The last Tuesday of the year brings us some of the best gifts, actually. And by that we obviously mean what is probably one of the best books to read during those long winter evenings. To achieve the maximum of a Polish experience, maybe try some mead with it or at least mulled wine (not that we encourage drinking, of course!).
Anyway, lets us give you all the reasons why you should absolutely read The Midnight Girls, enjoy the playlist for it, full of Polish songs, and don’t forget to follow Alicia on twitter, if you’re not already!
It’s Karnawał season in the snow-cloaked Kingdom of Lechija, and from now until midnight when the church bells ring an end to Devil’s Tuesday time will be marked with wintry balls and glittery disguises, cavalcades of nightly torch-lit “kuligi” sleigh-parties.
Unbeknownst to the oblivious merrymakers, two monsters join the fun, descending upon the royal city of Warszów in the guise of two innocent girls. Newfound friends and polar opposites, Zosia and Marynka seem destined to have a friendship that’s stronger even than magic. But that’s put to the test when they realize they both have their sights set on Lechija’s pure-hearted prince. A pure heart contains immeasurable power and Marynka plans to bring the prince’s back to her grandmother in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own.
When neither will sacrifice their ambitions for the other, the festivities spiral into a wild contest with both girls vying to keep the hapless prince out of the other’s wicked grasp. But this isn’t some remote forest village, where a hint of stray magic might go unnoticed, Warszów is the icy capital of a kingdom that enjoys watching monsters burn, and if Zosia and Marynka’s innocent disguises continue to slip, their escalating rivalry might cost them not just the love they might have for each other, but both their lives.
The Midnight Girls
Alicia Jasinska
Rep: Polish-coded cast & setting, lesbian mc, bi mc, lesbian character, gay character, bi male character
CWs: child abuse, blood, body horror (brief), death, murder
Release: 28th December 2021
Charlotte’s Review
If you’ve ever felt that too often, f/f ships are not allowed to hunger for one another, that they have to be soft and sweet, and sickeningly in love, then The Midnight Girls will be the antidote for you. (Of course, I’ll note here that I don’t mean to imply that there’s anything wrong with that. But… the pattern of it, never getting to see girls actually want other girls in that visceral way… I’ll shut up now.)
Even better, then, that The Midnight Girls has a dual POV, so you get to see both Zosia and Marynka’s hunger for one another—although it takes them a little while to admit to it. I think what’s interesting (and very welcome) here, is that admitting to that desire doesn’t magically make them no longer enemies. They are very much still enemies-slash-rivals, and they very much still do hate each other. But they also desire each other.
Actually perhaps I won’t shut up about what I was saying before, because I think it’s so very important that you get to see women desiring other women in a way that’s not just soft and sweet. It’s like Leslie Feinberg says in Stone Butch Blues,
“God,” she said, “by the time we’re old enough to have sex, we’re already too ashamed to be touched. Ain’t that a crime?”
and like Adrienne Rich notes about heterosexuality as,
a beachhead of male dominance, [presumed to be] a ‘sexual preference’ of ‘most women’, either implicitly or explicitly.
leading to the point that female desire of men is totally normalised, expected even. Female desire of other women? That’s something else.
In that respect, then, this book feels just the slightest bit revolutionary. I can name on one hand the number of books where I could feel that desire. Even when it comes to the adult romance novels that I’ve read, I find myself disappointed by the lack of hunger. But that’s not the case here. You know just how much Zosia and Marynka want one another, and you know just how not-soft they’ll be about it.
Add onto this the kind of worldbuilding that consumes you, that makes you feel as though you’re right there with the characters? And a background cast that’s just as compelling (if not occasionally more so) as the main leads? An ending that leaves you desperate for so much more?
You’ve basically got yourself just about the perfect book, and one that I’m begging you to pick up. Between this and The Dark Tide, I’m certain that Alicia Jasinska is an author I’ll be coming back to.
Anna’s Review
When I first saw the cover of The Midnight Girls, I literally cried. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see a mainstream book with girls dressed in traditional Polish nobility clothes front and centre. And sapphic girls, at that! As for the book itself, I knew it’s gonna be amazing, given how great Jasińska’s previous novel was. I was right, of course, but also it exceeded my expectations.
Let’s start with what makes this such a good Polish book, since not everyone will immediately realise. Obviously, the history it uses! It never mentions the king by name, but it’s blatant that it’s Stanisław August Poniatowski. Every time someone complains about him & his politics, it’s like music to a Polish person’s ears. (Well, at least mine.) It’s not a book that will help you learn our history (since it is a fantasy one), but for those who already know it, all the little nods are delicious.
All parts of our culture are actually put into the pages so very lovingly. The food everyone is eating is absolutely iconic (the duck blood soup! A staple of our cousin for so long!); the clothes are described in so much detail, and even using some Polish names. And the characters’ names! Not only are all the diminutives used correctly (which rarely happens in Western lit, believe me), but they also make sense for that time period.
I also very much appreciate this book reminding people that Muslim and Jewish communities used to be a part of our country, that we used to be one of the most open places in Europe, despite what is going on with our politics nowadays.
The fantasy elements of this world also feel very Polish, especially the magic. Jasińska took our religious beliefs, took our fervour for the religion, and turned it into literal magic. It’s visible in the flaming swords (we still to this day have groups called “knights of Saint Mary”, so really, this imagery is pure perfection), it’s visible in the amulets, which seem a lot like amulets that people in Poland would use anyway, but the ones here actually work. It’s a work of art.
On top of all that we have the sapphic romance. It’s possibly one of the most intense ones we’ve ever been offered in books, and definitely in YA. They are both actual, literal monsters; they are enemies in the sense that they do actively try to kill the other; they are ruthless in taking others’ lives, whether it’s because they need to or simply want to; they never go soft, not really (not even at the end). Their love for each other, which builds slowly, with incredible tension, in some ways is a fuel for them to be even more monstrous, for the competition between them.
We have asked for sapphic monster girls and Alicia Jasińska delivered!
There’s also another couple in the book, this one achillean, and it’s interesting to look at the parallels between the two (as pairings and as individuals). Zosia and Józef desperately want freedom, want the ability to decide their own fate (and in Józef’s case, also Lechija’s fate). Marynka and Kajetan both know what it’s like to be abused by your family, and to still want to please said family; they understand the feeling of not being enough, of going against your own better judgement just to make your family happy. The most obvious similarity, though, is that both of these couples are running on a contradiction of sorts: each of them wants the other one dead but also safe & sound at the same time.
To quote a classic, this book makes me feel like “a well of joy springs up from my soul”. Everything about it is tailored specifically to my taste, and it’s so beautifully Polish, too. It feels like a fairy tale at times, but a very real one somehow, despite all the magic & the monsters walking the earth. It might be taking place in winter, but it has incredible warmth about it (which the intensity of the sapphic relationship definitely contributes to). It’s magical, in every sense of the word.
So, have we convinced you that you want to read this book?
