Sarah O'Brien Reviews Midwatch by Jillian Danback-Mcghan

Jillian Danback-McGhan is an author and Navy veteran. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Military Experience & the Arts, storySouth, Line of Advance, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, the anthology Our Best War Stories (Middle West Press, 2022), and elsewhere. Jillian is the recipient of the 2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Award and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, George Mason University, and Georgetown University. She lives in Annapolis, MD with her family.

Midwatch (Split Lip Press) is available for purchase here.

It’s not enough to call this a collection of sea stories. They won’t form a shanty to scrub the deck to, nor a cadence to march to, and you won’t be passing them around the campfire with boastful enthusiasm. No, these are the stories that you don’t hear about, but you know are happening. These are the silent screams in the night, the tears you walked in on, the less-than-appropriate humor tossed around, and the distant look in their eyes when an unknown trigger surfaces in the conversation. Readers are shown the battles against harassment, insubordination, assault, and several more situations that women servicemembers often face during their service.

In Midwatch, Danback-Mcghan gives us a small glimpse into the lives and minds of female servicemembers, both active and separated, as well as the loved ones (spouse/family) left behind when deployment comes to collect. Danback-Mcghan brings her characters to life in each of the eight 10-20-page short stories, thoughtfully crafted to represent real-life snapshots of a woman’s mind in and out of the military: full of emotion, second-guessing, guilt, fear, strength, resilience, hope, and the ever-present reminder of the misogyny of their world.

Danback-Mcghan takes readers on a journey to the sea, where one character seeks vengeance for her inner hurt, and another takes charge against coercion. Readers get a glimpse of life after service when one character faces off against her memories, just as another shows us the other side of the coin: the spousal life to be found on base, and all the battles that those left behind are faced with. From preparing for deployment to a battle against insubordination to recovery in a military hospital, Danback-Mcghan’s characters illustrate what women servicemembers encounter throughout their tours of service, from a perspective that is often pushed aside and denounced as irrational.

At a certain point, the reader might find a personal connection as Danback-Mcghan gracefully exposes readers to situations that anyone and everyone could face in their own lives. There are moments in these individual stories wherein the characters have thought-provoking realizations about themselves and their traumas, a personal favorite from “The Curator of Obscenities” is:

“Maybe I’d submerged everything too far within myself to bring back up. Maybe the only thing left to feel was this sinking sensation and the overwhelming nothingness that followed.” (Midwatch, 42)

Within these moments, Danback-Mcghan showcases a major theme that traverses the entire collection: perseverance in the face of adversity. Lieutenant Bloom from “Dead Baby Jokes” is the embodiment of persevering as she battles not only reign over the men in her unit and managing a tactical mission, but also the grief and guilt when mistakes are made. In “Hail and Farewell,” Sara Brant is a military spouse entrenched in the domestic warfare that arises when the social constructs of family life clash with service life.  

Danback-Mcghan’s characters are truly the highlight of every story that’s told: their courageous actions in standing up for themselves, their cunning and clever responses to misogyny, and their resilience and unwillingness to give in to the hateful snickers echoing off the walls around them, makes them applaudable representations of countless truths. Every character in this book leads their story. They face horrific ordeals, and they own their mistakes. There is not one character within these pages that doesn’t feel alive, breathing strength and resilience into readers as the pages turn.

There was one story that had an interesting structure and a resilient female lead: “Comeback.” This one reads like a play, with the “spotlight” on a female marine that’s suffered a T.B.I. and is having delusions (that portray an amusing character with quick and humorous rebuttals). The reader will come to love the pure strength of willpower exhibited by this marine that must restart her life in another ‘theater’, as she is to be discharged from service upon recovery:

“The next script is blank, waiting to be written. Nothing follows it unless I create it for myself. Every part I’ve played demanded directorial oblation, a sacrifice of myself to fulfill someone else’s vision or mission. What will I demand of myself?” (Midwatch, 75)

The character must demonstrate her ability to overcome and plan a future she can reach for. She must find hope, and then fight for it. Much in the same way that we all must overcome hurdles in life, Danback-Mcghan’s characters are put through hell, and they still come back to fight.

Sarah O'Brien is a student of life and the world, but more specifically English and History at Arizona State University. She recognizes that there will always be something new to learn, and revels in being challenged, tackling various problems as they present themselves. She is a mother of 2, has 3 feline companions, is an individual of great organization, and aims to always keep an open mind. Her hobbies are varied, but cycle throughout the year primarily between gardening, spinning, painting, reading, writing, ongoing food preservation, sewing, and crocheting. She is a passionate fan of the Oxford comma.