The Midnight News

Almost unbearably bleak novel set during the London Blitz of World War II. The heroine is assaulted, gaslighted, and institutionalized against her will. All of those traumas are magnified at a time where thousands of people are killed during the air raids and countless buildings are destroyed. Readers looking for a plucky heroine keeping a stiff upper lip while having heroic adventures should look elsewhere. The book ends on a note of hope, which is tarnished by an earlier line hinting that the heroine's HFN romance may be short-lived.