• Genre: Time Travel
• Age group: Young Adult
• Pub. date: 2009
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 244
• Goodreads link

Genna Colon desperately wants to escape from a drug-infested world of poverty, and every day she wishes for a different life. One day Genna’s wish is granted and she is instantly transported back to Civil War-era Brooklyn.

I read this for the 2021 Blackathon Time travel prompt and I really enjoyed it. It surprised me because I’ve still got an (as it turns out wrong) image of YA being more happy, easy-going reads, and of course, a book dealing with war, riots and slavery was not going to be all that light. Though it was a fun read it did not avoid heavy subjects. Even the present-day story of Genna is harsh, she grows up in poverty, her family is torn apart, her father not being able to cope in America anymore and returning to Panama, her mother is overworked, her siblings hang out with drug-dealing friends. She’s an ambitious student who just wants to go to college and leave the ghetto behind her. Her wish does not go as expected and she ends up in the past, in even more dangerous circumstances. The time-traveling part happens a bit later than I would’ve expected, the first third of the book is set in the present so there’s plenty of time to get to know Genna and then see how things from her present affect her in the past. There’s also a sequel that I’m very curious to read because of when the book ends, it’s not a cliffhanger, but a hook, and a big question is left open. I wonder if the why and how of time travel will be explained more there.

The past-part makes up most of the book, and it’s very tense times. Not only is it during the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation has just been announced, there are also draft riots in New York and real and immediate danger for Genna and the other people she meets. Although there a few high-speed scenes, most of the book is pretty slice-of-life, first her school life and then her daily job-life.

I loved reading A Wish After Midnight, Genna’s voice and the book’s writing style worked very well for me, showing a lot of personality. I liked how pragmatic Genna is, she’s thrown into the past and while she misses her family and is confused by this time travel business she gets with building a life for herself there. She’s strong and driven, but she’s also soft, and that’s shown in how she’s very good with kids, and gets lonely and tries to make friends.

One point I liked was how it presented different nuances of racism in the past and present, for instance in how differently the characters related to racism or even how some of the well-meaning people held racist pseudoscientific beliefs. It drew parallels between progress that’s been made and progress that hasn’t. It also tied in to a personal pet peeve of mine when people excuse vehement racists because of  “the times”, as if everyone was violently racist in the past, discounting people who weren’t hateful.

Recommended for: fans of Kindred and historical fiction and also fans of Black Girl Unlimited and Riot Baby

Check out my Blackahton TBR