When high school senior Lily Hopper receives a note from the infamous Jester asking for help pulling off the traditional end of year prank, Lily agrees to help in a desperate attempt to ditch her good girl reputation. This year’s Jester turns out to be Lily’s ex-boyfriend, Tag Swell, whom Lily still has feelings for. Tag’s prank involves stealing the yearbooks and forcing the senior class president, who also happens to be Lily’s prom date, to go on an epic scavenger hunt to retrieve the yearbooks. As Tag, Lily, and their fellow pranksters hide clues across campus in the middle of the night whilst dodging campus security, Tag and Lily start to feel sparks again. But will old hurt prevent Lily and Tag from rekindling their relationship? What Happens After Midnight is a teen/ YA second chance romance with hints of mystery elements. The plot reminded me of books like Since You’ve Been Gone and Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Matson, 11 Paper Hearts by Kelsey Hartwell, I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston, P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han, Paper Towns by John Green, as well as Margot Mertz Takes It Down by Carrie McCrossen and Ian McWethy. Additionally, the boarding school gave me major Zoey 101 vibes and Lily’s relationship with her mom was reminiscent of Rory and Lorelai’s relationship in Gilmore Girls. In my opinion, What Happens After Midnight is a perfect summer read for a teen audience, especially high school seniors! Some themes/ topics present include revenge, love and heartbreak, self esteem, identity, growing up, friendship, good versus bad, and diabetes.
I was a bit disappointed that What Happens After Midnight was geared towards more of a teen audience as opposed to Walther’s 2021 novel, The Summer of Broken Rules (which I felt was geared towards more of a young adult audience). Even though the Jester’s prank was originally intriguing, I felt like the scavenger hunt itself was kind of underwhelming and I was disappointed that most of the Jester’s “fools” didn’t really participate (for example, one of the participants is sick and ends up spending the entire prank in the restroom).
Overall, I enjoyed this book; I thought that it was an easy, fun, and summery read that teen and YA readers should definitely add to their summer TBR lists!
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February 2024
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