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A review by willrefuge
A Darkness Absolute by Kelley Armstrong
3.0
3 / 5 ✪
Contains minor spoilers for City of the Lost (Rockton #1)
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2021/10/24/a-darkness-absolute-by-kelley-armstrong/
Only months past Casey Duncan uprooted her life and moved to the remote Yukon wilderness, come to work in a town that doesn’t exist, come to hide in a refuge where no one will ever find her. As she settles into her job as Rockton’s only detective, Casey hopes to find some peace and quiet that city life never prepared her for. And yet, Rockton always keeps her occupied.
In a town off the grid—with no electricity, transportation, phones, internet, or a doctor; where food and supplies have to be flown in on weekly bush planes or traded for with Settlers; and only a tenuous link to the outside world exists—the community has to band together into something tight-knit. Or if not that, close to it.
But when one of their own is discovered after having been held captive in a cave for over a year, the community splinters. Especially when one of their own is likely the kidnapper.
Someone that Casey must find—before it tears the town apart, or before the kidnapper takes someone else.
A Darkness Absolute is the sequel to City of the Lost, the amazing Rockton debut that absolutely blew my mind. And while this follow-up is good—it certainly doesn’t live up to the thriller that spawned it.
Now, some things the author did better in this installment. She toned down the romance between Casey and Dalton so that it doesn’t feel like something completely separate from the main plot. There were still a few over-the-top scenes that may’ve made me roll my eyes, but they mostly tied in with the story. Also, there were more characters to know and love, while many also reprised their performances from the previous book.
The story itself starts out with a bang. There’s a chase scene, a snow squall that blows up out of nowhere and maroons our heroes, indirectly causing them to stumble across yet another mystery. The glimpses outside of Rockton were all too brief, but refreshing, as the town in winter quickly seemed to feel like a prison.
Unfortunately, this is where things start to head south.
This new mystery is presented: who took Nicole? She never saw her kidnapper, doesn’t know his face or his voice, only that he is white and yes, definitely a man. At first, there’s a solid lead, a couple of clues, a couple more leads, guesses, shots in the dark, more false leads, a sex scene or two, guesses, wrong guesses, and no answers. While the story ultimately sorts itself out, for so much of the text the story is just a quagmire of plots and threads and supposition that everything leads back to one source—while it really doesn’t. It’s just so complicated to the point of being, well… convoluted.
Convoluted.
If I had to pick one word to describe the story, this would be it. Which is disappointing. Especially considering that I believe there IS a good story in here. That’s obvious enough from the City of the Lost. For the sequel, however, it seems to me that the author simply tried one too many things, took one or two twists and turns too many, and ultimately ended up lost themselves. Unraveling what happened here was interesting, although in the end it just made so much of the story seem like a pointless distraction.
TL;DR
A Darkness Absolute has a story that can be interesting and entertaining at times—not to mention a heart-pounding thriller—but is at the very least an improbable, over-ambitious feat that never really comes together. At worst, it’s a convoluted mess that gets in its own way too much to ever make much sense. It’s definitely complex, thrilling, and dark. Really dark. Whatever I have to say about it, I’d still recommend Rockton for the setting, the premise, and the people. I’ll definitely continue the series despite this misstep—one, that I might add, I had no trouble finishing even while I was a little lost and disappointed in the middle. The series continues with This Fallen Prey (Rockton #3), which has been out since 2018.
Contains minor spoilers for City of the Lost (Rockton #1)
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2021/10/24/a-darkness-absolute-by-kelley-armstrong/
Only months past Casey Duncan uprooted her life and moved to the remote Yukon wilderness, come to work in a town that doesn’t exist, come to hide in a refuge where no one will ever find her. As she settles into her job as Rockton’s only detective, Casey hopes to find some peace and quiet that city life never prepared her for. And yet, Rockton always keeps her occupied.
In a town off the grid—with no electricity, transportation, phones, internet, or a doctor; where food and supplies have to be flown in on weekly bush planes or traded for with Settlers; and only a tenuous link to the outside world exists—the community has to band together into something tight-knit. Or if not that, close to it.
But when one of their own is discovered after having been held captive in a cave for over a year, the community splinters. Especially when one of their own is likely the kidnapper.
Someone that Casey must find—before it tears the town apart, or before the kidnapper takes someone else.
A Darkness Absolute is the sequel to City of the Lost, the amazing Rockton debut that absolutely blew my mind. And while this follow-up is good—it certainly doesn’t live up to the thriller that spawned it.
Now, some things the author did better in this installment. She toned down the romance between Casey and Dalton so that it doesn’t feel like something completely separate from the main plot. There were still a few over-the-top scenes that may’ve made me roll my eyes, but they mostly tied in with the story. Also, there were more characters to know and love, while many also reprised their performances from the previous book.
The story itself starts out with a bang. There’s a chase scene, a snow squall that blows up out of nowhere and maroons our heroes, indirectly causing them to stumble across yet another mystery. The glimpses outside of Rockton were all too brief, but refreshing, as the town in winter quickly seemed to feel like a prison.
Unfortunately, this is where things start to head south.
This new mystery is presented: who took Nicole? She never saw her kidnapper, doesn’t know his face or his voice, only that he is white and yes, definitely a man. At first, there’s a solid lead, a couple of clues, a couple more leads, guesses, shots in the dark, more false leads, a sex scene or two, guesses, wrong guesses, and no answers. While the story ultimately sorts itself out, for so much of the text the story is just a quagmire of plots and threads and supposition that everything leads back to one source—while it really doesn’t. It’s just so complicated to the point of being, well… convoluted.
Convoluted.
If I had to pick one word to describe the story, this would be it. Which is disappointing. Especially considering that I believe there IS a good story in here. That’s obvious enough from the City of the Lost. For the sequel, however, it seems to me that the author simply tried one too many things, took one or two twists and turns too many, and ultimately ended up lost themselves. Unraveling what happened here was interesting, although in the end it just made so much of the story seem like a pointless distraction.
TL;DR
A Darkness Absolute has a story that can be interesting and entertaining at times—not to mention a heart-pounding thriller—but is at the very least an improbable, over-ambitious feat that never really comes together. At worst, it’s a convoluted mess that gets in its own way too much to ever make much sense. It’s definitely complex, thrilling, and dark. Really dark. Whatever I have to say about it, I’d still recommend Rockton for the setting, the premise, and the people. I’ll definitely continue the series despite this misstep—one, that I might add, I had no trouble finishing even while I was a little lost and disappointed in the middle. The series continues with This Fallen Prey (Rockton #3), which has been out since 2018.