Midnight 99 by Ashley Christine is a story, alright. I’m actually having a hard time trying to find a label for it. I guess I’d call it sci fi adventure, mixed in with a lgbt romance, liberally sprinkled with a whole lot of WTF.
The latest from NeoText, Midnight 99 is a debut novella and it kicks off Ashley’s career with a bang. A glittery bang.
The story is about Tulsa Kalhoun, formally a journalist and currently a drug dealer for those that are “cosmically woke”, like she is. And also lizards. Because they run the world. Did you know that? That is the basis of this story, that everything that has happened on our planet has been orchestrated by alien lizards that don’t die. No seriously, Tulsa is adamant that “Lizards. Don’t Die.” well, right up til she kills one. Possibly. Maybe. Not sure yet.
This book is chock full of amazingness. It starts off right away with the absolutely epic footnotes, seriously “4. Terrence is the other Lizard overlord. He’s the cute one.” How do you not laugh at that? And then it continues right along until we hit a gem like “deja loup garou”. Seriously, I know myself, I’ll be peppering my language with that for a long while. I snort laughed when I read it. The deeper you get into this story, the more you fall in love with Tulsa. She is seriously sassy, curses like a sailor on drugs, and is unashamedly sexual. This book is definitely NSFW, but worth it for the tortured love story between Tulsa and Lucy Nash. Lucy was her college sweetheart and they were almost engaged, right up until Tulsa’s first brush with the drugs that would become her life. Oh an that pesky truth that Lucy was a lizard.
Surrounding the lizards and the love story, is the titular drug, Midnight 99. It keeps Tulsa woke, as she says, and allows her to see all the cosmic stuff that normal humans don’t. It also either helps or hinders her depending on the day. This novella moves fast and drops sass at a pace that some readers might not appreciate, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am actually quite excited to see what happens in the next part.
Midnight 99 is being released by NeoText today.
