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A review by silverbardsings
Dark is the Night by Mirriam 'Myf' Neal
5.0
Fantastic Dark Fantasy shoot-em-up
So, I started this book yesterday, and finished it TODAY. I haven’t done that with a book since my early twenties!!! But seriously, it was just THAT good. And to make matters even more interesting, I read it on my phone... which, if anyone knows anything about me, is a feat in itself. I’m usually a pretty hard stickler for physical copies, but I simply couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book.
So... we’ll start with the Pros.
(Warning! There will be spoilers... so if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read further!!)
I MEAN THAT!! You’ve been warned!!!!
*****
This book was fast paced and compelling right from the beginning. We start out in a dark, creepy atmosphere with an obvious criptid hunter and a werewolf attack. So far so good. Then injured criptid hunter gets found and brought to a relatively isolated small town, and ends up housing with a sarcastic vampire. Get ready for an INTERESTING sort of relationship to occur.
I mean, in my opinion, the relationship between Skata (hunter) and Angel (vampire) would be worth the read in and of itself. But the little town of Salvation is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be, what with a secret hunting organization being run by the town’s founding families, a preacher who seemingly CAN’T be turned and knows FAR too much about the criptids of Salvation, a set of noble vampire brothers, a bar run by a mob-boss werewolf, and several blasts from Skata’s past. And THEN there are the sudden murders with EVERYONE convinced that Skata is the killer!
The mystery in itself is worth the read, IMO, but the rest is just delicious icing on the cake, and there is A LOT of delicious icing. And it ends well, too, with a perfect lead into the upcoming sequel.
From the beginning to the end I was absolutely hooked. They don’t write ‘em like this anymore!
***
And now for the Cons...
There were FAR fewer cons than pros, JSYK. Most of the things I had issues with were earlier on in the book. Mainly, there was a bit of jumping around from one scene to the next, and I felt that the transitions probably could have been handled better... imo they were just a little choppy, though I’ll be completely truthful and say that I’m not sure how I would have handled them differently, and also that they didn’t continue farther into the book. There were also a very few places (three, to my count) that I found slightly confusing and that drew me out of the story for the minute or two it took me to figure out what the author meant.
But honestly, that’s IT.
***
All in all, I definitely recommend this book. I will say that it’s YA, so don’t let your little kids read it, but the author herself makes no pretenses that this book is entirely kid friendly. The book does not pretend to be something it isn’t. It is gory... it has a few hard words (nothing too serious, so don’t worry about that), it deals with some difficult battles, both internal and external. There are guns, and there is violence. But it’s WELL WRITTEN, it’s engaging, it’s FUN, and it’s serious too. Personally, I think it has everything I look for in a good dark fantasy read. I will DEFINITELY be returning to the little town of Salvation for book two!
So, I started this book yesterday, and finished it TODAY. I haven’t done that with a book since my early twenties!!! But seriously, it was just THAT good. And to make matters even more interesting, I read it on my phone... which, if anyone knows anything about me, is a feat in itself. I’m usually a pretty hard stickler for physical copies, but I simply couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book.
So... we’ll start with the Pros.
(Warning! There will be spoilers... so if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read further!!)
I MEAN THAT!! You’ve been warned!!!!
*****
This book was fast paced and compelling right from the beginning. We start out in a dark, creepy atmosphere with an obvious criptid hunter and a werewolf attack. So far so good. Then injured criptid hunter gets found and brought to a relatively isolated small town, and ends up housing with a sarcastic vampire. Get ready for an INTERESTING sort of relationship to occur.
I mean, in my opinion, the relationship between Skata (hunter) and Angel (vampire) would be worth the read in and of itself. But the little town of Salvation is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be, what with a secret hunting organization being run by the town’s founding families, a preacher who seemingly CAN’T be turned and knows FAR too much about the criptids of Salvation, a set of noble vampire brothers, a bar run by a mob-boss werewolf, and several blasts from Skata’s past. And THEN there are the sudden murders with EVERYONE convinced that Skata is the killer!
The mystery in itself is worth the read, IMO, but the rest is just delicious icing on the cake, and there is A LOT of delicious icing. And it ends well, too, with a perfect lead into the upcoming sequel.
From the beginning to the end I was absolutely hooked. They don’t write ‘em like this anymore!
***
And now for the Cons...
There were FAR fewer cons than pros, JSYK. Most of the things I had issues with were earlier on in the book. Mainly, there was a bit of jumping around from one scene to the next, and I felt that the transitions probably could have been handled better... imo they were just a little choppy, though I’ll be completely truthful and say that I’m not sure how I would have handled them differently, and also that they didn’t continue farther into the book. There were also a very few places (three, to my count) that I found slightly confusing and that drew me out of the story for the minute or two it took me to figure out what the author meant.
But honestly, that’s IT.
***
All in all, I definitely recommend this book. I will say that it’s YA, so don’t let your little kids read it, but the author herself makes no pretenses that this book is entirely kid friendly. The book does not pretend to be something it isn’t. It is gory... it has a few hard words (nothing too serious, so don’t worry about that), it deals with some difficult battles, both internal and external. There are guns, and there is violence. But it’s WELL WRITTEN, it’s engaging, it’s FUN, and it’s serious too. Personally, I think it has everything I look for in a good dark fantasy read. I will DEFINITELY be returning to the little town of Salvation for book two!