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A review by maxgardner
The Light That Blinds Us by Andy Darcy Theo
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The basis for the story is interesting and seems like a winning formula—there's mysterious and suddenly discovered powers, found family, slow-burn romance, a big bad that's obviously evil but also set up to be nuanced and challenge our notions of our protagonist. I did enjoy plenty of things about the book, especially the action sequences and the relationship between the four main characters. However, you can tell this is Andy Darcy Theo's first book, and I really think a few more rounds of edits would have benefitted the story a lot.
First of all, the world building happens way too fast and is often told rather than shown. The main characters hardly react to this world as they learn about it as well, instead immediately agreeing to be cloned (??) so that their alters can go back to live their old lives and they can start training to save the world. There's no buildup, no ebb and flow with the pacing of how the world is shown to us, no mysteries left to wonder about in terms of how things work or why certain things exist. There also are a lot of things that feel included for convenience or just because Theo thought they seemed cool but that removed me from the story because they just don't make sense or are too easy. Each of the four elementals has this giant, inconceivable room with their element in it, which seems cool but is revealed too matter-of-factly, without much wonder, and it left me thinking where the hell did all these resources come from, how did they actually build this place, what are the limitations and full capabilities of all these powers? Add to this the weird cloning thing, the fact that there are hundreds of elemental children but we don't really know like what their powers are or what they're learning here or where their parents are, etc, and it just felt like there was almost too much in the world and it made it feel less real. It kind of felt like when you play a game as a child and your friend keeps adding capabilities to what their powers are that conveniently allow them to tackle any situation and overpower you.
I also found the development of the villains lacking in a way that feeds into this same previous point—it feels more like an idea for a character than a real one. Take the prime antagonist that's living with the elementals initially. The elementals have a cringe-worthy initial interaction where this villain says the most cliche, evil bullshit and Alexis comes up with this extremely cringey one-line zinger where he does a play on the guy's name (I can't even remember it now), and it just felt so contrived. We also have the shadow army or whatever it's called that try to attack them at the end with the caricature-y leader, and I just overall did not believe these characters or feel they were really brought to life. Again, they seem more included for convenience, to create conflict, than they are to be real people. To his credit, I do think he does something interesting with the big bad, and there's potential to really explore that nuance in his motivations.
My final big issue was the timeline—why does the main quest for this book happen in the span of like 1-2 days? And then they act like they've been gone for years. It's just an odd choice that pulls you out of the story when you realize how fast all of this has happened and how quickly they were able to go on these intense missions and recover plus have all of these major developments happen with characters that really should have taken a lot longer.
Ultimately, there is something compelling here, but it feels like it's still in the rough draft stages. I'm not sure I'll read the next one, but I support Theo and hope this is just the beginning of his journey as an author because he's got some really great ideas!
First of all, the world building happens way too fast and is often told rather than shown. The main characters hardly react to this world as they learn about it as well, instead immediately agreeing to be cloned (??) so that their alters can go back to live their old lives and they can start training to save the world. There's no buildup, no ebb and flow with the pacing of how the world is shown to us, no mysteries left to wonder about in terms of how things work or why certain things exist. There also are a lot of things that feel included for convenience or just because Theo thought they seemed cool but that removed me from the story because they just don't make sense or are too easy. Each of the four elementals has this giant, inconceivable room with their element in it, which seems cool but is revealed too matter-of-factly, without much wonder, and it left me thinking where the hell did all these resources come from, how did they actually build this place, what are the limitations and full capabilities of all these powers? Add to this the weird cloning thing, the fact that there are hundreds of elemental children but we don't really know like what their powers are or what they're learning here or where their parents are, etc, and it just felt like there was almost too much in the world and it made it feel less real. It kind of felt like when you play a game as a child and your friend keeps adding capabilities to what their powers are that conveniently allow them to tackle any situation and overpower you.
I also found the development of the villains lacking in a way that feeds into this same previous point—it feels more like an idea for a character than a real one. Take the prime antagonist that's living with the elementals initially. The elementals have a cringe-worthy initial interaction where this villain says the most cliche, evil bullshit and Alexis comes up with this extremely cringey one-line zinger where he does a play on the guy's name (I can't even remember it now), and it just felt so contrived. We also have the shadow army or whatever it's called that try to attack them at the end with the caricature-y leader, and I just overall did not believe these characters or feel they were really brought to life. Again, they seem more included for convenience, to create conflict, than they are to be real people. To his credit, I do think he does something interesting with the big bad, and there's potential to really explore that nuance in his motivations.
My final big issue was the timeline—why does the main quest for this book happen in the span of like 1-2 days? And then they act like they've been gone for years. It's just an odd choice that pulls you out of the story when you realize how fast all of this has happened and how quickly they were able to go on these intense missions and recover plus have all of these major developments happen with characters that really should have taken a lot longer.
Ultimately, there is something compelling here, but it feels like it's still in the rough draft stages. I'm not sure I'll read the next one, but I support Theo and hope this is just the beginning of his journey as an author because he's got some really great ideas!