I'm a fan of dystopian novels, and YA novels, and all that jazz. This one was decent. Nothing spectacular, and a few elements that made me think "I hope young kids don't read this." But it was some decent world building (bleak, but that's dystopian for you), and some decent characters, and I was kept engaged. May or may not read the next one, we shall see.

This was just ok for me. The premise sounded really good but I was disappointed by the execution. Not what I expected.

This story reminded me of the MOVIE version of Gone. Here you have a dilemma of the lines being blurred between good and bad and right and wrong. I love dystopia's, and the fact that there are "others", aliens, mutants, whatever you want to think of them as, is a plus for me.

I decided not to read and review this book, unfortunately. I lost interest in the title and description once I came around to reading it.

This was the first book I picked up as a netgalley arc and was SO disappointed as I just felt it was really shoddily written. I think it could do with another pass by an editor.

This is a fabulous book in a new to me series and author! I very much enjoyed the premise of the story line and look forward to more from this author!

First off, the cover love is real! It's absolutely gorgeous. This one was a hit and miss though. It had the usual lesson that not everyone is good and those you are prejudiced against arent all bad. The storylines premise was interesting and drew me in but some parts were just slow and didnt do it for me .

*I received a free copy of The New Dark from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
I was not a fan of the New Dark at all. This was one of those books that I was really intrigued by, but when I started reading it, it just didn't hold my attention at all. I had to stop reading about 50 pages in, because I could not get through it at all. The characters didn't seem to be really fleshed out and it was so hard to really care about someone's journey if they don't seem like a real person.

*I received a free copy of this ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

And that's the only reason I finished reading it. Seriously, I lost interest after like the first chapter.

I have no idea how old any of the characters are except for Eli, who I assume is probably 1-2ish. Sorrel and David are probably teenagers, but they could be anywhere from 13 to 19 for all the info we have about them. (Yes, Sorrel refers to David sometimes as the "man" she loves, but even a 13-year-old girl might imagine she's a woman.) Either way, they're rather bland characters. The book description says David is Sorrel's boyfriend, but he's not--they like each other, but nothing ever happens between them to make them anything but friends. Mara is a stereotypical boy-stealing mean girl. Einstein is the requisite gateway character (the one who makes the main character realize that all (fill-in-the-blank) are not what she had thought). Martin and his creepy cult are, well, creepy. He's like Mr. Collins on personality steroids. Times a thousand, plus some Mr. Wickham. Just, ew. I think the most interesting character was Brig, and he wasn't in it very much. Overall, I just didn't care about the characters. I'm still wrecked about a character death from a book I finished last week, but these characters could all die, and I wouldn't feel a thing.

PS: Every time I read about Black Angus, all I could think of was the restaurant.

So this takes place sometime in the distant(?) future when things like metal, plastic, cars, books, regular clothes, etc. are inexplicably missing from the world. They're from the time Before. So . . . what happened? What caused this failure of technology and knowledge? What caused the mutants? There's no explanation given for any of it--it's just the way things are.

This book is basically a narration of the characters (mostly Sorrel--we only see David sometimes) going from one misfortune to another, falling into trap after trap after trap. And the thing is, I didn't even really care.

Most of the dialogue felt stiff, forced, and unnatural. Yet another reason the characters were just meh. The writing itself was rather uninteresting and could have used a few more rounds of editing (mostly for content, flow, and overall style).

I know it's a series, but I'm fine stopping here.

Note: Nothing offensive.

Quite enjoyed this series. I found the concept interesting. Especially regarding the inviables. I even purchased and read to the end of the series.

I was disappointed in this one. Another grab on Netgalley that didn't pan out quite they way I was hoping. Picking new books is tough. When I have high hopes for a story from the synopses and it doesn't deliver on the premise advertised, I find it very hard to support the novel.


This novel plus The Queen of All Crows really put me in a bad place when trying to write helpful, objective reviews. Even when I dislike a book, I try to remain objective that others may find what I consider faults to be entertaining or essential to their reading experience.


