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A review by pacey1927
Dark Companion by Marta Acosta
3.0
I like Marta Acosta's "Casa Dracula" series and I love her blog and I am obsessed with YA books. This book should have been completely a home run for me. "Dark Companion" is about a teenage girl in foster care who gets offered a scholarship to the elite girls school, "Birch Grove Academy". At first glance things couldn't be more perfect. Jane is showered with nice clothes and spending money. She gets to live in a little cottage on the property all by herself. The school is a dream come true. She is challenged intellectually and is surrounded by other kids that have similar goals. She immediately finds a group of friends and she develops a huge crush on Lucky, the hunky son of the headmistress. But things aren't what they seem at Birch Grove. Why did the last `scholarship' student mysteriously leave Birch Grove? Why did a popular teacher commit suicide? Why really was Jane pulled from her foster home to be given so much at Birch Grove?
Ok to start. Marta Acosta's writing is fabulous, as usual. There are so many layers to these characters and I loved the way she unraveled the mysteries. I definitely kept reading because the mysterious aspects of the story were so tantalizing. In the beginning I really liked Jane because she had survived so very much against the odds and she working hard to get her grades where they needed to be so she could eventually rise from her the poverty and the streets. I also loved Jack from the start and the descriptions of him through Jane's eyes endeared me to him right away. I couldn't figure out how in the world Jane was so attracted to playboy Lucky instead of fun, smart, Jack. Where this story does feel like it should be a paranormal story when all is said and done it is not. There may be a paranormal aspect woven through parts of the tale but that is all there is to it and it is really not much. I also really liked the use of "SAT" words throughout the story. I thought it was cute and they were a bit of a joke to the kids using them so it came off fairly authentic. I also want to say that I loved the cover and I immensely enjoyed the little blurbs from other books at the start of each chapter.
So why three stars? I was very disappointed when I found out the big secret. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but it is definitely out there. Also my strong, smart heroine completely lets herself be used all of a sudden and it felt so out of character. Eventually she regains some of her senses but I would hate for anyone to ever think that what she allowed to happen to her was okay. The explanation and the cover up also felt flat and unrealistic. Then a weird relationship developed at the end of the book that was completely out of the blue and also felt like the author may have needed an easy out for one of the main characters.
This book is definitely not for everyone. I really enjoyed most of the book and again, if the reveal was something else maybe I could rate the book higher than I have here. The atmosphere of the story was spot on and the characters were beautifully written. This is one that I just have to say fell in the storyline. Some threads are left dangling but I don't know that I would bother buying a sequel. Marta Acosta's adult series though is very, very good and I encourage paranormal lovers who read adult novels to give them a try.
Ok to start. Marta Acosta's writing is fabulous, as usual. There are so many layers to these characters and I loved the way she unraveled the mysteries. I definitely kept reading because the mysterious aspects of the story were so tantalizing. In the beginning I really liked Jane because she had survived so very much against the odds and she working hard to get her grades where they needed to be so she could eventually rise from her the poverty and the streets. I also loved Jack from the start and the descriptions of him through Jane's eyes endeared me to him right away. I couldn't figure out how in the world Jane was so attracted to playboy Lucky instead of fun, smart, Jack. Where this story does feel like it should be a paranormal story when all is said and done it is not. There may be a paranormal aspect woven through parts of the tale but that is all there is to it and it is really not much. I also really liked the use of "SAT" words throughout the story. I thought it was cute and they were a bit of a joke to the kids using them so it came off fairly authentic. I also want to say that I loved the cover and I immensely enjoyed the little blurbs from other books at the start of each chapter.
So why three stars? I was very disappointed when I found out the big secret. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but it is definitely out there. Also my strong, smart heroine completely lets herself be used all of a sudden and it felt so out of character. Eventually she regains some of her senses but I would hate for anyone to ever think that what she allowed to happen to her was okay. The explanation and the cover up also felt flat and unrealistic. Then a weird relationship developed at the end of the book that was completely out of the blue and also felt like the author may have needed an easy out for one of the main characters.
This book is definitely not for everyone. I really enjoyed most of the book and again, if the reveal was something else maybe I could rate the book higher than I have here. The atmosphere of the story was spot on and the characters were beautifully written. This is one that I just have to say fell in the storyline. Some threads are left dangling but I don't know that I would bother buying a sequel. Marta Acosta's adult series though is very, very good and I encourage paranormal lovers who read adult novels to give them a try.