Uptown Oracle Reads… The New Dark

There is no “Before”, there is only “Now”. Because now there’s no internet, no TV, no power grid. Food is scarce, and the world’s a hostile place. But Sorrel lives a quiet life in the tiny settlement of Amat. It’s all she’s ever known… Until a gang of marauding mutants destroys the village, snatching her brother Eli, and David, her boyfriend. Sorrel sets out after them, embarking on a journey fraught with danger. Can she survive? The only thing that keeps her going is Eli and David. They are out there somewhere. They must be alive. And if she has her way, she will find them.

Right off the bat I realised that The New Dark was going to be a clusterfuck of tropes common to YA. In my opinion anyway. It starts off rough as main character describes the typically hot guy and fantasises about kissing him… as he skins bats. Then we have some lovely female on female hate… for no reason other than the fact they like the same boy (yes, the one that is skinning bats). So we also have a bit of a love triangle going on. Basically, within the first chapter I am already annoyed with this book.

The New Dark tries really hard to make points about prejudice and racism as mutants are treated differently because they look different. In this world which is the future of our world, we kill babies if they are ‘unviable’ aka a mutant. The points made really fall flat as apart from one or two mutants, they’re all made out to be monsters. The beginning of the book literally shows them kill everyone except the young ones who they then sell into slavery.

This is of course ridiculous as you would think they would look back on history and realise that it’s wrong to have slaves and be discriminatory. But apparently no one remembers the ‘before’ time even though the eldest people in the village were alive then. Sorrel’s grandmother remembers cars and malls and tells Sorrel about these, so why aren’t they rebuilding their lives and talking about history? It just seems so dumb that after only 50ish years this village reverts back to the dark ages.

There were a lot of problematic things about The New Dark but it was in fact quite a good paced book. As you go between Sorrel and Davids POV’s you get to see quite a lot of action and there’s not many dull moments. It felt very much like a good plot, it just needs more in depth world and character building to make it a good book. Speaking of characters, Sorrel is your typical female YA main character. She doesn’t really have much depth and is special because she has a weird birth mark. It is never explained why it’s special but obviously it throws her into situations head first. The politics of her being used by a faction of people felt extremely similar to other books like The Hunger Games.

The New Dark I think suffered a bit too much from being too much like other books. Because look at Snow Like Ashes? Is it just me or are these covers a little bit too similar? Then there’s the tropes and it’s just didn’t feel original or unique.

Positives

+ Good pace

Negatives

– Typical female hates female MC trope… twice

– Similarity to other series

– Limited backstory and lack of world building

I received The New Dark* by Lorraine Thomson from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.