I have just finished reading The Midnight Guardians with Esther and William
We all agree it is our new favourite book
For Esther it beats her beloved The Silver Sword
Which is high praise indeed
And for me …
… It is the best book I have read for a very very long time
This book is one that I will always treasure
And like the special books of my childhood
One I will return to many times over the years
And always remember exactly where and when and how I read it
This is a story of love and loss
A story of courage and hope
A story of the battle between light and darkness
This is a a clever combination of myth, magic and history
This is The Midnight Guardians
I love stories that are set in the Second World War
I always have done and this is a story set within and beside the war
The story of an evacuee whose imaginary friends come to life
To help him save his sister from The Blitz in London
But intertwined with the horror brought by the Nazis
Are the terrifying dark forces of the Midwinter King
This book brings a stunning mix of mythology, magic and history
This book is incredibly special and reading it I felt like it had been written especially for me
I Immediately knew how to do the voices of each character
I could see them as clearly as I could see my own children in front of me
The story played in my mind like a film
I felt a strong connection to Col, Ruth and the Guardians
I felt such empathy for them
Parts of this book had us laughing out loud
Parts I could hardly read through the lump in my throat
And the rivers of tears
And poor old William’s tears too!!
There were parts of the story when we could not stop reading as we just had to see how events unfolded
Parts when we were so engaged we felt like we were part of the story
At one part Col is losing one of his guardians
Pendlebury, the magical tiger, is injured and dying
They carry her to try to reach a safe place to save her
The scene just reminded me so much of David carrying our baby daughter back to God when she died
It is such a beautiful poignant moment in the story
This book deals with loss and grief really well
It talks about the ones we love and lose never really being lost
They are always close by
Just a hair’s breadth away
Esther and William have been so invested in this story
That it feeds into every conversation and all their play
They love the Guardians
Pendlebury’s jokes
The King of Rogues and Mr Noakes’ bickering
We have laughed so much with these wonderful characters
There are some standalone chapters where the writing is just phenomenal
The fairies chapter is just so so so good
And the giants Gog and Magog are exceptionally well written
In contrast to the laugh out loud pages
Some of the Midwinter king and Col interactions are quite chilling
I did think the children might have nightmares but they didn’t
I think my favourite characters are Pendlebury and Ruth
Ruth intrigued us all from the start
And we loved how her story unfolded through the book
As we finished the book Esther said that the mythological magical side of the story
Was representing what was happening in the war
The battle of light against darkness
People coming together to turn against and fight evil
She was right
And it is beautifully done
The historical notes at the end of the book are brilliant
As is the powerful message about the kinder transport and the holocaust
The importance of knowing facts in order to prevent anything like that ever happening again
The Midnight Guardians is without any doubt the best book I have read in a very very long time …
… and I cannot wait to read it all over again