novanother 's review for:

Us Dark Few by Alexis Patton

5.0

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

That's human history. Darker than midnight. Why do you think we fled underground?

Dynamic: Prisoner x Captain of the Prison Guard
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Touch Her and Die, Political Intruige, Learning how to fight, Found Family, Slow Burn, Banter
Setting: Underground Prison, Post-apocalyptic
Genre: Dystopia, Post-apocalyptic, Romance
Spice: Open Door;

One interrupted make out session between MCs; explicit threats and attempted sexual assault by another guard

TW:

Third party sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Discussions of suicidal ideation, Mass Murder/Shooting

This might be the first time in a while that I have loved a booktok recommendation. After the author kept popping up on my fyp I decided to give it a read and finished the entire thing in one sitting. And man was it worth it.

Plot

Khalani is falsely imprisoned in an underground prison, Braderhelm Prison. Being locked up here means you might as well be dead and no one thinks she will last long, especially when early on one of the strongest women in the prison has an issue with her, and she ends up mouthing off to the Captain of the Prison guard.

But as Khalani finds her place and her people, she ends up settling in rather well. Still, between abusive guards, the Governor of Apollo with a strange interest in Khalani, the crazy librarian who teaches Khalani about free thinking through art and the Captain, who keeps getting wrapped up with her... She is far from safe.

Characters

Khalani was an interesting character to follow. She has little regard for her own safety and regularly gets herself into trouble because of it. She lets herself be guided by her emotions, but throughout the book she slowly learns restraint. In the beginning she questioned very little, but slowly as she talks to people, reads and listens to music she begins to develop beyond what the system told her to be.
She also learns to trust again, going into prison with the additude that loved ones are a risk, and by the end of the book she has built herself her own chosen family.

"You have trouble written all over you, Kanes."
"Well, maybe you're wrong."
"I'm never wrong."
Khalani hated men. Especially the ones with muscles. They couldn't be trusted.

Takeshi starts out as a pretty generic enemies to lovers esque MMC, who is strangely obsessed and always watching from afar but also threatens her when they speak. But he morphes into something better pretty quickly, and he has some interesting perspectives on captivity and also life. He protects her when she is threatened/attacked and lets just say the slow burn made me squeal with delight. By the end he kind of reminded me of Four from the Divergent movies, he is grumpy and in charge/has seniority but is also kind of a lapdog for the woman he loves.

"Love transcends space and time. It holds no bounds or limits. Dear girl, love is stronger than death because if you love someone, they can never truly die."

The tension and desire between them was palpable and the slow burn had me squealing when their pinkies touched. His protective nature had me on my knees, ngl.

And when she says she liked flowers despite never having seen any and he answers with "I'll find some flowers for you." AAAAAAAH. I died. Him ignoring being summoned by the warden because they're making out? I am swooning.

I know I shouldn't say this, but your beauty is so overwhelming that is makes me ache. It's more than physical. It's who you are as a person.

The one moment I had a bit of an issue with was towards the end when Takeshi gives the warden the names for the people who should be executed and Khalani is furious. Yeah, he decided on those names, but didn't we already establish that he is a prisoner in this place the same as Khalani is? I get what he did is horrifying, but in the grand scheme of things... People were gonna die either way, at least this way it wasn't Khalani or any of her friends.

Conclusion

The writing was quite poetic and I have not highlighted this many quotes as I did in this book in a long time. The slow burn was perfect, the tension too. I noticed some MINOR plot holes or stuff that didn't make all that much sense, but this was overall a great story. My favourite read this year so far, definitely.

Content Warnings