old Ben and precocious, defiant twelve-year-old Mira—in the capable hands of their sitter, Amy. The quiet seventeen-year-old is good at looking after children, despite her anxiety disorder. She also loves movies, especially horror flicks. Amy likes their predictability; it calms the panic that threatens to overwhelm her.

The evening starts out normally enough, with games, pizza, and dancing. But as darkness falls, events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn—unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight, little Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a dead body at his feet.

In this dazzling debut novel, Emily Ruth Verona moves back and forth in time, ratcheting up suspense and tension on every page. Chock-full of nods to classic horror films of the seventies and eighties, Midnight on Beacon Street is a gripping thriller full of electrifying twists and a heartwarming tale of fear and devotion that explores our terrors and the lengths we’ll go to keep our loved ones safe.

Book Review

Midnight on Beacon Street is a short novel told nonlinearly by various points of view. The focus of the book is Amy, the babysitter, who must overcome her anxiety to help the children she is caring for survive. The book is filled with classic horror film references that do not make up for a plodding storyline.
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I’ll be honest, I considered bailing of the last 20% of Midnight on Beacon Street, because nothing really happened for the first 83 percent of the story. This book was long and drawn out like the last episode of a reality tv competition. You know the one – where they fill the episode with look backs, reunions, and what not until the very end where they announce the winner. This book is essentially an uninteresting Survivor finale.⁣
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Midnight on Beacon Street‘s synopsis promises a thrilling, suspenseful story that is an ode to the 90s & classic horror. As a millennial, that appealed to me, along with the fact this book was short. I thought it would be a quick 200 page refresh between literary fiction reads. I was wrong. It took me days to read this… And those 90s vibes I was promised? Well, this picture has more 90s vibes in its little toe than the entirety of the novel. ⁣
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Midnight on Beacon Street starts with a flash-forward chapter narrated by a little boy covered in blood staring at a dead body in his kitchen. From there, the narrative hops through time in a nonlinear fashion, seemingly without rhyme or reason. The multiple timelines were largely unnecessary and added little to the story. In fact, the prior timeline was completely unwarranted and distracted from any suspense that had built up. And it’s totally unclear why one timeline was even included. ⁣

My biggest issue with Midnight on Beacon Street was that it felt like a short story that was fluffed to be a full length book. Instead of the “fluff” being atmosphere, suspense, chilling surprises, the fluff is teenage drama and panic attacks.⁣
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Overall, I was not a fan of Midnight on Beacon Street, although I know others who are. I think if you are someone who prefers the journey over the destination, you may enjoy this novel. Or you may enjoy it if you miss your crappy high school boyfriend or need a reminder that your anxiety does not define you.⁣

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