Darkness Falls- A.E. Faulkner ♥♥♥♥

Darkness Falls- A.E. Faulkner
330 pages

The entire concept of this book is fascinating to me. What if nature gets tired of us and fights back? I think it rings even more true because I can see it happening, albeit to a lesser extent, in real life too. I was pulled in for the concept but stayed for the characters.

Everything is through Quinn’s perspective. I think she's a reliable narrator, and the way she processes all the story's emotions and the situations they find themselves in feels relatable. My only real complaint about her is she reads as older than 16. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I had to keep reminding myself that she isn’t in her early twenties.

I had a few issues with some of the side characters, but it wasn’t so much the writing of them but their personalities in general. Which made them seem more realistic. Rarely do we find all people around us pleasant to be around all the time. I think it adds more depth to the story that I was annoyed with them.

I think the only character I have a true issue with is Jasmine. The drastic portrayal of her flips on its head almost fast enough to give me whiplash. I understand what the goal was, but I felt like it was too sudden to be easily believed. I don’t want to veer into spoiler territory, so forgive the vagueness, but even the reasons given for all stages just don’t vibe with me very well. Her entire dynamic felt forced.

I have some issues with how one of the major plot points is playing out. I feel like not enough of it was resolved to end the book. There can be elements that arch through an entire series, I’m good with that, but it felt like too much was left open-ended. When I finished the book, it just didn’t feel… complete. This only becomes a concern for me because it makes me worry I will invest a lot of time and energy and emotions into these characters only to have the end of the series as a whole leave too much unsaid or undone. So, color me concerned.

Overall, I liked it. I think it’s a good read! I plan to read the rest of the series sometime this year, and I really hope there is a solid and comfortable ending. Doesn’t have to be a happy ending, necessarily, but I want to feel like I’m ok with walking away. However, I want to mention… while the majority of the book is well-written, one thing that really threw me off was the dialogue. Sometimes two people would talk in the same paragraph. A few times, I had to go back and look at it again to make sure I knew who was talking. I did get used to it by the end of the book, but it was a little grating.

Rating ♥♥♥♥