Now that I have recuperated with some very excellent reading--reviews on those in the next couple days--I feel ready to write about The New Dark.


This is a book about an EMP future. There are no electronics, there is no grid; there are only mutants. That was the hook that made me pick it off the "shelf."


I am really attracted to the idea of a world without the grid. I gravitate towards books that have this premise. Then the author threw in mutants. How very X-Men. Plenty of room to make a book impossible to put down. Except that didn't happen. I never really made a connection with the story and didn't feel the need to invest my time in it.


Then Sorrel comes across the Free People. Wow. I could be reading it completely wrong, but I really just did not like this section. I felt like the story had stepped away from itself and onto a soapbox. The reader was left there to wallow in the politics. We also end up in a major metropolis run on slave labor. Mutant and human race relations abound. How many tropes can we shove in one manuscript?


Unfortunately, the story suffered from mediocre editing. Maybe in ten years they can get a new editor on it and release a reboot edition. While they're there, they can eliminate a few of the extraneous YA stereotypes. Best of luck to any who go forward and try this novel. I hope you find something to enlighten you.

I have received this copy from NetGalley, on behalf of the publisher and author, in return for my honest review.

I had a really hard time focusing on the plot or storyline or characters at first, and on throughout the book. However, there were parts that would catch my interest for a few pages. For me it just seemed a little confusing at times. None the less it was an awesome concept for the story line. Sorrel gets split from her friends and family when Mutants raid them. Breaking off meant David and the others were captured. Sorrel and David happened to be looking for each other, then their stories become two. Sorrel gets lost and while making her way, encounters something, or someone. However she wakes to man at her bed, and unclothed. She later discovers more about the people around her, and the place she is brought too. Her fear really rise when told she is to marry their leader, Martin. Their dark secrets she now knows. David has his own problems separated from Sorrel. When one mutual tries to help, their chances are blown when Elijah doesn't want to leave the mutant. He has become attached to it. None the less, not one of them can truly fight, not like Sorrel. He and Mara must figure out a way to get past the mutants and get DLI without him screaming. Along the way only more problems arise.

Like it said, it wasn't horrible, just didn't keep my attention. I do feel that science fi fans would love it!! So try it out, and see what happens to Sorrel and David, and the others!!

Sorrel! Eh. This did not float my boat no matter how much I like the name Sorrel for a girl human person. The storyline/plot and the characters felt flat. It just wasn't gripping even though you might think from the description it would be full of more action and trauma and dichotomies. I don't know. It was just okay.

This was an alright read for me. It took a while for me to get into the story because it felt a little slow to start. The majority of the action felt like it took place in the last quarter of the book then it felt like everything was a little rushed. The characters were alright but nothing really stood out about them. I did like Einstein, I thought he was the most complex and mysterious. I wish there had been a bit more explanation behind Sorrel's birthmark after it playing such an influential role in her adventure. Overall this was an ok story with ok characters and action.

Note: I received a free copy of The New Dark from NetGalley a long, long time ago and have just gotten around to reading it and reviewing it.

"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 ..."

So begins the synopsis for The New Dark, the first in a Young Adult trilogy that started in November of 2017. I thought said synopsis was interesting enough, especially since it goes on to mention that her village gets destroyed by mutants and she has to journey off to somewhere else to find her stolen baby brother and boyfriend. Dystopian style world with mutants and what-not sounded like it might be a fun read. And the cover was pretty. (Not that that mattered much because I got a free digital copy to review but that's beside the point.)

When I first started reading it I kept mentally comparing it to The 100 (the TV show...I've been watching it on NetFlix) because there were so many similarities even though The 100 is more of a science fiction while The New Dark didn't have the "people having fallen from space" plot line. So that threw me off quite a bit.

And then by the end there were just so many convenient plot points and unanswered questions. One of the big things with Sorrel is that she has this birthmark that her grandmother thought was super special but none of her fellow villagers seemed to really care for. But then Sorrel goes on this journey and finds out that everyone else in the world seems to recognize her birthmark and that it means something far more than she'd originally thought. But we never figure out why. There should have been some sort of indication to keep me interested given that this is the start of a series and the characters are trying to turn Sorrel into some figurehead style person for their rebellion.

