When It's Your Turn For Midnight

LoveReading Says

Having adored Blessing Musariri’s YA debut, All That It Ever Meant, I had very high hopes for When It’s Your Turn for Midnight — hopes that were more than met by a beautiful, powerful, empowering story of sisterhood, and escaping generational trauma and the legacies of war. 

“When I’m angry my words are lava and they even burn me”. So shares fifteen-year-old Chiante near the start of this remarkable novel, when she flees her family home in Harare and finds refuge with her feisty, fashionable grandmother, Ambuya Precious, after discovering a devastating truth about her father.   

At first, Ambuya’s remote community in Mutare “feels like another country” to Chiante. From this secluded spot, Ambuya and her larger-than-life companions manage a very successful fashion-upcycling operation. But beneath their outward energy and joy, this unusual, remarkable clan of women are bound by war, and the enduring legacy of conflict — “Wars never end, they just change location”.  

Simmering with secrets, When It’s Your Turn for Midnight blazes with survival, solidarity and the glory of strong-minded grandmothers as it also radiates courage, recovery and hope.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
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