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A review by bookph1le
Dark Companion by Marta Acosta
1.0
This book started off strong and then got rather weird. My rating is more 2.5 stars because it did have some really great points, it just fell apart around halfway through the book. More thorough review to follow.
Changed my mind about the rating. The reason is in the full review, which is here:
Dark Companion was such a disappointing book for me. It started out so strong, grabbing me with its parallels to Jane Eyre that were extremely well done without coming across as derivative. I was drawn into the setting of Birch Grove Academy, and really liked Jane as a character. Acosta threw in so many elements that piqued my curiosity. Everything was going so nicely, the book such a great read, and then it veered from the path of the enjoyable and onto the freeway of the strange--and not the good kind of strange either. Fair warning: there be spoilers ahead.
One of the most disappointing factors of this book for me was Jane. She was a character I was really rooting for, someone who'd had such a hard life and had fought to get herself into a better situation. She had heart, smarts, and a pretty prickly personality. What wasn't to like? But then Jane falls in love and all that made her good and strong is blown to oblivion.
I have to take a moment here to address authors of YA fiction in general: you really need to stop creating female characters who become spineless, acquiescing tools the minute they fall in love. This is only acceptable if you're writing something that's meant to make a broader point about the signs of a poisonous relationship and the hazards they can pose for a young woman. Considering the statistics that show that an alarming number of young women are in abusive relationships and are unaware that those relationships are abusive, it really bothers me that so many YA authors (and adult authors too, to be fair) seem to be such enthusiastic participants in the myth that a relationship where your significant other stalks you, tries to control you, and treats you poorly are oh-so-romantic because said significant other is such a tortured soul. Stop, I'm begging you, please stop. Just don't do it anymore.
And therein lies my problem with Jane. The minute she begins falling for Lucian, a girl who is so street-smart and so fiercely intelligent promptly begins to fall apart. She lies to her friends, she lets Lucian treat her like garbage, she allows him to do things to her with which she is uncomfortable, things that are clearly painful for her. And the reader is forced to read about it in what I found to be very gruesome detail. Then, in the end, everything is all neatly and beautifully tied up with a bow, like magic. This is just plain wrong.
The things Lucian does to Jane tie into the bad-strange aspect of the book. When I started reading about Lucian's fascination with blood, I was sure I was about to encounter another paranormal romance. Then I realized this wasn't the case, and I was intrigued by the premise Acosta set up. She had a very interesting approach, something that was so meaty and strange. She could have done a lot with it. Instead, the reader is subjected to several stomach-churning scenes in which Lucian indulges in his lust for blood while Jane passively allows him to do whatever he likes. These scenes are so disturbing violent that they're squirm inducing. At several points, I wanted to just put the book down and walk away from it.
As for Jane's eventual romance with Jack, it was so blatantly obvious to me from the beginning that I wasn't at all surprised by it. Jack was probably the one character that I liked in the book--except for his attitude toward his brother. In many ways, Jack in an enabler. He knows Lucian is out of control, yet Jack just tries to deter his brother or clean up his messes. He never really makes an effort to actually prevent Lucian from indulging in his darker side, nor does he actually try to help his brother. For a character who is so funny and smart and otherwise kind-hearted, this was extremely disappointing. Sure, he does ride in and try to rescue Jane, but that bothered me for multiple reasons: he never tells Jane the truth about why she ought to be afraid, he never decides that maybe he should place Jane's safety above his brother's impulses, and I wanted Jane to wake up and save herself.
Many of the other characters were problematic as well. Along with Lucian, I found Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe extremely unlikable. They are both far too indulgent when it comes to Lucian, and they consistently put their own self-interest above that of other people. Jane's friends were fun, but the very idea of Hattie wanting to tame Lucian offended me, given that Hattie was such an intelligent and strong-willed woman. Surely she could do better. As for Mary Violet, while I did like her, she was a bit too precious at times, and I sometimes found her dialog downright unbelievable. I can't picture a teenager--or anyone, really--saying a fraction of the things MV does. Yet, I did like the core of Mary Violet as she was such a sweet person and so fiercely loyal to and protective of Jane.
And, finally: the ending. I found the whole thing so preposterous that it completely took me out of the narrative because I simply could not suspend my disbelief. It was not the supernatural elements that caused me to feel this way. In fact, I was pretty intrigued by the supernatural elements. What I didn't like was the way everything works out oh so neatly. I didn't buy it for one second. It feels like one of those pat happy endings written for a family sitcom's "very special" episode. With a plot as convoluted and intricate as this one was, the ending had no business being that pristine and shiny.
Yet there were a couple of things going for this book. For one, the writing is quite well done. Acosta has a really nice style, and she excels at creating moody, atmospheric prose. This book has a gothic feel that is very similar to the tone of Jane Eyre. There is an overall sense of oppressiveness that fills every page of the book, yet it never feels angsty or overdone.
I also thought Acosta constructed a very intriguing world. I thought the idea of the Family and the Companions was very interesting, and Acosta could have done a great deal with it if it hadn't had to play second fiddle to the cringe-inducing "romance" between Jane and Lucian. I couldn't help but wish she'd written a different book, one in which there was no romance (or at least one that was not the entire focus of the book), one in which an outsider tries to infiltrate the inner workings of the Family. That would have been interesting. I'll also confess I kept wishing Jane would give 2Slim a call, as I'd have liked to see Jane spill all to him and watch how he'd have handled the whole matter. Alas, 2Slim was little more than a convenient plot device.
I finished this book a while ago, but wanted to wait on writing the review because I just wasn't entirely sure what to think. I hadn't intended to give it only one star, but the more I thought about it, the more bothered I was by the way Acosta handled the relationship between Jane and Lucian. It's too alarming for me to just get past it.
