Midnight on Beacon Street

A Novel

By: Emily Ruth Verona

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

“Midnight on Beacon Street is a lot of things. It’s a taut thriller about a babysitter and two kids surviving one weird night. It’s a celebration of classic horror movies. It’s a creepy narrative that involves a ghost and late night home break-ins. And, most important, it’s a lot of fun. . . Verona plays with home invasion tropes by delivering a tale with multiple breaches, each offering differing types of frights. . . With its feverish pacing and startling plot twists, this is an impressive debut.” — New York Times Book Review

“My nineties heart was warmed and thrilled by Emily Ruth Verona’s debut novel, Midnight on Beacon Street. The shade of Shirley Jackson haunts this page-turner, which abounds in classic horror movie references, both revisiting and critiquing the tale of a babysitter left alone with kids she may or may not be able to protect. I loved every minute of it.” —Polly Stewart, author of The Good Ones

A suspenseful and entertaining debut thriller—and love letter to vintage horror movies—in which a teenager must overcome her own anxiety to protect the two children she’s babysitting when strangers come knocking at the door.

October 1993. One night. One house. One dead body.

When single mom Eleanor Mazinski goes out a for a much-needed date night, she leaves her two young children—sweet, innocent six-year-old Ben and precocious, defiant twelve-year-old Mira—in the capable hands of their sitter, Amy. The quiet seventeen-year-old is good at looking after children, despite her anxiety disorder. She also loves movies, especially horror flicks. Amy likes their predictability; it calms the panic that threatens to overwhelm her.

The evening starts out normally enough, with games, pizza, and dancing. But as darkness falls, events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn—unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight, little Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a dead body at his feet.

In this dazzling debut novel, Emily Ruth Verona moves back and forth in time, ratcheting up suspense and tension on every page. Chock-full of nods to classic horror films of the seventies and eighties, Midnight on Beacon Street is a gripping thriller full of electrifying twists and a heartwarming tale of fear and devotion that explores our terrors and the lengths we’ll go to keep our loved ones safe.

©2024 Emily Ruth Verona (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Boring

Not much to this. Very little suspense and characters are not interesting. Avoid this book unless you want a slow story that finishes with an unsatisfying end

Story drags

This book felt like 90% build up to a short climax which didn’t end up being that compelling.

Anticlimactic!

This had so much potential! And yet it fell short at every opportunity it had to be great! It was predictable, anticlimactic, and at times just plain boring. This book wanted to have some kind of commentary, but it failed miserably to convey in every possible way! Save your credit, if you must get it in Libby from your local library when it becomes available!

Unsure what I did/didn't like

I am unsure about this book. I felt like it was a really plausible story, I liked the characters. But something was a little boring and I was confused at times because of how the book is organized. I still recommend.

Great story of love, fear and emotions

The reader and the story kept me interested from the very beginning. I liked the different character's narration and the time jump from past to present. The children in the story seemed very real as did the babysitter. I was not prepared for the surprise ending . The author seemed to know her characters as well as the horror movies mentioned and the emotional plight of all involved. I highly recommend this book as well as the audio version.

The lead character, Amy, is very relatable

Very good, solid story. A good "real life" kind of scary! Takes me back to when I used to babysit!