Reviewed by Breanna F. for TeensReadToo.com

Meredith and Mallory are identical twins born on either side of midnight, one at 11:59pm and the other at 12:01am.

It's now thirteen years later and the girls are best friends, but they have completely different interests. Also, like many identical twins, they can often read each others minds and feel what the other is feeling. But their twin senses are a lot stronger than most twins. They also have the exact same dreams.

Up until one New Year's Eve when a fire breaks out at the house where they are babysitting their cousins, and the twins almost die. Someone purposely started the fire, and the twins have a pretty good idea of who that someone is.

After the fire, Mallory starts seeing strange images and scenes in her head involving David, the guy that they believe started the fire. These scenes are so strange, but Mallory believes that they are actually going to happen. But Meredith isn't seeing the same things or even having the same dreams anymore. Instead, she is seeing scenes involving David that are less creepy.

Over the next few months, what Mallory keeps seeing starts getting more disturbing, like what seems to be David almost raping a girl. She even starts having blackouts after seeing the frightening images. She tells Meredith that they need to confront David, but her sister isn't too sure about the idea. Will confronting David help the disturbing scenes to finally stop, or will they continue on forever?

This was a good book that I really enjoyed. Mallory and Meredith were great characters and it was fun to read a story about identical twins. The storyline was really great and the ending was a bit surprising to me. Parts in the middle were a bit confusing, but it could have just been me.

THE MIDNIGHT TWINS was overall a pretty good book and I hope that Ms. Mitchard writes a follow-up. I'd love to see what happens to Mallory and Meredith after the ending of this book. I'd recommend this one to anyone who likes reading either about twins or who loves the paranormal and mysteries. ( )

From: http://booknerds.net

The Midnight Twins sounds so much better than it actually is, however, I will still be buying the second one. I shall explain:

First of all, the first half of the book is about completely useless, until the fire and the girls’ 13th birthday. It was completely all over the place, and I honestly spent chapters being unaware of exactly when things were happening. That is pretty much all there is to that.

Secondly, over and over again I’ve heard a rule for writing that utterly makes sense: Don’t name your characters names that are too alike. With this I am left wondering what in the WORLD made Mitchard name her characters Merry & Mally. I understand they’re twins, totally get it – I – however, am the reader and it took me a good half of the book to get used to that the names were so similar, and to learn who was speaking. It is very clear that she attempts to make their personalities different but when little things are going on, or things are happening fast, and I read a sentence with Mally & Merry in it, I often found myself reading back over the paragraph just to make sure I had the right twin. Having said that though, the characters are interesting, while they are typical twins (in relevance to most books with twins, that is) – meaning, complete opposites – they are also well thought out, described, and unique. Once you DO learn each of their voices, personalities, and traits, then it’s easy to tell them apart, it just takes some time to get there.

Other than the completely useless first part of the book, and the confusion with the names, once the girls come into their powers, the book picks up and actually does quite a good job at holding interest! Once all the good stuff starts happening it’s actually quite hard to put the book down, and I kept guessing just as long as the girls did about who the culprit of the fire was, and who was trying so hard to freak Mally out. It stays slightly confusing with the names, but by the end of the book I had just about gotten completely used to it. The last of The Midnight Twins defiantly makes up for the beginning – therefore, I will be buying/reading Look Both Ways (Midnight Twins #2), I really look forward to seeing how Meredith and Mallory’s story continues. ( )

Mallory and Meredith Brynn have always been unusually closer than other identical twins. Although clearly opposites, they seem to have an unspoken bond—a bond that is nearly broken when a mysterious fire the night of their birthday nearly kills them.

After that moment, nothing is the same. Meredith sees visions of the past, and Mallory sees visions of the future. Worst of all, they can’t seem to communicate with one another anymore, which is all the more unfortunate because, at such a vulnerable stage of self-discovery, they just might need each other more than ever before.

I have a hunch that this will be one of those series that people pick up because the cover looks pretty and there’s a pretty famous author’s name on it. Otherwise, THE MIDNIGHT TWINS is a jumbled, jumpy, and gnarled mess of characters, ooooo-spooky events, and rushed conclusions.

I understand that the twins at 13 years old, and that tweens on the brink of puberty make for melodramatic and often confusing times, but really, now. The mindset of an eighth grade girl does not have to manifest itself in the poor, choppy writing. Mitchard frequently jumps from one moment to another half an hour later, leaving us bewildered readers to fill in the gap and try to keep up at the same time.

Most of the time, the book dragged so much and included a bunch of pointless information that didn’t help me understand the twins or their situation any better. The ending is appropriate for a novel written by—you guessed it—an eighth grade girl: chock full of moments where you’re pretty sure you’re supposed to gasp in shock and moan in despair. When the climactic moment occurred, I didn’t feel anything, possibly because by that point I was so sick of the characters and the book’s nonsense writing.

I’m sorely disappointed that poor writing killed what could have been interesting characters with interesting abilities. Still, I’ve heard that the second book, LOOK BOTH WAYS, is better, and I must say that I sincerely hope so, for Jacquelyn Mitchard has made me disheartened with this failure of a series starter. ( )

I really enjoyed this book--I couldn't put it down! I have always been interested in twins, ever since I was little. And then I discovered the series of Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, and Sweet Valley University. And it turns out that I am now dating a twin! This book was easy to fly through and kept me on the edge of my seat! ( )

Entertaining book about the mysterious relationships between identical twins... and how they can "feel" each other's emotions. These twins however not only can "hear" each others thoughts and dreams, after surving a fire they discover they have supernatural powers. Coming from a long line of identical twins, these two have powers that no one in their family before them have had before. ( )