A review by nellerific
Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

2.5

Honestly, this should have been a DNF but choices were made and regrets were had. The plot and world building were kind of interesting, and for the first time in a while I have nothing to complain about in regards to love triangles or teenagers doing stupid things in the name of "love". Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to endear me to this book. What really got me was how juvenile the writing felt, even for a YA book. Basic facts were stated repeatedly, like the reader was expected to not remember or not grasp things that were revealed a chapter, or sometimes paragraphs before. It made most of the twist and plot reveals obvious well beforehand and the whole thing felt rather anticlimactic. The pacing was also really weird and multiple times I thought I'd skipped something because of the unusual time jumps.

I don't usually leave such bad reviews, but I think I'm more disappointed about not liking the book than I thought I would be. There were aspects of it that had such potential that fell so flat, even half way through the book. Ah well... the things we do in the hopes of interesting queer relationships, I guess.