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A review by abby_gail_noel
Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain
5.0
I loved this book, like I could not put it down. I’m in college and I don’t really gravitate to YA novels anymore, but I actually really liked this. At first I was going to give it four stars, but I was trying to think of what I didn’t like and couldn’t really come up with anything. I read a lot of negative reviews and I’m wondering if we read the same book because I didn’t really have any complaints.
The main complaints I saw were that the book wasn’t interesting, the main characters were stupid, and that one of the main characters was problematic. I have a counter for each of these complaints:
1. The book was a YA mystery with supernatural elements, not really a fantasy. I think a lot of people were expecting it to be more fantasy and lean much more to the supernatural side and were disappointed that it didn’t. Personally, I didn’t think that it not being high fantasy made it bad.
2. I’d like to counter the claim about the characters being stupid with one thing: they’re teenagers. If you’re an adult reading YA, don’t complain about the teenagers not being the brightest cookies in the jar, you’re not the intended audience.
3. As for that one problematic character, I kind of liked them even though they sucked. I think that was the point. There are problematic people in real life just like that and I don’t think it made the character bad. I don’t think the author was making excuses and justifying their behavior, either. She explained their story and they got what they got. I don’t think she wanted us to forgive the character and excuse their actions, just understand and know them better in the end.
All in all, I really really liked this book and I’d encourage anyone who wants to read it to do so. I would just say to go into it with an open mind because it is YA and not as heavily fantasy as you might be expecting. The last thing I do want to say is that the book has some mature content in terms of sex and violence. I thought maybe it was a bit much for YA, but just know that going into it.
Happy reading!
The main complaints I saw were that the book wasn’t interesting, the main characters were stupid, and that one of the main characters was problematic. I have a counter for each of these complaints:
1. The book was a YA mystery with supernatural elements, not really a fantasy. I think a lot of people were expecting it to be more fantasy and lean much more to the supernatural side and were disappointed that it didn’t. Personally, I didn’t think that it not being high fantasy made it bad.
2. I’d like to counter the claim about the characters being stupid with one thing: they’re teenagers. If you’re an adult reading YA, don’t complain about the teenagers not being the brightest cookies in the jar, you’re not the intended audience.
3. As for that one problematic character, I kind of liked them even though they sucked. I think that was the point. There are problematic people in real life just like that and I don’t think it made the character bad. I don’t think the author was making excuses and justifying their behavior, either. She explained their story and they got what they got. I don’t think she wanted us to forgive the character and excuse their actions, just understand and know them better in the end.
All in all, I really really liked this book and I’d encourage anyone who wants to read it to do so. I would just say to go into it with an open mind because it is YA and not as heavily fantasy as you might be expecting. The last thing I do want to say is that the book has some mature content in terms of sex and violence. I thought maybe it was a bit much for YA, but just know that going into it.
Happy reading!