Dark Inside

The world has had enough. It wants to rid the earth of humans. One day an earthquake rips across the world and causes mass casualties. The enemy in this book is not vampires, werewolves, or ghosts. It is the people themselves. The Evil that creeps into each and every person’s mind causes normal human beings to rip and tear their own flesh and blood.

Each chapter is dedicated to four Canadian teenagers: Michael, Clementine, Aries and Mason. We follow along as each character is torn between being normal and being evil.

I practically devoured it in one sitting! There’s a lot of action, and a lot of moral questions I found myself asking: What if this happened to me right now? Would I be the leader that would help the other survivors? show more Would I be as strong as these characters fighting to the death to stay sane and to stay alive? I loved every bit of it and I quite enjoyed reading about Canadian cities for once.

Trust me, if you enjoy any Dystopian novel, you’ll love Dark Inside. show less

Why oh why did I wait so long to read this one? Simon & Schuster were nice enough to send me a review copy back some time and I never got around to it until now and I'm kicking myself wondering why I didn't read it sooner!
There are a few keys words that stuck out to me on the back cover of the ARC - "Society has fallen apart. No one can be trusted." Sounds great, huh? But those words are nothing compared to what actually transpires in the novel. Dark Inside is a creepy book, even scary at times. I'd even go as far as saying that Jeyn Roberts has a twisted mind! The detail she puts into her writing (the death's of the people, the killing scenes, etc) is absolutely wild (and twisted and crazy and it will have your stomach in knots and show more your nose wrinkled). Yes, the detail is that vivid. But more than that, the story has a great plot. An earthquake that rattles and shakes more than just the ground. People are turning on one another, killing each other and few that are left to survive are being hunted down. You'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time it takes you to read Dark Inside, and trust me it wont take that long because you'll be so engrossed and have that need to find out what happens next.
The novel goes between narrators and Jeyn makes it easy to follow. We're taken on adventures of basically the survival of the fittest and each character has their own way of dealing with the almost apocalypse type thing that some say is happening. Each character has the common goal of surviving and outrunning what is out there but yet each character couldn't be more different. We get so many emotions running through the characters and pages of Dark Inside but it never feels overwhelming. The cowardice, the bravery, the sadness, the adrenaline, everything the characters (and the reader) feel ties in so well and makes for a great book. And the ending!? Wow!
Jeyn Roberts debut novel is awesome, truly truly awesome, and definitely worth the read! Just be prepared, at times Dark Inside is gruesome and paints a clear, sometimes unwanted picture in your head that may keep you up at night!

Enjoy! show less

Dark Inside is an intense and bloody thrill ride. This book is packed with heart stopping action from the very first page straight through to the last, you just can't put it down. With relatable characters and true to life scenarios this book scared the friggin pants off me. I was up all night, not reading, just trying to stop jumping at every stupid little noise. You know a story has impact when your wondering if your neighbors have turned into bloodthirsty killing machines.
The story has a 28 days later feel, but even scarier is the fact that the people in this version don't turn into mindless zombies. Jeyn Roberts' monster retain their problem solving skills, meaning no matter where you go, they'll find you. They can even trick you show more into thinking they haven't been affected and pounce when your back is turned. So how could I not be awed by the iron will her characters have and the hope they refuse to lose. Four teenagers who have lost everything, the whole world turned to chaos around them, and yet they still push forward searching for safety. This is literally the definition of me against the world.
If you haven't noticed already, I love this book. Everything about it. The people, the fast paced plot, the insanity that this could actually happen, the foreboding feeling that lingers while you read it. I've even wondered if maybe her theory about the fall of these ancient civilization is dead on. If you like dystopian you should definitely read this. It isn't post-apocalyptic, it IS the apocalypse, so definitely something you'd enjoy. Jeyn Roberts made a killer debut with this book and I am pining for more of her work. 5 out of 5, obviously. show less

I was afraid to go to sleep Thursday night after finishing Dark Inside (it was also the day that I read most of it). The scary part isn't the apocalypse or gruesome deaths, however. It's the Baggers. It's the 'disease' of sorts floating around, turning humans turning on their own kind. That this is such a plausible demise for civilization.

Humans have been progressing rapidly for the past century, so quickly that it's become evident that our worst enemy is ourselves. Our enemy in the apocalyptic world of Dark Inside is the Darkness Inside humans. It's been inside of us: festering, infecting, waiting for the time to strike. When 9.5+ magnitude earthquakes strike across the world simultaneously, the largest genocide known to mankind show more initiates. Strangers turn on strangers, friends turn on friends, and family turns on family. You don't know who to trust, who will turn next. The only clue is the black veins that lines the white of their eyes, and by the time you're close enough to see the signs, you're within their grasp.

