REVIEW: THERE WILL COME A DARKNESS BY KATY ROSE POOL

Title: There Will Come a Darkness
Author: Katy Rose Pool
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
Pages: 496
My Rating: 3.5 stars

 

 

The world building in this story was intricate, and I really appreciated that things were explained over time instead of shoving it all at us in an info dump. There was a lot to learn about the world, and we were shown different things and given explanations on the way. There were plenty of characters and politics introduced to us, but instead of feeling overwhelmed I was able to keep track of all of it fairly easily. The characters themselves were complex, and I found myself liking every single one of them. This story is driven much more by the characters than by the plot, and this approach worked because of how interesting the characters were.

 

Pros:
– complex and interesting characters that I found myself really liking
– locks that could be opened by voice and a clock that predicts the weather
– unique magic system

Cons:
– a lot of build up with not much plot progress
– too much going on at once- more than one main plot

 

There was a strong emphasis on prophecy and destiny/fate, and I enjoyed seeing how things came together and apart as the story progressed. There were five POVs during the story, and while that does seem like a lot, it gave the story a large scope and added to the way all these character’s lives intertwined with each other. There were two major storylines going on throughout, as well as the smaller individual character’s stories and goals, and this added to the narrative by helping us see more of the world and to get to know each character better.

 

“All of these things are connected. All of them mean that the last prophecy is unfolding. One of them, or perhaps all of them together, will bring about the Age of Darkness.”

 

My only critique of this novel is that I wish the plot had progressed more, and that the different focus plots would have come together better. This book was pretty long, and for the most part it felt like an introduction and a build up to the real story. A lot of groundwork was laid out; I enjoyed all of this as I read, mostly because of the characters and how likeable they were, but I wanted more to actually happen. There were some fun twists thrown in towards the end, though, and a few moments where I had no idea how they would triumph against the situations they found themselves in.

 

“You can keep running forever,” Ephyra said. “You can spend your entire life looking over your shoulder, waiting for your past to catch up to you. Or you can stop running and finally face it. That sounds like the choice to me.”

 

It took me quite a while to finish this book, and usually that is a bad sign, but I was actually happy to come back and continue the story in between some other books; it helped me pace out the book as I read. I’m excited for what will come next with this series and these characters. This book wasn’t perfect, but it had characters that I really enjoyed and became invested in, and set up the building blocks for what promises to be a very interesting series.