I really wanted to like this book, but while it had some unique ideas, it took a while to get into, and I thought that the point of view characters were similar enough to each other that I actually found myself forgetting which one was which. Not a bad story by any means, but not what I was expecting.

What. A. Ride. I requested a copy of There Will Come a Darkness without knowing much about it, but I had a gut feeling that I was going to love it. It actually took me a couple tries to get into this book, but once I did, I was all in!

If you are a fan of interesting magical systems, well built worlds, and dark fantasy, you're definitely going to want to pick this up! I'm not sure how I'm going to wait a whole year because I'm already dying to see what happens in book two!

I loved this plot idea. The fact we have different characters who can either bring the end of the world or prevent it was imaginative and unique. I even had fun trying to figure who would do what. There were several surprise twists and turns as well. I devoured this book.

I really wanted to love this book because it sounds absolutely amazing and the cover is just stunning but unfortunately I just couldn’t get into it.

I really enjoyed There Will Come a Darkness! I can’t wait to add it to my shelves. It will be perfect for all the fantasy lovers.

The prophecies, plot twists, and Greco-Roman inspired settings were cool, but I didn't find the characters to be compelling enough to be invested and there were a lot of information dumps.

DNF. I unfortunately wasn’t as intrigued in this as I thought I would be. I think it is a good book just not really for me!

There Will Come A Darkness was put on my radar by a friend who raved about it. And honestly, I was not disappointed. With a diverse cast and an epic magic system, I enjoyed this one.

It’s been a hot minute since I have read a YA fantasy series, and I am so glad this one pulled me in. The magic system was pretty similar to the Grishaverse magic system. The similarities made it very easy for me to understand. The characters were a lot to handle at once, I was a bit overwhelmed with that many povs. But I quickly got attached to quite a few of them, mainly Anton, Jude, and Ephyra. Trust me, these characters are the BEST.

While the start started a bit slow, it does pick up in the middle. This story is very much a character-driven book, so we do have to wait for the action. But it is very much worth it. With 5 characters takes a bit to get to know and established. And while these characters are strangers, they are all connected in some way. Each character plays a vital role in the prophecy, and they must work together to save everyone.

As I said, I was not disappointed with this book. I am shocked at how underrated this book is. With the final book coming out, I think more people should give this one a shot. Because as far as YA fantasy books go, this one is pretty awesome.

I really wanted to like this book, the setting was good and I enjoyed some of the characters, but I just couldn't get though it. Maybe the pace was a little to slow for my liking or it just didn't hold my interest, perhaps I'll try it again another time.

I held onto this for ages, pushing on in tiny increments, determined to finish but I just can’t. I’m honestly puzzled by this book and stunned that this trilogy allegedly sold for so much money. I don’t know who the readership is supposed to be: it’s Henry Holt which is children’s but I’ve also seen it marketed via Orbit which is adult so I’m guessing they were hoping for a crossover hit but unfortunately in trying to make a book for all fantasy fans they made one for no one. This lacks the immediacy and snappy pace of YA, but without the depth and complexity of adult so it’s like the worst of both worlds. The benefit of YA SFF is the character intimacy & a fast pace. For adult it’s the richness of the world and the larger ideas or historical parallels the author is deconstructing. But this had none of those. It’s like a perfect case study in when crossover goes wrong. All 5 POVs were pretty forgettable and the story is still kind of a mystery halfway through. There’s nothing so intriguing that I must see how it plays out, and while I found the writing capable enough, I didn’t think it was any better than what most YA fantasy writers sound like nowadays.

I'm so in love with books that have diverse, different characters that all come together--yes, there are many POVs and that takes a second to get used to and understanding how they all fit, and yes, this is a long, dense book that takes some time to get used to, but when you do? It's great.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with There Will Come a Darkness. In fact, many people have great things to say about it. It was a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award, a major award given to debut young adult novels each year by the Young Adult Library Services Association. Winners include Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda; nominated authors include acclaimed mainstays like Ruta Sepetys, Nic Stone, Nina LaCour, and Malinda Lo.

But this book just did not work for me. Forgive me if I give away any spoilers in my review because some things were so screamingly obvious I was surprised they were meant to be twists.

The characters are one of the novel’s few bright spots. Pool gives readers a diverse cast of characters with solid personalities, like Ephyra, who has become a serial killer to keep her sister alive with her victims’ essences. Beru despises what has happened to her and wants to die, but she knows Ephyra is never going to let that happen no matter how badly Beru wants it. Jude is a naive warrior whose hang-ups on his longtime crush Hector keep him from doing the job he was raised to do, Hassan basically ascends to his family’s throne while in exile, and Anton’s been through such horrible things because of his abusive brother he lives his life constantly on the run.

