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Why Does Anastasia’s Midnight Song Exist? Why This Book?

Writer's picture: Scott LewisScott Lewis

Anastasia’s Midnight Song addresses the most complicated factors regarding a person’s coming of age—factors that sometimes blend together in the youthful search for love and the concurrent tragedy of teenage depression and mental illness.

What makes the book unique is that this tale is told from two points of view—that of a lovesick young man and that of the frightened young lady who happens to be the object of his desire. As such, the young man regards himself as nothing more than a lonely soul—while the young lady regards the young man as potentially the worst kind of psychopath. Put another way, Anastasia’s Midnight Song provides a coming-of-age tale that shows how even the most innocent of young people must learn to confront the presence of evil in this world.

There was never any mystery as to why this tale had to be written. In so many respects, the tale follows from that most haunting of coming-of-age tales: Romeo and Juliet.

Why does that tragic tale beguile us? One reason might be due to the fact that Juliet’s House of Capulet and Romeo’s House of Montague serve as metaphors for the cliques that are so crucial to young people—especially in their school days.

The violence provides another reason why Shakespeare’s tale resonates. This, too, speaks to all of us. As children, we fear the dark and the bump in the night and the notion that a monster might be lurking either beneath the bed or in the closet. However, most of us are safe and secure as children.


On the other hand, youth is a time for breaking away—and perhaps that is what holds the potential to put some of us in harm’s way. In short, Shakespeare’s tale resonates with us because he understands that youth is a time when we often come face to face with the presence of evil.


(With regard to all of Shakespeare’s swordplay, a memory suddenly shines forth. I’m back in school, and as the discussion of Shakespeare comes to dominate English class, the instinct to say something and to ensure a few class-participation points compels me to dubiously praise Shakespeare for not including too much violence. At which point an angry, bearded, liberal, alpha-male chap hollers at me from the other side of the room. And as he proceeds to relate a litany of violent sequences in various Shakespearean works, the chap glares at me with murder in his eyes. Ah, the wonder and the joy of academia.)


At any rate, even though the idea of violent conflict appears all throughout Romeo and Juliet, the topic pales in comparison to the idea of suicide. And Romeo’s suicide always seemed so peaceful and so simple. Then again, when Juliet bowls off, she does so in the most remarkably violent way—the dagger as terrible as any weapon that any thug has ever wielded. Nevertheless, Romeo and Juliet leaves me intellectually dis-satisfied. Ever since my own dour teenage years, the thought has always occurred and recurred: there must be a more Socratic way to combine and to manifest the variables that comprise the tale. And ultimately, it is that intellectual dis-satisfaction that inspired Anastasia’s Midnight Song.

With apologies to William Shakespeare, of course.


M. Laszlo lives in Bath Township, Ohio. He is an aging recluse, rarely seen nor heard. Anastasia’s Midnight Song is his second release with AIA Publishing.

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