Dark Rise

4.5✩

Bruh, l'ho divorato, adorato e tutto!! Adoro lo stile di scrittura della Pacat, mi accalappia ogni volta! Anche se stavolta la storia è completamente diversa da Captive Prince (per fortuna!)

December 2023 (first-read): There are no words that I could write to explain how much I enjoyed reading this book. I've had Dark Rise on my shelf for over a year (maybe two) and forgot what the book was supposed to be about. Going into the novel blind made the whole journey ten times more interesting. The main characters were all so lovely-- even some of the side characters! I can't wait to see their progression in the next book.

But, the biggest reason this book had me was the plot twists! It has been awhile since a book genuinely had me audibly shocked to the point that my roommate had to check on me because she thought I was having a break down. Pacat did an awesome job at drawing you in to the point that you're blind to what is going on. In the best way possible. Loved it.

Will and Violet have my heart.

DNF

It's really weird how the balance of starting us in the middle of the action vs the slow buildup in an origin story is SO delicate. You get one element wrong and the whole thing just feels off. If you do a slow buildup then it can take too long to get going. But if you throw us right into the action you can easily gloss over details that the reader really should have been there for.

Will's story is the perfect example of this. It wouldn't have been boring to give us bits of his life on the run with his mother, what happened when she died, the servants who were confidants. But they don't give us this information until right in the middle of things and having characters try to "explain" the story to people who were there when it happened?

So the story simultaneously is trying to tell you two different things with a weird narrative voice.

One is like: So this boy is working on the docks, he's poor, and he finds this mirror and sees this chick and now people are chasing him. Oh, and he wasn't always poor. And so they're chasing him through the str- oh, and also he had a mother, street and he's bobbing and weavin- oh, and that mother? She's dead now. So anyway.

The other is like: Two characters are meeting up after a traumatic event. A death or something.

Guy number one says "Hi, Keith, my best friend since we were kids who I was really close to before the death of my sister he caused by drunk driving. How are you?"

Keith says "Yes, Brad. I was there, and driving drunk, and I killed your sister Bethany, who is your sister."

It's a mess.

So yeah, it's a no for me.