And one of them is the long-foretold Prophet who will save the world from the Age of Darkness if they aren’t the one to send the world into it in the first place.

Don’t worry, you’ll know who they are within a few pages. The red herring laid down in the story is so easily seen through that it puts you on your guard and you’re more aware of what’s about to happen. The plot becomes startlingly transparent. That Hassan isn’t the Prophet? Yep, figured that out as soon as Jude and friends declared he was. The betrayal Hassan experiences? That one too, the motivation of the traitor was RIGHT THERE. The real identity of the Prophet? So obvious I typed it out twice before realizing that might be a spoiler, though I personally feel things that are police-lights-at-night levels of obvious aren’t actually something you can spoil for someone.

There’s nothing in There Will Come a Darkness to infuriate or offend readers. It wasn’t so awful that I wanted to DNF the book, which was absolutely an option given the novel is just short of 500 pages long and that’s a lot of pages to read if I wasn’t all that enraptured by the content. I kept reading because I was genuinely interested in the story and characters. In the end, the novel is just disappointing.

This book was an odd one for me. I tried reading it as an e-ARC and couldn't get into it. Picked it up again when it came out in print and LOVED it. Why the difference? I have no idea. I am now deep into book 2 and can't believe how much I adore this series! The magic "science" is terrific, world-building is solid, characters are compelling. I think my "issue" may have been the 5 main characters - you really have to allow yourself time to sink into each one, which is difficult since there such time between each of their chapters and keeping track can be a challenge. I needed to dedicate a chunk of a weekend to this book, but when I did it was well worth it!

Give me characters torn between duty and feelings.
Give me morally grey characters that live along the edge they are scared to cross.
Give me someone that is terrified of what's in their head.

At the same time, a relatively simple magic system and other characters that were just chef's kiss.
You can bet I am already reading the second one.

DNF'ed at 50%. I just could not get into this fantasy. There were too many POVs and I just didn't seem to care about any of the characters.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great story and loved the romance. Loved the cast of characters and how the story came to be. Great story and I would read this author again.

There Will Come a Darkness is a solid fantasy debut that follows multiple characters through a well-established world of magic, prophecies, deceit, and political intrigue.

Katy Rose Pool did an excellent job with the world-building. I was intrigued from the moment the book showed up on our available review copies list, and my curiosity grew with each chapter. I liked that, while all the elements we look for in a fantasy novel were there, the characters’ abilities, called the graces, weren’t the only focus. Love, honor, duty, and sacrifice were all part of the mix.

Now, the story: while I rather enjoy reading in multiple points of view, in the beginning, I was worried that there might be too many in this one. When we have this many stories in one, I usually pick a favorite or two, and I lose interest in the others pretty quickly. I was pleasantly surprised that, while I had my favorites, that wasn’t the case.

We enter the story knowing that the Age of Darkness is approaching. The original seven prophets had disappeared decades ago, leaving nothing but an incomplete prophecy behind. While the prophecy eventually reveals the different players of the game, you can’t assign each role a specific character. I loved slowly solving the puzzle and filling in the blanks.

However, the ever-changing points of view extremely limited the time I spent with each character, and therefore massively impacted my ability to connect with them. Naturally, I was a bit disappointed. I’d say I connected with Jude the best, but with some of the others, there was just nothing there.

The overall plot was decent and set up rather traditionally: good vs. evil. While there were some elements that I did not see coming completely, there was also nothing that blew me away in terms of plot twists. It was a nice light fantasy read, and I will definitely have a look at the sequel once it’s out. Long story short, if fantasy is your thing I’d definitely check it out.

This was a middle of the road, OKAY book for me. The multiple POVs were a little too much for me. Overall, a solid debut.

Multiple POVs can be such an incredibly tricky thing to pull off, and oftentimes causes a book to get off to a slow start. But despite that, this is a wonderful novel, especially for a debut, that will draw people in and bring them back for more.

Wow.
At first this book took some getting use to with the multiple POV and intense world building, so I'd say about the first 1/3 was an uphill battle. However once over that climb THIS BOOK took off!! The plot lines started to play out and cross and there were twists, this book had it all. I stayed up late one night because I couldn't put it down.

I highly recommend this book!
Big Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. What a stunner!