Dark Inside (edition 2011)

Even after 30 years in the US, my parents still have a very strong accent when they speak English. Eengrish. I'm able to interpret their pronunciations and grammar easily it since I grew up hearing it. But throw another accent at me - anything African, some European, or worst of all any kind of Asian accent other than Korean - and I can't tell you what the heck is being said without some knitted-brow concentration. And I notice I end up replying back in a louder voice, as if that'll help. I pfft myself.

With this book, I find that my childhood "accents" of fantasy&sci-fi and the later piles of textbook logic make it difficult to enjoy the story. The half-a** explanation of why the bad thing is happening...I don't understand you!!

Maybe that's part of why I'm finding Literature so difficult?? Brainpower is another reason, but maybe I'm not flexible enough to take in stories that don't have some magic(-al realism?) or enough of a futuristic tone or satisfying explanations?

Back to this book, there is a huge earthquake and then some people, marked by savagery, lack of remorse, and black veins in the eye-whites, start killing everyone else. The book follows 4 teens as they see the collapse of society and try to survive.

We never learn just what caused all this. How are the earthquakes and killers connected? Why did some change and others not? What's up with the black veins? The few places where the teens think about or discuss what's going on, there's 1) too much to be intriguingly mysterious and 2) not enough to be clear. Both those points made me appreciate Whedon's Firefly/Serenity Reavers even more. With the tv series, such mystery! Who were these psychotic killers who roamed the universe and made even Jayne scared! A friend of mine once explained why she found it pretty cool, the thought that humankind could go to the edge of the universe only to see nothing/everything in the blackness and go insane. With the movie, such a great explanation! It was the government! Sadly, that's kind of believable (see, Tuskegee). And then we're treated to a small group making a mess o' trouble with some clench-worthy action and I laughed and I cried and I laughed and I sobbed...anyway. Back to the book again, it gave an unsatisfying non-answer. Was it a malevolent force?? Was it something in the water?? What?! I don't understand!!

The books seemed to be arranged around chapter-long horror setpieces, building up to each one and wrapping it up. I couldn't see why these 4 particular teens were the narrators, why a couple of them were supposedly natural leaders, why a hard-to-believe little love connection popped up near the end. The list of the 6 different kinds of killers was never well-explained (and really, you made the list 7 items long by including the title of the list as #1? I hope that was corrected after this ARC). One of the characters wanted to find her brother but the others had no drive for anything, nothing that made me care about them.

But this whole book felt like horror, not just survival or zombie or whatever. Maybe I don't understand its accent. ( )

Courtesy of Smash Attack Reads

Interest in Book: I remember first seeing the cover. It spoke loudly to me. READ ME, it said. I think those eyes hypnotize you...*blinks* Then I read the blurb, and post-apocalyptic/dystopia being a favorite genre of mine, I just knew I had to let those powerful eyes have their way...

World-Building: Intense only brushes the surface of this world. Everything starts out normally. People are going about their day, living life, enjoying breathing. Then...BAM! Earthquakes topping the Richter scale rip apart the globe. Multiple schools are bombed. Life everywhere is perishing at an alarmingly fast rate. The survivors of these atrocities are in shock, wounded, terrified. When they see their neighbors and friends, they plead for help, though help is the last thing they receive. Instead, more blood is shed as these once normal humans are now infected with the worst kind of disease: evil. Those immune to these twisted, macabre and horrific ideas of fun flee into the wide open, doing their best to remain one step ahead of their relentless, murderous pursuers. On the surface, the world-building appears simple. But deep down, the rules of the game have changed drastically. Right and wrong , as well as love and hate, are hard to discern.

Characters: The four young protagonists of this hellish existence all start out in different places. I really loved the four different perspectives. I'm a fan of multiple POVs, in general, as it allows us an intimate view of each character. Mason, Aries (but she's a Gemini), Clementine and Michael all start out in very different scenarios. Their experiences and personalities are quite different, but one thing that drives them toward each other is the sheer will to survive. They meet different people along the way, both evil and not, who have lasting effects. Mason, in my opinion, is teetering on the edge between good and evil. Michael is struggling with his perceived cowardice, Aries does not want to be the leader everyone expects her to be, and dear Clementine just wants to find her brother. And then there is Daniel, who appears to be something...more. I foresee interesting things from that guy.

And then we have Nothing. Nothing pops up occasionally during the book, with their chilling views of the world. We don't know much about Nothing, although one can deduce that Nothing is the nothingness that eats away at our souls. The evil and horror that infect our hearts. Using this concept as a character is brilliant. The addition of this voice into the multiple perspectives really brought out the creep-factor. It added to the tone and the overall spine-tingling, chill-inducing effect.

Lasting Impressions: Holy awesome to the sauce, people! Your intense emotions will keep you glued to the pages as your heart palpitations and sweaty hands add to the experience. I compare this book to a grisly automobile accident where you slow down as you pass, unable to remove your eyes from the horror. You will not be able to put this book down! It reminds me of a YA-version of The Stand by Stephen King, though we have not yet met Randall Flagg. Or have we...?

Favorite Quote:
"There are different types of people in the world. There are people who accept what's in front of them unquestioningly. They live in the dark. In defeat. Ignoring what the future might bring or how they might help to make things happen. Then there are people like me. Optimists. They too live in the dark, in times like these, but dream of the light. I trust in the possibilities of betterness. I believe there is more to life than this. I have to. There's no other choice for me."

