Official Review: The Dark Ones by Emma Lynn

[bluemel4]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Dark Ones" by Emma Lynn.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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The Dark Ones by Emma Lynn is a young adult novel set in a post-apocalyptic world. The alien species, known as Dark Ones, came to earth looking for a new home. The invaders alter human DNA, killing off half of the population. The survivors gained night vision. In an attempt to fight the invasion, humanity decides to use what the author calls radiation weapons. The weapons did not kill the Dark Ones but left the earth mutated. The most noticeable effect was total darkness and dangerous animal hybrids. The surviving humans live in underground communities. They visit the surface to gather food or to protect their homes from Dark Ones trying to invade or to enslave them. The story is told from Isla’s point of view. She is a nineteen year old warrior. Her main reason for being a diligent protector is her nine year old brother Joel, her only living relative.

The prologue of this story grabbed me right away. Isla is outside with her father at age eleven in one of the last days of sunshine. He is trying to impart words of wisdom as he says a final goodbye. It is a well-written and touching scene.

Lynn does a great job creating an interesting world. The radiation causes mutant animal hybrids and trees that grow bent and twisted from lack of sunshine with oozing tar leaves. She gives an interesting take on how humans would react to an invasion and how they would try to protect themselves. Where Lynn excels is in her action scenes showing off Isla’s skill in battle. The interactions between Isla and her brother Joel feel authentic.

While Lynn’s novel shows promise, awkward wording, forgotten words, and punctuation need to be addressed. These errors were so frequent that it was extremely distracting and became hard to read. The dialogue in the book suffers from too many exclamation points, clichés, and antiquated sayings. The lack of consistency throughout was frustrating and made for convoluted story telling.

Lynn’s post-apocalyptic world lacks uniformity. From the beginning it is established that the sun never shines, however, later in the book the sun is shining once a month without reason or explanation. Another example of this type of inconsistency is through the use of night vision. Initially night vision is a power, or gift that humans have as an indirect result of their encounters with Dark Ones. Later in the same chapter, characters need helmets to see in the dark. Contradictory details like these make it difficult to focus on the story.

Lynn's character development of Isla becomes stunted by a major shift in her personality that does not feel true to her character. Isla starts off as a stoic warrior, but towards the middle of the novel she becomes an angst riddled valley girl fretting over boys. A few chapters later Isla shifts back into the stoic warrior from the beginning. The giggly girlish Isla is grating and the sudden personality shift is disruptive to the story.

Lynn does a good job in the beginning of the novel describing characters that Isla trusts and her relationship to them. Later in the book new characters appear with no back-story and take on important roles. I had no idea who they were nor did I have an investment in these new undeveloped characters.

I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. The book suffers from lack of editing, a convoluted concept, and twists that are not shocking or interesting. The dialogue and characters feel under developed and shallow. The book has potential but needs some serious editing.

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The Dark Ones
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[zeldas_lullaby]

Great review! It sounds like a book with potential.

[bluemel4]

Thank you zeldas_lullaby.

[Duende Knocking]

It sounds like an interesting world built up (if done so consistently). Is there a real direction with the story, though? Is the book about Isla and company defeating the Dark Ones once and for all, or is there another plot going on (such as escape from an area, finding her father [seeing as "dead" fathers in YA novels are rarely dead], etc), or maybe nothing at all and it's just a slice-of-life story in this current world?

[bluemel4]

@Duende Knocking The story is a little hard to pin down because it is not very cohesive. In general terms the novel's direction it three fold; good and bad changes to the underground community, betrayal from multiple sources and a love story. One could say the story is a hero's quest.

I would not recommend reading this book until the author has gone through the book chapter by chapter making sure everything is consistent and makes sense to the story.

[bookowlie]

Nice review. I have to say I am surprised you gave the book a 1 star rating, since there were some things you mentioned you liked. I'm sure it was disappointing to read a book with awkward wording and grammatical errors. Hope the next book you read is more enjoyable!

[bluemel4]

@bookowlie I honestly was trying really hard to be nice. The author is very young and I didn't want to be harsh. Maybe I went to much in the other direction? I hope the next book is better too!

[bookowlie]

I can see your point. We all struggle to be tactful when writing a negative review. In the process of trying to find a few nice things to say to smooth over the criticism, it can look like we liked the book more than we did.

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

Inconsistencies in a book makes it hard for me as a reader to continue reading a book. Thanks to your review, the novel almost sounded interesting. Don't know if I can overlook all the flaws you've listed though. Apart from Inconsistencies, grammar and typos are the only things I can ignore. About the sun not shining though, doesn't that mean that life on earth cannot exist?

[bluemel4]

@Leon Durham Everything has mutated in the world Emma Lynn creates. So I guess everything that grows has mutated to grow without sunshine? I am not sure I actually questioned this part myself. Not everything is thought through in the book.