Review of Kelley Armstrong's Darkness Rising Trilogy

I am reviewing this series based on my faith in the author, and not on the plot or storyline this trilogy follows. In fact, reading the blurb on the first book, it does nothing to draw me in. I feel that all young adult books have become one and the same. If authors want to get their book noticed among the hundreds of thousands currently available to teenagers, they should really put more effort into wording the blurb on their novels. This is the deciding factor for most readers about whether they are willing to invest their time in your story or not, and I feel that some out there at the moment could do with a good rework, this series included.

But don’t let the vague blurb put you off, Armstrong’s writing could pull off the worst plotline in history, and do it well.

The world seemed to dip and darken and I smelled wet earth and thick musk and fresh blood. The wind whipped past, like I was running. Running so fast the ground whizzed beneath me and the wind cut across my skin . . .

I’ll start at the beginning, with the first book in the trilogy, The Gathering. We are introduced to Maya Delaney, a sixteen-year-old girl living a relatively secluded life in the tranquil town of Salmon Creek, which has a population of only two hundred. Maya has always felt a close bond with nature. She practically lives in the woods, and spends most of her time looking after the animals that get hurt in the area, and she feel like the paw-shaped birthmark she has on her tattoo is a sign that she belongs close to these wild creatures.

Things start of relatively normally, with Maya going to the local, and only, high school. It is described as being a state school with all the benefits of a private school; students have extra curricular activates that Maya suggests are a big part of her and her friends life, for example swimming, boxing, dancing, singing, climbing etcetera. When her life-long best friend, Daniel, the school boxing champion, is suspicious of the new student, Rafe, Maya takes notice. Daniel has a gut instinct for knowing what people are like from the off, and its never been wrong before. But he begins to feel these ‘bad vibes’ a whole lot more than usual.

But Daniel isn’t fully recovered from his girlfriend, and Maya’s best friend, Serena’s death a year ago. Are his instincts off? Maya is intrigued by Rafe; a guy who likes to make everyone believe he is a typical bad-boy, but Maya knows he doesn’t really smoke and drink, so what’s his game? Then there’s his sister, Annie, who Rafe claims had an accident, and is brain damaged. But when Mays notices the same paw shaped birthmark on Annie’s arm as Maya has on her hip, Maya realizes this may be more than just a coincidence. To top everything off, a journalist starts asking questions and hanging around the otherwise quiet town. Something that out of the ordinary is noticeable, so when she goes missing and later turns up dead, Maya knows something very strange is happening.

Is it a tragic accident that Selena, captain of the swim team, and the best swimmer in Salmon Creek, drowns? Or is it something more?

Maya and Daniel do some digging and begin to suspect that the St. Clouds, the owners of Salmon Creek, are involved in medical research that is less of the ‘research’ and much more experimentation, with a supernatural element.

The first book isn’t all that I felt The Summoning (the first in Armstrong’s previous YA trilogy, Darkest Powers) was; the plot was very predictable, and I found I really didn’t care much for the characters at first. Especially as the main characters are a large group of friends, it is hard to get to know the personality of each.

This is why the second book in the Darkness Rising trilogy was much better, in my opinion. By this time, the reader has already got to know which characters they prefer and why, and the predictability of the plot has past. The Calling begins where The Gathering left off; with the gang leaving Salmon Creek on a helicopter to escape a forest fire, which Maya suspects is man-made. Things take a turn for the worst and they find themselves stranded in a dense forest with no food or water, and the wildness of nature surrounding them – not to mention a cougar or two.  It is this book that Armstrong pulls the friends together and puts to use her best talent; writing amazing characters with witty dialogue.

The third and final book in the trilogy, The Rising, sees Armstrong doing something unexpected; she links this trilogy to her previous YA series (mentioned earlier) by a meeting between the two groups of teenagers. There were many references to them in the first books in the series, but to actually introduce the characters to each other gives fan of the other series, like myself, a chance to catch up with the other characters and see how they’ve coped since the end of the trilogy.

As this book is set in the same world as her previous Women of the Otherworld series, expect Armstrong to reference many of the more popular characters and names fans of the books – like myself – will be delighted to recognize.

Perhaps this series isn’t all I was hoping for, and I strongly suggest reading her first Young Adult trilogy, Darkest Powers, before starting this one. They are closely entwined but I far preferred the character building in Darkest Powers to Darkness Rising. However, if you are already familiar with the Darkest Powers trilogy, and became fond of the characters, then Darkness Rising is the series for you. Catching up with Derek, Chloe and Simon made me glad I read this new series, even if it fell short of the un-clichéd YA novels I had hoped for.

This review is not aimed at dissuading anyone from reading this series, and if you do, I have no doubt you will find it better than almost all the other YA urban fantasy novels currently on the market, but Kelley Armstrong has written much better, and will write a much better series in the future, I have no doubt. 

To buy The Gathering, click here.

To buy The Calling, click here. 

To buy The Rising, click here. 

To read more about Kelley Armstrong's previous YA trilogy, Darkest Powers, click here. 

A Summer Poem

A Summer Poem

The wind ruffles my hair and the trees and the leaves.

A path cuts through woodland, to a long forgotten place where

Peace is found. Here… between the trees and below the sky.

