Review: Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Every story needs a hero.
Every story needs a villain.
Every story needs a secret.

Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.

What really happened?
Someone knows.
Someone is lying.~ Goodreads



Source: ARC obtained from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review

Review (or better known as my jumbled thoughts):

WTF was this book?

WTF did I just read?

I went into this book cold turkey – without reading the summary. Maybe I should have because I was immediately thrown when I realized the characters were named Wink, Poppy and Midnight (not to mention there are also Leaf’s Buttercup, and Bee to name a few more). I never know what kind of book I’m getting into when it starts of with that type of whimsy.

The thing is – I could have thoroughly researched this book first and STILL wouldn’t have understood what the hell was going on. I didn’t find the plot confusing so much as I couldn’t figure out what type of story the author was trying to tell. Was this a fairy tale? Albeit a Grimm fairy tale – these characters are mean. Is it paranormal or is it just a Mean Girls contemporary YA filled with metaphors and lyrical prose and fairy tale references to keep you off track?

Poppy is the local mean girl – manipulating her friends, and especially boys, to do her bidding. She’s a self described bully and makes no apologies. She strings Midnight along and he moves away (only 2 miles) to try to break the spell of her power over him. Wink is his new neighbor and catches his eye – but Poppy notices – and does not like it one bit.

Wink tries to help Midnight vanquish the villain/wolf, Poppy, and become the hero of his own story.

This is a really difficult book to discuss without spoilers. I won’t say anything specific but even a general discussion could be considered a spoiler so you have been forewarned…
Highlight for SPOILERS:

There are twists – then twists on the twists and one of the twists is better and more interesting than the actual twist. Did you get all that?? lol
Wink Poppy Midnight wants you to believe that the villain can be the hero and vice versa but all I could see is some seriously fucked up teens that need professional help stat!
Sure the *villain* becomes the hero at one point but are they really a hero if they are the ones that put people in danger in the first place?
In the end I found the implausible twist more believable and interesting than the reality. I could have believed in the witches and wolves explanation easier than what really happened.

END SPOILERS

Wink Poppy Midnight is oddly compelling in the driving by a car crash and rubber necking kind of way. I wasn’t sure what I was reading yet I couldn’t stop. I’m not even sure if I liked or disliked it or wanted it to go differently.

Tucholke has a very distinct way of writing and you either like it or you don’t. It’s surreal, metaphorical and filled with twist and turns. Fans of We Were Liars would probably enjoy this. I did enjoy WWL but I think Wink Poppy Midnight straddled that line between too many genres (fairy tale, paranormal, contemporary) for me to truly enjoy it overall.