Book Review
Title: After Darkness
Author: J. F. Johns
Genre: YA/Sci-Fi/Dystopian
Rating: ****
Review: So this is a book that has been on my radar but I wasn’t going to pick it up until I saw it being offered for review on YA Bound Blog Tours. The synopsis of After Darkness is really interesting, it gave me a mix of V for Vendetta and Lunar Chronicles with a massive dose of the Hunger Games vibes, I love V for Vendetta and Hunger Games but I feel really meh about the Lunar Chronicles so I am hoping this falls more towards V for Vendetta and Hunger Games than the Lunar Chronicles. So this world features both humans and cyborgs who are forbidden to interact but our protagonist Terra Underwood doesn’t understand this law, which is punishable by death. After Darkness opens with Terra having a dream about a boy with silver hair who she desperately tries to save but fails every time after being chased by a huge crow. I can already tell that the boy is someone she is going to meet later on in the book and might possibly be a love interest as well.
We learn very early on that Terra has a major problem with authority and this stems from the fact that her father is a very important political figure who has little time for his daughter. We haven’t seen anything from her mother as Terra lives with her grandmother making me think that the mother is absent or dead. Terra as a hobby and outlet for her aggression fights in an illegal underground place called the Pits which is located in the Undermarket. She has risen to become the best in her category after being trained by a cyborg named Hooky which may contribute to why Terra doesn’t understand why humans can’t have any contact with cyborgs and why they are segregated from human society. This novel feels very much like the Hunger Games but also have some elements from 1984 with the Big Brother is always watching aspect of this novel. On day in the Pits, Terra is paired up against a young cyborg male named Kalem who is the boy from her nightmares and while she tries to talk to him he seems to vanish whenever she is nearby.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, the Pits is raided by the Watchers, this world’s version of Peacekeepers, Terra, Kalem and her two friends, Sasha and Damien are caught up in it. Hooky manages to get Terra out but another cyborg Jimmy is killed and Hooky won’t leave his home, as she flees Terra runs into Kalem and after a few heated words throws her shoe at him reminding me of another scene but he takes in her and agrees to shelter her until the curfew is lifted. He makes her promise that she never speaks of what she sees or hears in his home which is full of cyborgs but she manages to get through his cold exterior a little by making jokes about their last names. That night she has the same nightmare she has been having for years and injuries herself but doesn’t say anything to Kalem about the nightmare. Later he walks her to the train station and she heads home where she is in major trouble with her grandmother but manages to lie about where she was. However, we learn that the cyborg leading Kalem’s family is an ex-government weapon of some sort and she has tasked Kalem with keeping Terra safe at all costs but we don’t know why since humans and cyborgs are forbidden to interact.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Terra once again returns to Kalem’s home where she meets some of the other cyborgs but the minute she mentions her dreams she is sent to see their leader, Scarlet. Scarlet isn’t human and isn’t cyborg, she is something called an X-prototype which was created before the rebellion as a weapon, essentially she is immortal and can’t be killed but she knew Terra great-grandfather as they fought alongside one another and it may be the reason she is protecting Terra. However, Terra is the first being, human or cyborg to be able to see the monster that Scarlet carries with her and Scarlet explains she can see it because it saved her life a long time ago and it is also the reason she is blind in one eye. Terra disability isn’t something that bothers her at all in her daily life although she does wish it didn’t hamper her in the Pits. I liked this refreshing take on disability how it isn’t something that defines Terra, it is just a part of who she is and she lives with it and copes with it as any other person would. The pace really slows down, it seems to be trying to build a relationship between Terra and Kalem but I am not feeling any chemistry between them at the moment. The only thing of note that happens is that Terra tries to get back into the Undermarket to find Hooky only to be attacked by Wardens. Hooky is badly injured and they are rescued by Kalem and taken back to the cyborg house for him to be helped. We also get a brief relationship scene between Scarlet and Eric, which was strange as he hits on Terra a few times but it is implied that he is in love with Scarlet, so I don’t really know what is happening right now with the characters and their relationships.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we get more development on Kalem and Terra’s friendship but I still don’t see them being a couple anywhere in the future. We also get more backstory on Terra, we learn that her mother was killed by Wardens for trying to prevent a cyborg child from being beaten. Her mother was shot and killed, Terra was also shot but she was saved by the monster Scarlet carries around with her and it is the reason why it won’t hurt Terra. However, when she returns home she finds that her grandmother has died and her father briefly returns home and we get to see that he values his work above everything even his daughter. Terra is also visited by Petra another X-Prototype who has captured Sasha and threatens to kill her unless Terra spies on Scarlet and the others for her. She doesn’t tell anyone but when she returns to the house she is sure that Scarlet knows what has happened. Kalem explains that there are 7 X-Prototypes in existence, one for each Capital. Petra and her brother Viktor run Capital One and the whole government. It turns out each X-prototype has an ability, Petra can control crows, Viktor can manipulate the minds of others, so he is responsible for Terra’s dreams and Scarlet can control fire. Terra thinks she will find the answers she wants in No Man’s Land and convinces Kalem to take her there. Scarlet is also leaving to get her brothers and sisters, presumably the other X-type to fight against Petra.
As we cross the halfway mark in the novel, Terra and Kalem escape into No Man’s Land but the terrain is hostile and nothing survives there, the cyborgs survive because they are stronger than humans and the effects on Terra are almost immediate but Kalem knows this place and navigates through it. We get the first kiss scene between Terra and Kalem and I wasn’t interested or invested in it at all so I just ignored it but Terra has been injured and she needs help from a friend Kalem has in No Man’s Land. We also learn from Scarlet that her sister Morgana left the world behind because she was activated meaning she had no free will and killed all of the Freedom Fighters and that she can never be forgiven. Scarlet informs her that one survived and he will forgive her if she returns and that person is Kalem. It seems that Kalem and Terra will be a key part in bringing the government down and I wasn’t really interested in that.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, there are few moments of tension but nothing much is happening. Terra and Kalem continue to navigate No Man’s Land looking for the Destroyer of Worlds, who most including Kalem believe to be a legend but Terra is convinced that she is real and they have to find her in order to bring down the government. The sex scene between Terra and Kalem was unexpected but I did appreciate it, there aren’t many authors willing to include sex scenes where the act itself is clearly stated rather than hidden behind smoke and mirror. However, I did prefer following Scarlet who has brought Morgana back with her but Eric, Camille and some of the other have been out killing Wardens which enrages Scarlet. When Eric tries to calm her down she almost kills him and it seems like the monster feeds off her emotions and if she isn’t in completely control of herself it can take over and make her lash out when she wouldn’t normally do that. She is searching for a way to get rid of it even if it kills her because killing someone would be the end of her.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I wasn’t hopefully for a good ending, I was just hoping for a satisfying ending and the story didn’t provide that. The ending was the best part by far it was dark, gritty and really ramped up the stakes of this new series. Despite my hit or miss relationship with most of this book the ending redeemed it. I will be reading the Eternal Darkness series to get more integrated with this world and when I have the chance I will definitely be picking up After Darkness II to see what happens to the characters I have come to care for, even if I don’t really care for the romance.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from YA Bound Blog Tours
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