At a very young age, Robert discovered he had the unusual ability to make those close to him want whatever he wants. He wanted dessert instead of dinner? His mother served it. He wanted his frisbee back? His father walked off the roof to bring it to him faster. He wanted to be alone? They both disappeared. Forever. In 2006, Robert arrives in L.A. and discovers he's not the only one with an unusual ability. He's welcomed into a group of friends who can see into people's past, conduct electricity, and produce flames from nothing. But are they really his friends because they want to be or because he wants them to be?

Although this book can be read as a standalone, I don't think I would've wanted to read it unless I'd listened to the audio drama podcast The Bright Sessions. This book is a prequel to the events in The Bright Sessions and covers the backstory of Damien (formerly Robert), one of the podcast's villains. Lauren Shippen said Damien is a commentary on white male cis privilege and that couldn't be more accurate. He's incredibly selfish, takes advantage of others, and never takes responsibility for his own actions. It was interesting to see Robert as he becomes the Damien we meet in The Bright Sessions, but he's still extremely unlikable and hard to relate to. Exploring how a power like his would both make the basics of life easier and relationships immensely more complicated was interesting. But Damien is still the worst. I'm glad I read this one, but I think it would be hard to enjoy it unless you've listened to the podcast.

This book was really good. It exceeded my expectations. I loved the character development we saw and definitely think it deserves more hype

I'm honestly not entirely sure what to say about this book! I found it to be unputdownable; I really wanted to know what was going to happen, and in that way Lauren Shippen does a great job in keeping the reader's attention. As a listener of The Bright Sessions and knowing which character this book was going to be about, I knew that chances were high that this book would be...off putting. And it was exactly that! Shippen's approach to writing Damien's story pre-The Bright Sessions was intriguing in the sense that while most of the book was in Damien's perspective, and he thought himself to be in the right, you as the reader can't shake the fact that he really, really isn't. With his devastating back story, it's unsurprising to see why Damien is the way that he is. But despite him trying to paint himself as the good guy through his narrative, it's easy for the reader to see that he is an unreliable narrator and that he is thoroughly damaged in many ways. The ending of the book was a quick escalation, and an extremely interesting (albeit, disturbing) one. While I wouldn't say this is my favourite book, it was really interesting to see the good versus bad dichotomy play out, especially since Shippen does a great job in highlighting the gray areas within all of it. A great narrative on who listeners of the podcast have always thought to be the bad guy! It was fascinating to see his side of things, although his perspective still doesn't justify his actions. I'm curious to see where else this series of books will go!

This book was nonsensical at best. I read Shippen's first book and it fell flat as well, leaving me in the dark with more questions than when I opened the book. I was hoping this book would conclude (or at least answer) some of my questions. Not only did it not, but it opened more cans of worms. You are completely lost if you haven't listed to Shippen's podcasts related to this book series. In my opinion, if a book can't stand on its own it fails miserably. This is a short story marketing ploy.

Robert Gorham has a superpower we'd all probably die to have - people do what he wants. Literally. This story is marketed like a typical superhero novel - a guy with special abilities comes to town, meets other guys with special abilities, and they fight evil together. Well, that's not at all what A Neon Darkness is.

It explores topics deep enough to really mess up and yet - Lauren Shippen doesn't. She's one hell of a writer, I have to admit. However, even though the writing was excellent and the themes discussed were taken apart in a fascinating manner, I can't say I was in love with the rest of the book.
When we start out, we see that Rob is basically a bad person - or, at least, a very selfish one with a heavily damaged moral compass. Who or what is to blame is up to discussion, but that doesn't change the facts. He is a crappy person. With the fact that this book is character-driven for the most part, you'd expect something of a redemption arc, right? I definitely did. And you guessed, right, there was no redemption arc. Sure, there was development - but the place we ended up at is basically the same as when we started.
I was also disappointed with the fact that they didn't really explain why Blaze was held at this facility, because that was a part of the plot many things revolved around, and it sucked that we didn't really get an explanation.

All in all, this was a super interesting read, but nothing memorable. I'd recommend this to you if you think you'd like this kind of a book. I can't even recommend it to a category of readers, to be honest. It's just unique and all you have left is to pick this up and see for yourself!

I'm usually very generous with my ratings but unfortunately this one let me down. I thought that it was good but I was hoping it would explore Damien more as a character and that we would get to see how his mind works. This was not the case. It was a bit too predictable for my liking and I wished it would've been more dark and emotional like the podcast was. I did enjoy the moments of Damien's development that we did get to see however I just feel like the book was missing something. For me, it had potential that was not fully met.

Since I haven’t finished the podcast yet, I don’t know whether Damien redeemed himself as the series goes. But I do know that A Neon Darkness offers an interesting insight to his past and what makes him… Damien. While it doesn’t make him redeemable nor excuses the things he did, this book gives me an understanding to his character. Together with the interesting cast of characters, found family trope, and exciting powers, A Neon Darkness is a very quick and enjoyable read!

I just wanted to read this because of the cover and I totally missed that it was the second book in a series. I'll not pick up this book at all, but the cover - OMG it is gorgeous.

I loved the first book in this series so much so when I saw the 2nd book on here I had to have a go at trying to read it early! I'm so glad I carried on with this series, I'm honestly obsessed with it. I always love books with super powers / super heroes in but these are not your average super heroes, these are real people. You see a side to these that you don't see in all the current book and films with super powers in and that's what makes me love them so much.

