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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Book Review: Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

★★★★★

Hardcover:336 pages
Readig Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers (November 1, 2011)
Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies.

Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd.

Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.



WOW. WOW. WOW! Did I mention: WOW? Dark Inside was just awesome, awesome, AWESOME! 2011 has definitely been the year for dystopian novels and so far I have read some pretty amazing ones including Blood Red Road, Divergent, and The Hunger Games. But Jeyn Roberts writes a novel that is unlike any I have read so far. Told from 4 different POVs, Roberts explores the world as it falls to pieces. Unlike other dystopian novels recently, Roberts explores the during and after of the end-of-the-world situation, not just the after. Personally, I thought this was amazing (sorry for the lack of words here but it is just AMAZING!). The multiple POVs showed that there were not just one hero in this devastation, but multiple. The characters were so real and interesting I found myself dreaming about them while I was awake or asleep. I was sad when I couldn’t find time to finish and when I did get to read it I was lost in the world of Dark Inside.

First, the cover art is just brilliant. Honestly, while searching on Amazon, when I came upon the book, it was the cover art that drew me in and it was the summary and the preview that persuaded me to buy this book. I didn’t even bother to read anything about the book- call it instinct, but I just knew this book just had to be great! And I sure was right.

Of the four characters, I think Aries hasto be my favorite. I’d like to think that if I were ever in that circumstance I would be able to become the leader and worry about everyone else beside myself. She took control when there was no hope of security and tried to make the horrible situation at least half-way decent. Mason is just a really sweet guy. After loosing his mother, I really thought he would just ended up killing himself or eventually turn into a Bagger himself. He lost everything he had. After finally being able to trust people again and then having them ripped away from him was just so sad. Michael was…interesting. I felt he was one of the realest characters. Even though he was faced with the decision of dying with his group or saving himself own would have thought he would have stayed and try to find a way to beat the Bagger and save his friend Evens and the woman with her sick child, but the fact that he ran away and tried to save at least himself- well I thought that was the most human a character has ever acted. Clementine was so determined to find her brother, it was awesome to see how her mind worked in trying to travel a monster infested world when there was little hope of any survival. Roberts characters were each different and I really couldn’t pick which was more brave. These teens were throw into a world that wanted to rip them to shreds and Roberts was able to psychologically dig into each one of their subconscious that give us characters that each had different goals and feels while stuck in the same world.

I loved the idea of this evil and how the world was cleansing itself. Roberts even gave us instances where this might have actually have happened. The Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs, all leaders of their time and each fell. It is almost like Roberts is suggesting that no matter how much we grow, sometimes the world cannot take the evil and then we need to be cleansed. The idea that others turned “evil” while others were spared was so fascinating, but also it was like even though they were somewhat safe from this “evil” they too held some of it within them. I just thought the psyche of that was just brilliant!

Roberts delivery was spectacular. I never felt out of the loop and the additional view from “Nothing” lets the reader into the mind of those turned. I thought Roberts choice from the multiple POVs was spectacular and the fact that they all met up in the end was just great!

I read that there was going to be a sequel and I so hope that’s true because I am DYING to read what happened next. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE… this book! Simon & Schuster has defiantly been publishing some of the most amazing dystopian novels ever. First Blood Red Road and now Dark Inside. I am defiantly loving this year!

If you haven’t read this book yet I really have no idea what you are waiting for. Go- go get a copy now. I serious!

Where to find Jeyn Roberts:
Twitter: @JeynRoberts
Amazon: Jeyn Roberts Author Page
Facebook: Jeyn Roberts
Good Reads: Jeyn Roberts
YouTube: Dark Inside Trailer
Author Website: JeynRoberts
Simon & Schuster: Jeyn Roberts Author

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good disaster movie. Too bad dystopian just eludes me. Hunger games was an exception though.

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    1. I find that she is a real piece of shit. She posts as Ghost at the website Memebee.com. She is native indian and yet she spends a lot of time with an old racist internet troll who posts as gordon gambino. He openly says on that forum that he wants to gas native indians. He is obsessed with serial killers. She is sick and no roll model for teens. Disgusting.

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