Alone Vol 9: Before The Midnight Child

By Gazzotti & Vehlmann
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849184106

There was a point with Alone, a few volumes back, where the children’s predicament was explained and the whole rationale of a world without adults given context. I felt it was the first wobble in what’s been a fantastic series to date. My fear was that we were about to move away from the imaginative, creative storytelling that’s underscored the books and stray into the safety of cliche. Well, I needn’t have worried. 

Alone has confidently pushed the narrative forward with some great world building, nudging the tale towards horror and thriller without taking its eye off of the age of its intended audience. The result is a bold and rewarding story that treats the reader with respect, delivering its promise again and again.

Most, but not all, of the original children are heading across the snow-covered mountains when their vehicle fails, forcing them to take refuge in a lodge. However, unbeknown to them they’re being tracked by their recent captors. Dodzi wants answers, fearing he’s the fabled ‘midnight child’, and so heads off into the frozen countryside by himself only to find the strangest person any of the children have come across to date. What’s obvious is that this world they now find themselves in may be full of children, but those children don’t age and some children have been there for a very, very long time.

I really do hope the creative team have a plan for where all this going because to date they’ve constantly rewarded the reader with a solid narrative and strong characters. They’ve earned my trust, and captured my imagination, so I’ll be sticking with it to see where this goes.

And if you liked that: Look out for volume 10 coming soon.

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