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A review by bloodmaarked
Darkness Follows by L.A. Weatherly
2.0
The main feeling I have after having read Darkness Follows? Annoyance! I'm so annoyed because I think this had the potential to be really amazing, even better than [b:Broken Sky|25925784|Broken Sky (The Broken Trilogy, #1)|L.A. Weatherly|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447326528l/25925784._SY75_.jpg|45817613]. It had so many issues at the start that I almost decided to just quit; it's not until you get over the 50% mark that the story begins to shine.
The great:
✧ To start with, once you reach about the halfway point, the storyline is amazing. It's fast-paced, action-packed, the stakes are high and the plot becomes much more intriguing. Seriously, the first and second half felt like night and day. It went from thinking I was going to stop reading, to pulling an all-nighter and speeding through the chapters.
✧ I liked Ingo in the first book, but I liked him even more in Darkness Follows. Especially his relationship with Amity. I really love his chemistry with Amity (I don't expect that they will or should get together, but I definitely preferred reading about Amity with Ingo compared to Collis). We get to hear a lot more about who he is, where he comes from, what makes him tick, and it's great. The chapter where stood out to me as one of my favourites in the whole book - it's such a gratifying feeling when they finally make it.
✧ Some other characters also get some good screentime (page-time?). Specifically, Hal, who I'm very glad is back in the picture. Also, Mac, who's taken over the POV chapters that Kay previously had in Book 1. There wasn't all that much to make of Mac in the first book, but here he's fleshed out really well and feels like a well-rounded, human character. He's written a lot better than Kay was (even if I'm still unsure as to why his chapters are written in the third person).
The disappointing:
✦ I'm still getting a lot of confusion as to what time period it's meant to be. In Book 1, I don't believe a specific date was alluded to, although it seemed reminiscent of 1940s America. In Book 2, the events specifically take place between 1941-2. Because of this, it's kind of confusing. It's actually stated to take place in 1941 AC, which... I don't know what that's meant to refer to. The whole time they talked about it being a new post-war era, I assumed they'd been alluding to the world wars and the present wars, but that can't be the case if it's actually 1941. In which case, is it meant to be an alternate timeline? And if so, I wonder why Weatherly didn't just create a whole new world, instead of using weird versions of present-day countries and alluding to the existence of real-world brands like Coca-Cola. I don't know, my brain hurts.
✦ The allusions to Nazi Germany are higher than ever, which works against the book's favour as it just feels like a cheap retelling of a WWII story (especially with the time that the story is set). Most of the content of the first half of the book made me draw comparisons to [b:Between Shades of Gray|7824322|Between Shades of Gray|Ruta Sepetys|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873479l/7824322._SX50_.jpg|10870318] except it was written much worse. (By the way, you should definitely read BSoG if you haven't already.) Weatherly states in the acknowledgements that Harmony 5 wasn't meant to represent any specific real-life camps - but it's not just the camps that feel like a copy-paste, it's the entirety of Gunnison's regime. It fell so flat and felt utterly unintriguing.
✦ There is so much recounted backstory in this book, and I don't know why. It rehashes a lot of info that we already get from reading Book 1. It feels very unnecessary.
✦ Amity's chapters in Harmony 5 felt very repetitive - it's pretty much worrying about her boots, don't think of Collis, don't think of Dad's thrown fight and what it's caused, don't think of Ma and Hal, rinse and repeat. There's very little in the way of new information gained or additions to the plot up until some time after Ingo shows up.
✦ Along with the addition of dates, this book features a whole lot of time-jumping. It's not an issue in itself, but it was very awkwardly done, and chapters which I felt could have been ordered more chronologically were not. It made it hard to keep track of the plot and what took place when. It's more of an issue in the earlier half of the book than the latter half.
✦ The whole reveal of what happened with Collis' betrayal was built up through so much of the book, only for it to be an anticlimax and not really any more dramatic than you'd think it would be.
✦ There are so many typos in both books for some reason? Also, apparently Weatherly doesn't know that forever is one word, not for ever. As I type this, Grammarly is asking me to correct its spelling.