More convenient plot points:

Even though people travel for days and weeks and Sorrel gets waylaid for weeks it just so happens that all of her fellow lost villagers end up at the same city that she eventually goes to? Wouldn't at least one person have been shipped off somewhere farther?
Sorrel always finds someone she can trust even in the most dire circumstances.
Apparently they use the word "mutant" for any kind of genetic difference? Some were described as being pretty grotesque but then there are others that Sorrel just kind of says he has a broader forehead than most people? 
Overall, I liked the book enough that I kept reading it and finished it in just a few days but I'd probably consider this to be more of a 2.5 star read out of 5 but since I can't do half stars I'd settle with 2. There were just too many unanswered questions and convenient plot points and I will not be choosing to continue this series.

A coming-of-age story in a dystopian world, “The New Dark” is the first book in “The Dark Times” trilogy. The story follows Sorrel who lost everything when her home was destroyed, her mother dying, and her brother & boyfriend were snatched by a group of marauding mutants.

Sorrel goes after her brother and boyfriend. In her journey, she figures out that everything is not black and white. That people are good or bad based on the individual and not based on what race or group they belong.

A thrilling read, though there is not enough adrenaline rush to make your heart palpitate. This is YA after all, and “Fast & Furious” it is not. Nevertheless, it is exciting, and you can’t read fast enough to turn the pages.

I originally put this book down because I was not feeling it but recently I picked it back up and found that I did some what enjoy it. I found the world to be a little confusing and it was hard to follow at times. I did however enjoy some of the characters and thought they were well written. I would recommend this to someone who has already gotten into the fantasy genre but is still reading beginner fantasy.

The New Dark introduces an interesting, if confusing, world. A world where there is no technology and humans live in small villages working to survive. When a group of mutants attack Sorrel's village and kidnap those they don't kill, Sorrel follows them trying to rescue her little brother and David. This is a physical journey as well as a symbolic one. Sorrel will have to leave behind not just her innocent life in the village, but her prejudices and fears as well. When she arrives at the largest city she's ever seen, she will discover that not all humans are good and not all mutants are bad. The trick is trying to tell which is which.

This story was a bit of a mixed bag for me. At times very exciting and I couldn't get enough, others it began to drag and I feel like the pacing could have been spaced more effectively. While I enjoyed Sorrel's journeys, I feel as if she never actually accomplished anything in the first book. Every step forward, every ally made, meant one step back and an ally lost. I didn't have a sense of hope at the end of the first book to make me look forward to the second.

*I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of this book*

When I saw this book on net galley I was immediately drawn to to the cover as it reminded me a lot of Derek Hale’s tattoo in Teen wolf and I love teen wolf, it is one of my favourite show. The main characters were very well developed and I like how we were able to see both points of views from the main characters who were in two different places within the books. Sorrel one of our main characters was such a strong character and wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in. Even if that was going against the rules. David was also a very true full character and always believed that sorrel wasout there somewhere which is what I believed made him such a strong character as he still had faith in his best friends even when separated.

“The New Dark” is the first book of The dark times trilogy. It has interesting setting of its world and unique characters!

To be honest, although I enjoyed this book half way through, I got bored at its rest.
I like the setting of its world, the world is after the destruction and there’s no modern equipments. The main character, Sorrel has special fate to save people. After the half way of its book, I found myself being a bit bored reading similar story that people trying to use Sorrel. Also even I finished the book, i don’t know clearly what Sorrel has to do as her fate that I’ve been wondering whole the way through. What’s happened in this world? What mutants are? I was left with such a half way feeling.

I like the characters, Sorrel and David. These characters are brave and never give up. I also like Einstein but the book reveals very little about him. I needed more about characters to immense myself into its story .

I gave this book 3.5/5.0 stars.

I think the story will get better and clear when story goes, so I’m looking forward to read its sequels!