The ending, too, is a virtuoso move that shows just how much thought was poured into the novel, and my mind could not settle on a proper question to ask out of the hundred that immediately bubbled up. Forging on, you come across a plot that, predictably yet thrillingly, involves far more than a quick hit, and one of the most tantalizing hints of things to come is the frequent mention of the existence of magic, both in Nirrim’s past as well as her terrifying present. It is clear that Rutkoski is playing the long game here, and she's playing it rather superbly. Reading this book, you get the sense that the author is careful to unspool the secrets of her world with maximum suspense and mystique. The Midnight Lie unfolds unhurriedly with harrowing beauty, precision, and confidence, but there's a rhythm to it. While on the surface this seems like a story we’ve seen before, Rutkoski infuses exhilarating new life into it through beautiful language, distinct characters, and remarkable world-building elements that mesh like clockwork with themes of deception, privilege, greed, and an acute exploration of the truths we conceal from ourselves until one day we surface and find them waiting.
Sid’s words give Nirrim a single threshold of hope on which to balance, a narrow precipice of hope, but can Nirrim climb through the mirror and slide into the skin of the girl she imagines herself to be, brave and unafraid of falling? A girl: a sea-faring schemer named Sid whose eyes fastened on Nirrim across a low-lit prison cell as she whispered of magic left like a door, ajar onto a new and undiscovered world. But there are gaps between the bars: whispers of long-forgotten gods, scarlet where the white paint on the walls of the Ward had chipped, an Elysium bird sailing high over the Ward like an omen. Nirrim worked to fit herself inside the narrow confines of this life, the words “it is what it is” like a mantra, like fingers reaching into her mouth, pinching her tongue and keeping her from crying out. They drip with perfume and are corrupt from soft living, and the best our protagonist, Nirrim, can hope for is a life spent creeping in their generous shadows. The High Kith wear their wealth as comfortably as the expensive leather that is forbidden in the Ward.
A world that lays itself open for only one faction: the High Kith. “It is what it is.” With such a simple yet foreboding line, Rutkoski paints a vivid portrait of an intriguing, deadly world in the first installment of The Midnight Lie series.
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