Again, this had so much potential, and I'm annoyed. I'm surprised that this book has so few reads, but I'm also not surprised that people decided to drop the series after Book 1. The ending was explosive and so if I manage to get a hold of the final book, I'll probably go ahead and read it, but if I don't manage to then it's not a huge loss - I gave it a good run.
The great:
✧ To start with, once you reach about the halfway point, the storyline is amazing. It's fast-paced, action-packed, the stakes are high and the plot becomes much more intriguing. Seriously, the first and second half felt like night and day. It went from thinking I was going to stop reading, to pulling an all-nighter and speeding through the chapters.
✧ I liked Ingo in the first book, but I liked him even more in Darkness Follows. Especially his relationship with Amity. I really love his chemistry with Amity (I don't expect that they will or should get together, but I definitely preferred reading about Amity with Ingo compared to Collis). We get to hear a lot more about who he is, where he comes from, what makes him tick, and it's great. The chapter where
Spoiler
he and Amity escape from Harmony 5✧ Some other characters also get some good screentime (page-time?). Specifically, Hal, who I'm very glad is back in the picture. Also, Mac, who's taken over the POV chapters that Kay previously had in Book 1. There wasn't all that much to make of Mac in the first book, but here he's fleshed out really well and feels like a well-rounded, human character. He's written a lot better than Kay was (even if I'm still unsure as to why his chapters are written in the third person).
The disappointing:
✦ I'm still getting a lot of confusion as to what time period it's meant to be. In Book 1, I don't believe a specific date was alluded to, although it seemed reminiscent of 1940s America. In Book 2, the events specifically take place between 1941-2. Because of this, it's kind of confusing. It's actually stated to take place in 1941 AC, which... I don't know what that's meant to refer to. The whole time they talked about it being a new post-war era, I assumed they'd been alluding to the world wars and the present wars, but that can't be the case if it's actually 1941. In which case, is it meant to be an alternate timeline? And if so, I wonder why Weatherly didn't just create a whole new world, instead of using weird versions of present-day countries and alluding to the existence of real-world brands like Coca-Cola. I don't know, my brain hurts.
✦ The allusions to Nazi Germany are higher than ever, which works against the book's favour as it just feels like a cheap retelling of a WWII story (especially with the time that the story is set). Most of the content of the first half of the book made me draw comparisons to [b:Between Shades of Gray|7824322|Between Shades of Gray|Ruta Sepetys|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873479l/7824322._SX50_.jpg|10870318] except it was written much worse. (By the way, you should definitely read BSoG if you haven't already.) Weatherly states in the acknowledgements that Harmony 5 wasn't meant to represent any specific real-life camps - but it's not just the camps that feel like a copy-paste, it's the entirety of Gunnison's regime. It fell so flat and felt utterly unintriguing.
✦ There is so much recounted backstory in this book, and I don't know why. It rehashes a lot of info that we already get from reading Book 1. It feels very unnecessary.
✦ Amity's chapters in Harmony 5 felt very repetitive - it's pretty much worrying about her boots, don't think of Collis, don't think of Dad's thrown fight and what it's caused, don't think of Ma and Hal, rinse and repeat. There's very little in the way of new information gained or additions to the plot up until some time after Ingo shows up.
✦ Along with the addition of dates, this book features a whole lot of time-jumping. It's not an issue in itself, but it was very awkwardly done, and chapters which I felt could have been ordered more chronologically were not. It made it hard to keep track of the plot and what took place when. It's more of an issue in the earlier half of the book than the latter half.
✦ The whole reveal of what happened with Collis' betrayal was built up through so much of the book, only for it to be an anticlimax and not really any more dramatic than you'd think it would be.
✦ There are so many typos in both books for some reason? Also, apparently Weatherly doesn't know that forever is one word, not for ever. As I type this, Grammarly is asking me to correct its spelling.
Again, this had so much potential, and I'm annoyed. I'm surprised that this book has so few reads, but I'm also not surprised that people decided to drop the series after Book 1. The ending was explosive and so if I manage to get a hold of the final book, I'll probably go ahead and read it, but if I don't manage to then it's not a huge loss - I gave it a good run.