Can you imaging living in that kind of world? It takes a huge amount of luck to escape their initial strike, and I don't have it. Even if I did, you need endurance and intuition to survive. Could I do that? I don't know. Mason, Michael, Clementine, and Aries are four teenagers who have had family and/or friends turn on them, and some will even betray in turn, seeking to protect themselves and survive... not knowing when--if-- they'll ever find safety.

The events start off slow, before the earthquake happens. You watch as the world falls apart, unable to do anything. There are books that you race through in order to finish it. Dark Inside isn't one of those books. It's the kind that you read with dread, the kind whose pages you want to turn and yet can't. The kind that you have to put down and run away from before returning, unable to stop reading until you learn the fates of the four teens. That was what Dark Inside was like for me.

Because the story is told from the perspective of four teens, it took me a while to get to know them, but it's okay. The story is already drawn out at the start as the story leads up to the apocalypse, so there's time to acclimate to the four voices. It's when the apocalypse starts that the story really takes off, and even then the action only takes place between the teenager's frequent, suspense-filled attempts to stay off the Baggers' radar. (In other words, when they bump into the Baggers.)

Then there's the mysterious fifth narrator... Nothing. Nothing knows what's happening, but Nothing won't tell you. All you learn is the turmoil that Nothing suffers... Nothing's desire for this sickening game to end. Nothing will keep you questioning what is happening to the world. If all of humanity won't die out this time. And there's nothing you can do but read and read as the lives of the four teens draw closer and closer to each other until the events of this book comes to a head. If there's one word that describes how I felt reading this book, it's powerless. Powerless to prevent the apocalypse, to stop the darkness from spreading, or to save the teens.

Best (or worst because I have to wait another year for it) of all? The events don't close with Dark Inside. It's only the beginning.... show less

Told from the point of view of the four main characters, Dark Inside is an excellent story. An earthquake strikes seemingly unleashing violence everywhere. A mystery compulsion/drive within people to attack others.

We follow four teenagers and their respective groups as they struggle to survive against the collapse of society and the surging violence.

It was quite a unique story and very enjoyable, so much so that I'm off to buy the next two books now.

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 show more 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.) show less

This review appears on my blog, Starting the Next Chapter.

What can I say about Dark Inside without over-simplifying? To say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book feels like taking the quick and easy way out with regard to my feelings after reading it. There are so many parts of this book that led me to alternately get lost in my own imagination and sit upon the edge of my seat with bated breath. It is such a tangle of thrills, sadness, and horror that I am left unsure as to what aspect I enjoyed the most. Suffice it to say, Dark Inside featured the best of all aspects that make a book appealing to me.

The plot that runs throughout this book will stay with me for quite some time. It is truly terrifying in that it doesn't involve zombies or show more monsters. The threats involved are Mother Nature, herself, and the very darkest recesses of the human mind. The fact that some unknown catalyst is causing the majority of humanity to turn into ruthless killers is altogether chilling. As I thought about the possible causes and ramifications of such an event, I felt even more disturbed. This isn't a story you will be likely to forget for a long, long time.

The characters whose stories we get to view are each compelling in their own ways. Mason, Aries, Michael, Clementine, and the mysterious narrator known as "Nothing," each bring something different to the table. Each has a different heart break, a different strength, a different motivation, a different personality, and a different outlook on life, all of which lead them in the same direction as time goes on. I can't choose a particular favorite from amongst this cast of characters due to the sheer greatness of all of them. These characters are so well-written and imbued with such spark that it is very easy to become invested in each one.

Finally, let's talk about setting. Dark Inside begins with 4 different towns in which the 4 different characters live. Each town is hit by catastrophe in different ways. This goes to show just how far-reaching the mysterious events behind the end of the world truly are. Though each town is a different size and affected in different ways, they all share a common problem: the Baggers (the term used to describe the killers at several points throughout the book). Whether the town falls to earthquakes, bombs, or a type of genocide involving the unaffected, each setting is the same in that nothing will ever be the same again. As the characters travel across their countries and make their ways toward each other, we catch glimpses of other places that have been struck by disaster in different ways. It is a truly horrifying landscape against which the story takes place, and the descriptions given make each come to life in the mind's eye. This aspect of the book is so well done that I have absolutely no complaints.

If you are a fan of dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction, then you have absolutely got to read Dark Inside. There is so much action, description, and character-building taking place within the pages of this book that you won't be disappointed. Though a second book hasn't been mentioned so far as I can tell, I hope that we will be able to continue following these characters throughout this tragic, horrible world they are left with. This was a truly satisfying read that I can see myself reading over again in the future. show less