A bird flies overhead. The swoosh of wings in flight. Climbing higher

And higher.

Thistles grab at my legs, clinging on tightly. Stay, don’t leave,

Not yet. Sunlight hurts my eyes as it leaks

Through the gaps in the cover of trees. I wince at the harsh but

Perfectly warm light. It gets brighter

And brighter.

I hear running water, bubbling, gurgling, flowing

Freely over rounded stones. The surface twinkles

As it caches the sunlight.

There is a clearing nearby, I move closer

And closer.

I find a large stone in the perfect patch of sunlight.

The bird hovers close to the ground. It sees me,

Walking towards the stone and settling in the sun,

And it begins to lower itself to the ground, falling

And falling.

Everything stills and the sun beats down,

Pounding heavily on my shoulders. I feel it like a physical weight.

The warmth is heady, making me drowsy and slow and sleepy

But the bird is still nearby, loudly chirping

And chirping.

I encourage him over, but he hangs back, wary. The sunlight

Plays over the bird’s feathers, turning black into a mix

Of greens and blues and purples. Flowers surround the stone,

And as the breeze picks up they starts swaying

And swaying.

Two beady eyes stare up at me, but we are equal.

There is no fear, only the calmness and curiosity

Of a wild, untamed creature of the forest. He accepts me

And we rest, in the sunlight

Together.

My Life in Books

My Life in Books

1.   Have you always loved books? Were you encouraged to read from an early age?

As far back to my childhood as I can remember, books have always been a major part of my daily life. To begin with my mother would read me bedtime stories that captured my imagination and seeped into my dreams; Enid Blyton’s The Magical Faraway Tree is one that we would read together many times, even now I still remember the characters and stories. By about twelve years old, I was reading anything and everything. I don’t think I have stopped since. When I had a difficult time at school, I turned to books and they became my therapy, my escapism and my friends. And as Ernest Hemingway one said, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”

2.     Which was the first 'grown-up' book you remember reading? How did it affect you?

When I was a young teenager, I started reading fantasy books, in a pre-Twilight era when Young Adult fiction wasn’t lead by vampires (kind of hard to remember now!) I don’t remember a particular title, but it doesn’t matter. Once I started reading a book by an author I liked, for example, Nora Roberts, I would read everything that author had ever written.

3.      Choose five favourite books and tell us how they have impacted on you.

1)    Persuasion by Jane Austen

Back when I was younger, I had a difficult few years at school. I remember seeing the ITV adaption of this magnificent novel and I felt so connected to the main character, Anne Elliot, that I read the novel the next day and it has been my favourite novel ever since.

2)    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

      This is a book that I could read without having written words in front of me, I know it so well. The language, mixture of gothic themes and the romantic characters make this an amazing book. 

3)    In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Not something I would ever have picked up myself, this was a compulsory read for my English A-Level, and it has stayed with me ever since. Amazingly written with an interesting backstory, it is the book that made me want to read more non-fiction, especially of the True Crime category.

4)    The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Something from Tolkien had to be on this list. Any adventures taken in Middle Earth are the best kind.

5)    The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delane

      Yet another book that takes me back to my childhood. This is the first in an amazing series, which resembles Harry Potter, but with added gore and more mystery.

4.     Choose five favourite authors and your favourite book by each.

1)    Derek Landy is nothing short of a writing genius in my eyes. I beg of you to read the first book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, if not all of them; whatever your age, you will enjoy it. Deliciously funny.

2)    George RR Martin, Game of Thrones. You’ve probably read it, and if you haven’t, you’ll certainly have heard about it. Set in a world that can only be compared to Tolkien’s Middle Earth, GoT is the start of an incredible series.

3)    Kelley Armstrong, Bitten. An author whose work I love so much that I almost hate to tell people about how incredible her novels are because I want to keep them all to myself. But Bitten is an amazing read, one of my all time favourites.

4)    Cate Tiernan, Seeker. The tenth book in the brilliant Wicca series; this is my personal favourite from all fifteen. I started reading this series many years ago and it still sticks with me.

5)    Trudi Canavan, The Magicians Apprentice. She now has many trilogies but this is the first book I read and have gone on to read all of her work.

5. Do you read more fiction or non-fiction?

I generally read more fiction; I feel when reading it is less formal that non-fiction. For a long time, I believed non-fiction was just trying to teach me something, like a dreaded textbook from a classroom. However, since reading In Cold Blood, as I mentioned earlier, this viewpoint was changed. Non-fiction can be just as enjoyable as fiction. I now read true crime books, but mainly biographies. It is always fun to learn about someone’s life without ever meeting him or her.

6.     Where do you find out about the books you want to read?

Through various ways; the internet, reading other reviews, newspaper or magazine recommendations, word of mouth or just hearing mention a title on the bus or train is often enough to intrigue me. Of course, looking around a bookshop or library is a nice pastime for me.

7.     What was the last book you read, what are you currently reading, and what's next?

I have just finished 13 by Kelley Armstrong, an amazing book. I am currently reading The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and next on my reading list is the Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. 

Please feel free to complete this yourself and let me know. I'd love to hear about other people's favourite books! :)