Changed my mind about the rating. The reason is in the full review, which is here:
Dark Companion was such a disappointing book for me. It started out so strong, grabbing me with its parallels to Jane Eyre that were extremely well done without coming across as derivative. I was drawn into the setting of Birch Grove Academy, and really liked Jane as a character. Acosta threw in so many elements that piqued my curiosity. Everything was going so nicely, the book such a great read, and then it veered from the path of the enjoyable and onto the freeway of the strange--and not the good kind of strange either. Fair warning: there be spoilers ahead.
One of the most disappointing factors of this book for me was Jane. She was a character I was really rooting for, someone who'd had such a hard life and had fought to get herself into a better situation. She had heart, smarts, and a pretty prickly personality. What wasn't to like? But then Jane falls in love and all that made her good and strong is blown to oblivion.
I have to take a moment here to address authors of YA fiction in general: you really need to stop creating female characters who become spineless, acquiescing tools the minute they fall in love. This is only acceptable if you're writing something that's meant to make a broader point about the signs of a poisonous relationship and the hazards they can pose for a young woman. Considering the statistics that show that an alarming number of young women are in abusive relationships and are unaware that those relationships are abusive, it really bothers me that so many YA authors (and adult authors too, to be fair) seem to be such enthusiastic participants in the myth that a relationship where your significant other stalks you, tries to control you, and treats you poorly are oh-so-romantic because said significant other is such a tortured soul. Stop, I'm begging you, please stop. Just don't do it anymore.
And therein lies my problem with Jane. The minute she begins falling for Lucian, a girl who is so street-smart and so fiercely intelligent promptly begins to fall apart. She lies to her friends, she lets Lucian treat her like garbage, she allows him to do things to her with which she is uncomfortable, things that are clearly painful for her. And the reader is forced to read about it in what I found to be very gruesome detail. Then, in the end, everything is all neatly and beautifully tied up with a bow, like magic. This is just plain wrong.
The things Lucian does to Jane tie into the bad-strange aspect of the book. When I started reading about Lucian's fascination with blood, I was sure I was about to encounter another paranormal romance. Then I realized this wasn't the case, and I was intrigued by the premise Acosta set up. She had a very interesting approach, something that was so meaty and strange. She could have done a lot with it. Instead, the reader is subjected to several stomach-churning scenes in which Lucian indulges in his lust for blood while Jane passively allows him to do whatever he likes. These scenes are so disturbing violent that they're squirm inducing. At several points, I wanted to just put the book down and walk away from it.
As for Jane's eventual romance with Jack, it was so blatantly obvious to me from the beginning that I wasn't at all surprised by it. Jack was probably the one character that I liked in the book--except for his attitude toward his brother. In many ways, Jack in an enabler. He knows Lucian is out of control, yet Jack just tries to deter his brother or clean up his messes. He never really makes an effort to actually prevent Lucian from indulging in his darker side, nor does he actually try to help his brother. For a character who is so funny and smart and otherwise kind-hearted, this was extremely disappointing. Sure, he does ride in and try to rescue Jane, but that bothered me for multiple reasons: he never tells Jane the truth about why she ought to be afraid, he never decides that maybe he should place Jane's safety above his brother's impulses, and I wanted Jane to wake up and save herself.
Many of the other characters were problematic as well. Along with Lucian, I found Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe extremely unlikable. They are both far too indulgent when it comes to Lucian, and they consistently put their own self-interest above that of other people. Jane's friends were fun, but the very idea of Hattie wanting to tame Lucian offended me, given that Hattie was such an intelligent and strong-willed woman. Surely she could do better. As for Mary Violet, while I did like her, she was a bit too precious at times, and I sometimes found her dialog downright unbelievable. I can't picture a teenager--or anyone, really--saying a fraction of the things MV does. Yet, I did like the core of Mary Violet as she was such a sweet person and so fiercely loyal to and protective of Jane.
And, finally: the ending. I found the whole thing so preposterous that it completely took me out of the narrative because I simply could not suspend my disbelief. It was not the supernatural elements that caused me to feel this way. In fact, I was pretty intrigued by the supernatural elements. What I didn't like was the way everything works out oh so neatly. I didn't buy it for one second. It feels like one of those pat happy endings written for a family sitcom's "very special" episode. With a plot as convoluted and intricate as this one was, the ending had no business being that pristine and shiny.
Yet there were a couple of things going for this book. For one, the writing is quite well done. Acosta has a really nice style, and she excels at creating moody, atmospheric prose. This book has a gothic feel that is very similar to the tone of Jane Eyre. There is an overall sense of oppressiveness that fills every page of the book, yet it never feels angsty or overdone.
I also thought Acosta constructed a very intriguing world. I thought the idea of the Family and the Companions was very interesting, and Acosta could have done a great deal with it if it hadn't had to play second fiddle to the cringe-inducing "romance" between Jane and Lucian. I couldn't help but wish she'd written a different book, one in which there was no romance (or at least one that was not the entire focus of the book), one in which an outsider tries to infiltrate the inner workings of the Family. That would have been interesting. I'll also confess I kept wishing Jane would give 2Slim a call, as I'd have liked to see Jane spill all to him and watch how he'd have handled the whole matter. Alas, 2Slim was little more than a convenient plot device.
I finished this book a while ago, but wanted to wait on writing the review because I just wasn't entirely sure what to think. I hadn't intended to give it only one star, but the more I thought about it, the more bothered I was by the way Acosta handled the relationship between Jane and Lucian. It's too alarming for me to just get past it.