Dark Inside was one of my worst nightmares come to life. It was recommended to me by a friend, who knows I don’t like post apocalyptic type books. She said it was a must read, so I thought why not, I will only have nightmares for weeks. The reason this book scared me was not because it’s a horror or thriller, but the actual thoughts it puts in your head if a situation like this really happened. How would I react? Would I be brave or would I be a coward? Would the darkness consume me? The thing is you wouldn’t really know how you would react unless it was happening.

Dark Inside is about a world were madness has broken out. Natural disasters of major earth quakes and people doing terrorist like acts. The people enveloped in the darkness going mad and doing brutal things, even to people they love. It was just pure mayhem and chaos. This book reminded me of the movie Crazies, just way better because there wasn’t a true reason for why things were happening. I like that the darkness isn’t really blamed on one thing. They bring up multiple questions and factors of why it was happening. My thoughts are in a way the book was telling us we brought it on ourselves.
We follow four perspectives in this book, five if you consider nothing.

Mason, oh poor mason. I felt bad for him. It seemed like his life was already crumbling apart and the darkness just made it worse. It is like that saying, “It can’t get any worse” and it just keeps going downhill for him. I feel like there were times he just wanted to give up, but his strength was amazing. He hung on by the nails and kept going. Some of the secondary characters we meet with him are twiggy and chickadee. I loved chickadee and I really wanted more for her and Mason, but the world they are living in can have a cruel twist for fate. Aries was probably my favorite character. You could tell she was scared shitless and yet still managed to lead a group and try to keep them alive. I feel like her story besides Mason had more depth. There was more involvement with other characters and the plot was more realistic for me. I don’t know how she dealt with Colin and I guess that makes her a better person because I would have left him in the beginning of the book. Colin just reeks of bad news. She is a fighter and I love that about her. The only thing I didn’t like about her was she followed the advice of a stranger, though it kept her alive it didn’t seem real. Though if Daniel was the stranger giving me advice I would have probably done the same. Who doesn’t like a dark and mysterious guy that knows how to save the day, literally?

Then there was Clementine. She reminded me of the typical all American girl. She left her hometown and went on a blind hunt for her brother. I liked the moments when she would “speak” to her brother and I think those little thoughts helped her. She was constantly scared and you could feel her fear come through the pages. You see her fight hard with baggers and run for her life to find her brother. She barely slept for the fear of something happening. I don’t want to say she was in denial, but I think a false hope kept her moving forward. Michael was the person I related with the least. He seemed like a strong character at first, but he became weak for me. I feel like you could have almost taken him out of the book and it still would have been an amazing book. The only thing I really liked about him is that he gives comfort to Clementine. I also liked that he brought in the term “baggers”, which is what they called the people that have been drawn to the darkness.

Nothing, who are you? I feel like I might know, but I don’t want to spoil it. Hopefully we will get to officially meet you in the next book.

Dark inside made me laugh, cry and get completely frustrated. It makes you constantly question everything. The writing was vivid and detailed. The scenes came to life on the page. You could smell the smoke and the rotting bodies. You could feel the sand squish between your toes and the rain chill your bones. Every emotion a character felt, you were right there with them feeling it too. Dark inside kept me up till early in the morning to finish and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Thank you Jeyn Roberts for writing an amazing book and giving me terrifying nightmares for days. I enjoyed everything about this book and I think I am officially a fan of books making the world come to its end. (Even if they will forever scare me.) ( )

Reading the synopsis this sounded like a great book and I couldn't wait to find out what this ancient evil was. The execution was somewhat lacking for me as the story is told from the POVs of four different characters. Granted it's been a few weeks since I've read this but even while reading a lot of the characters blended together. I had to remind myself which one had the dead mother and which one ran when his companions most needed (or was that the same guy?). For the girls I know one gets peed on while hiding from the crazies and the other one insists on making friends with a creepy guy who obviously knows more than he reveals....See my full review at Debbie's World of Books. ( )

The book is about four different teenagers, Mason, Aries, Clementine and Michael as they each share their own perspectives and thoughts on the world crumbling around them. A huge earthquake happens which results in a tonne of people all over the world going crazy. The people who were affected by the earthquake begin killing people brutally just for their own pleasure and the four teenagers must find a way to survive the apocalypse.

It was a very interesting read, Usually I'm not too fond of apocalypse-type books but this one definitely sucked me in right from the start. There's always something going on and it never gets boring even for a minute. Each chapter is from a new person's perspective because the four teenagers haven't crossed paths yet. That was probably the only thing I disliked about it. I can't stand when there's more than one person telling the story. But in a strange way, it didn't bother me too much. Jeyn definitely made it work.

The character's were brilliant! Their lives were all so very different but yet they each ended up in the same predicament. I think Aries was my favourite. Even though she was terrified throughout most of the book, she still remained strong and brave for the sake of her classmates that also survived and they all looked up to her like she was their leader. Mason was completely badass. I always come across males in books where the author basically made them cold with no emotion but Mason was definitely the opposite. He felt all the pain in his life and he tried to deal with it but it overcame him at one point and he lost it, just like any other normal human being would.

There's another mysterious person in the book called 'Nothing' who gets a chapter here and there telling the readers about his life. He came across as psychotic but it was definitely interesting and fun trying to guess who it was. I think I may have figured it out towards the very end but I'm not entirely sure because we never actually get told. Hopefully we'll find out in the sequel! ( )