Drenched in Midnight is a haunting, dreamlike novella that drifts between love story, myth, and psychological unraveling. The book follows James and Laura, a couple who accept an invitation to a mysterious island resort called Embra. Their stay begins as an idyllic digital detox but quickly turns into a surreal exploration of memory, identity, and transformation. Guided or maybe manipulated by their enigmatic host, Byron, they find themselves entwined with an island that seems alive, pulsing with strange bioluminescent flowers and whispers of their own family histories.

The writing has that cinematic quality where you can almost smell the salt air and feel the humid stillness of the jungle. When the seaplane lands and the couple is greeted by linen-clad hosts whispering, “Welcome to the Isle of Embra,” I felt the tension coil right there. The author doesn’t rush. Every description of the glimmering tide pools, the glowing flowers, the hushed castle, is deliberate, seductive. It’s a slow burn that rewards patience. My favorite early moment was when James and Laura touch the glowing sand on the beach and realize it’s alive somehow.

What I loved most about this book is how it blurs reality. The alternating chapters between Byron, James, and Laura make you question who’s really telling the truth or if truth even matters here. Byron’s chapters, especially “The Host” and “The Keeper’s Secret,” have this eerie calm, like a cult leader convincing himself he’s benevolent. There is a quiet but unsettling intensity in the way he speaks of “guiding” his guests toward transcendence, and his fixation on the bloom, a luminous, sentient flower that draws life from human emotion, evokes both fascination and dread. But the emotional anchor is really Laura. Her realization that her family’s history is entwined with the island carries profound emotional weight. It’s that classic gothic moment, bloodlines tangled with curses, but reimagined with a sci-fi shimmer.

There are scenes that stuck with me long after I closed the book. When James and Laura find the Night Garden, for instance, the glowing petals, their bodies literally lighting up as they make love under the bioluminescent canopy, it’s both erotic and terrifying. The writing there is electric, unapologetically sensual without being gratuitous. You can feel the island consuming them, memory and identity merging until you’re not sure if they’re still themselves or just vessels for something ancient. Then there’s Byron watching them from the shadows, whispering, “The flower remembers.” That line still echoes in my head. It’s creepy, beautiful, and sad all at once.

Drenched in Midnight lingers long after its final page, not because of shock or spectacle, but because of the quiet reverence it builds for mystery itself. Hilbert crafts a world where memory, desire, and the natural world intertwine in unsettling harmony, leaving the reader both captivated and unsettled.

Pages: 136 | ASIN : B0FP9L8K3G