Monday, November 26, 2012

The Dark Light by Sarah Walsh


Genera: Paranormal Fantasy/Adventure

Subjects: Supernatural, parallel worlds, magic, Nebraska, romance

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 483 pgs.

HC/PB: Harcover

List Price: $16.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary/ product description: “Mia is torn between two guys—and two worlds—in this epic, romantic fantasy.
Mysterious lights have flickered above Crownsville for as long as Mia can remember. And as far as she’s concerned, that’s about the only interesting thing to happen in her small town.
That is, until Sol arrives. Mia’s not one to fall for just any guy, but she can’t get Sol—or the brilliant tattoo on his back—out of her mind.
Then Mia’s brother goes missing, and Mia’s convinced that Sol knows more than he’s sharing. But getting closer to Sol means reevaluating everything Mia once believed to be true. Because Sol’s not who Mia thought he was—and neither is she.”

My Rating: êêê1/2

My Review: I had no idea what this book was going to be about. I was guessing angel, aliens or mythology, or a phoenix (based on that tattoo on the cover). Instead I got a parallel world full of magic. I’ve been reading a lot of parallel world books lately (Like: The Other Normals, Magisterium, Through to You, and Under the Never Sky, which isn’t really parallel), so it’s kind of unexpected to be reading another by accident. This book was good. I loved the narration. And the surprises were pretty awesome (even though I kind of wanted angels, aliens or mythology…)

I liked this book for the most part. The uniqueness to the fantasy world was cool. Toward the end, what we found out about Sol was awesome. In the middle I was kind of losing interest. The book felt a little too long. Like everything was being dragged out. Books over 400 pages are hard to like for me. I would rather has shorter books in a series than one long stand alone. Some people hate series because of cliff hangers and having to wait a whole year to find out what happens next. I’m okay with them because there’s always something else to read. I also am disappointed about the lack of steamy hot romance that the cover implies. No sexy fallen angels or demi gods. This book managed to remind me of the book I’m writing because the fantasy world I made has a few similarities, and the necklace is kind of like the amulets in my book. I like seeing how other people handle world building in fantasy books. I’m glad this wasn’t high fantasy because I’m not found of the way they speak in those books. But sometimes it was clear that the author was British. She using “huffing big” and meters instead of yards and a few other words/phrases that weren’t American.

I recommend this book to people who like fantasy.  If you liked The Iron Fey series or the Wings series, this book may not have Faeries, but it sure has a lot of creatures that are similar. Mia reminded me of Meghan Chase from the Iron Fey books.

Cover Art Review: The cover’s too simple to describe what’s inside. I like the title, and the bird tattoo, but I don’t like the black & white of the photo. So boring.

 

~Haley G

No comments:

Post a Comment