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A review by maxturner
Chance the Darkness by L.A. Wild
2.0
Somewhere in here is an interesting and compelling story. Unfortunately it is almost entirely buried until the last few chapters and I found it a bit of a struggle to get there.
The story starts fast and jumps straight to the action, which can sometimes be a good thing. In Chance the Darkness this results in finding out very little about the protagonist other than the fact that she likes stilettos. The story’s own mythos is poorly explained - for example she comments on the vampires not turning to dust when killed, but doesn't explain why she would expect this would happen in the first place. Despite the story being first person, and a lot of time spent between the characters, I still ended the book not knowing any of the characters in enough depth to connect with. Even so, about half way through, a glimpse of an interesting story starts to break through.
Summer Keese, the main character is flip and glib, and either overreacts or under reacts to any given situation - underreacting to something terrible and then overreacting to something mundane. This has the effect of creating inappropriate, and at times baffling, tones. She is a 2 dimensional character that is difficult to identify with - we are told things rather than them being demonstrated. For example, towards the end we discover that Keese has nightmares about her parents every night, but at no point before that do we experience her having those nightmares. With only superficial delving into who all the characters are and what drives them it is hard to understand their motivations. The male characters are even more shallow and all domineering, stalkerish and a little bit rapey, which isn’t my particular cup of tea.
There are some really great ideas in here - I love the idea of living tattoos - but the florid writing style and lack of character development holds them back.
The story starts fast and jumps straight to the action, which can sometimes be a good thing. In Chance the Darkness this results in finding out very little about the protagonist other than the fact that she likes stilettos. The story’s own mythos is poorly explained - for example she comments on the vampires not turning to dust when killed, but doesn't explain why she would expect this would happen in the first place. Despite the story being first person, and a lot of time spent between the characters, I still ended the book not knowing any of the characters in enough depth to connect with. Even so, about half way through, a glimpse of an interesting story starts to break through.
Summer Keese, the main character is flip and glib, and either overreacts or under reacts to any given situation - underreacting to something terrible and then overreacting to something mundane. This has the effect of creating inappropriate, and at times baffling, tones. She is a 2 dimensional character that is difficult to identify with - we are told things rather than them being demonstrated. For example, towards the end we discover that Keese has nightmares about her parents every night, but at no point before that do we experience her having those nightmares. With only superficial delving into who all the characters are and what drives them it is hard to understand their motivations. The male characters are even more shallow and all domineering, stalkerish and a little bit rapey, which isn’t my particular cup of tea.
There are some really great ideas in here - I love the idea of living tattoos - but the florid writing style and lack of character development holds them back.