No Dawn Without Darkness by Dayna Lorentz

Series: No Safety in Numbers (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Dystopian/Sci-fi Thriller

Subjects: viruses, quarantine, shopping malls, survival

Setting: Upstate New York, a mall called Shops at Stonecliff

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, Present tense, rotating between Ginger, Ryan, Shay, and Marco. Plus The Senator.

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 232 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Penguin: Kathy Dawson Books

Summary/ product description: “Perfect for fans of Life As We Knew It and Michael Grant's Gone--this conclusion to the No Safety in Numbers trilogy will make your heart race, your palms sweat, and will leave you wondering exactly what you'd be willing to sacrifice in order to survive.

First--a bomb released a deadly flu virus and the entire mall was quarantined.

Next--the medical teams evacuated and the windows were boarded up just before the virus mutated.

Now--the power is out and the mall is thrown into darkness. Shay, Marco, Lexi, Ryan, and Ginger aren't the same people they were two weeks ago. Just like the virus, they've had to change in order to survive. And not all for the better. When no one can see your face, you can be anyone you want to be, and, when the doors finally open, they may not like what they've become.

If you think it's silly to be afraid of the dark, you're wrong.

Very wrong.”

My Review:  A definite improvement over the second book, No Easy Ways Out, which was excruciatingly long. No Dawn Without Darkness is a quick read, only 232 pages long. It’s a thrilling conclusion to an interesting dystopian series set inside a mega-mall.

What also made it a great finale was that the author wrote in 1^st person this time. The first two books were written in 3^rd person, which I’m not a fan of most of the time. This is such a major change. I don’t know why the author made this change. Maybe she read my review or other reviews and decided to improve her style. This made me wish that all the books were in 1^st person. You get such a deeper perspective into the emotions and thoughts of a character through 1^st person narration. We got to see Ginger, Ryan, Shay and Marco’s POVs. No Lexi 1^st person POV. We also got voice recordings from the Senator, and interviews of the quarantine survivors.

Most of the book does take place in the mall, but a major chunk of it is after-the-fact. How does experiencing quarantine affect a person once they leave? How does one go about living their life? Can you ever feel normal again? We got to see how the character coped. I feel like the climax happened a bit early on, and that maybe the rest of it could have been shorter. Maybe part the previous book could have been the beginning of this book.

If you didn’t enjoy the previous book you shouldn’t feel intimidated with reading this last book. It’s a good ending. It’s not boring. It wraps things up and gives you closure. Maybe it’s not worth buying, but check it out or borrow it. You won’t be disappointed.

If you haven’t read No Easy Way Out, then you may like it if you enjoy thrilling dystopia books. If you liked Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne, or the Quarantine series by Lex Thomas, thins book share some similarities. This series is very realistic and the quarantine was caused by a terrorist attack. There are no zombies. Just a virus. If you saw the movie Contagion, it’s like that, but in a mall setting. The mall is in upstate New York, but similar to the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which I’ve been too. It’s a suffocating kind of dystopian setting, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Cover Art Review: Simple, fits with the previous book’s covers. I like the blue, but still it’s not the kind of cover I’d buy a book based off of. Show me a mall with people and wreckage.