Thoughts and Themes: There are so many things that I love about this book and the main thing is the narrator of the story. The narrator makes the story really easy to follow and makes it so easy to get caught in the story. I listened to this one while following along with the e-book because I find that this way of listening to audiobooks worst the best for me.

I have so many notes on this book that I ran out of space for notes on the page that I was using. Most of these notes are focused on the characters so that I could tell them apart but there is also a lot of notes about the world-building. I really enjoyed the back story that you get for each of the characters and how things are slowly elaborated on.

I really like how often they point out to Robert that he is an adult and responsible for his actions. I love how they point out that Robert is a White guy who has the power of persuasion and what that means for his friends and everyone else. I really like how Robert just doesn’t get what his powers mean for others and only focuses on how his powers affect him. This is such a frustrating thing but such an important part of this story.

Characters: There are several characters that you get introduced to throughout this book and I actually liked each one of them. I even managed to like Marley who seems to be the character not everyone would like. I was confused about their ages and wondered if they were all within the same age range or not.

I liked the mystery of the bad guy and how we don’t know much about him. I also like how the mystery of each character is kept until the ending chapters. We get a little bit of each person revealed to us through their conversations with each other and as they learn more about themselves and each other.

I was so glad that we got several queer characters in this story and that their queerness is spoken about. I also like the relationships that we are shown throughout this book and the ones that are developed or restored. I liked that we get to see Indah and Neon struggle through establishing their relationship and what they mean to each other. I also like how different each of the characters is from each other and then also seeing their similarities.

“Understanding is like love, you can’t tell someone how to do it” There are so many things in the last few chapters of this book that I really enjoy. I love watching Robert develop and go back and forth with who he is. He makes me so angry because he doesn’t understand how his influence is affecting anyone because he hasn’t used it for bad. He doesn’t understand the problem with using his influence on anyone and it’s so frustrating but I love when his friends speak out against what he’s done to them.

Writing Style: This story is written in the first person and told from Robert’s perspective, though there are times when it switches to the third person with Indah’s view point or Blaze’s view point. I also listened to this story as an audiobook so I’ll also be commenting on the narrator in this section. I thought the narrator was great and easy to listen to. This is one that the voice could’ve changed with each character that was speaking but I was glad that the voices were all similar. It made it so the story flowed better and there were no breaks between characters changing.

This is a solid book. Entertaining, interesting characters.

The caveat: if you are not a fan of the podcast this may be confusing if you read the previous book and expected a continuation of Caleb and Adam's story. I would approach and sell this book as a standalone in a larger universe for reader-only audience.

The Bright Sessions has been a popular fictional podcast for years, but for those who didn't get on the train and just wanted to read an "X-Men but therapy" series might be a little confused.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

I love The Bright Sessions, OK? I love The AM Archives. I love The College Tapes. I love the world and (almost all) the characters. (I pre-ordered the first book. I pre-ordered this book. I bought the audiobooks. I am *invested.*)

I never liked Damien. It is definitely a testament to the writing (and voice-acting!) that created such a wonderfully evil character. Having listened to The Bright Sessions first, there was nothing Damien could do to redeem himself. No "origin story" could save him for me. But it was still really interesting to see more of the process of him becoming Damien. (I definitely missed the rest of the crowd from the podcast, though. Adam and Caleb were compelling enough basically on their own, but I missed the ensemble from the podcast. I didn't feel as invested or interested in the rest of the characters here.)

I know there are people who love Damien. If you are one of them, you will love this book! If you don't...well, read it anyway. It probably won't make you like him any better, but the psychology is really interesting.

(This is not a review for the audiobook, but I have to brag on them. Lauren Shippen cultivated a fantastic cast for her stories and they've reprised their podcast roles in the audiobooks. Alex Gallner and Briggon Snow are FANTASTIC as Adam and Caleb. And Charlie Ian is perfect as Damien. When the book shifts POV from a third-person character in the first chapter to Damien in the second, you can actually HEAR him change into the character. It was so fantastically creepy.)

This is not going to be a book for everyone and it has a very different tone from the first book in this series. This book was very much a character study, an origin story if you will. In this novel, we follow Robert, who has moved from Las Vegas to LA to start anew. He also happens to have the power to project what he wants onto other people, effectively making them do what he wants. He has never met anyone else who has special powers, until now. He soon finds a group of friends who are all Unusual like him. Now he needs to navigate making friends, confronting his past, and learning that always getting what you want is not all it's cracked up to be.

Although this book is a sequel the The Infinite Noise and a spin off of the podcast The Bright sessions, you can read it without having read/listened to them. I have not yet listened to the podcast, but I have very intrigued to see where Robert ended up after the events of this book.

I really enjoyed the character study present in this book. The plot pacing is slow, but in exchange we get very well-developed characters, and the author is not afraid to show us their flaws. We see the internal struggles that Robert goes through, wanting what he wants but also trying hard to build organic friendships. We also see him trying to understand things that challenge his worldview, sometimes successfully, and at other times at the cost of his relationships with others. We also see his budding relationships with other Unusuals at the forefront of the story and how he both builds these relationships up and breaks them down. I really enjoyed all the character dynamics in this book and how well developed they all were.

As I said before, this is a slower book. There isn't a lot of action until closer to the end, and at times the conversations can get repetitive. But in the end I really enjoyed reading this character study about what happens when you try so hard to not become the villain....and fail.

I have not read the book prior to this but I must say a lot happened in this one. A lot. Many might disagree but my sensitive heart couldn't handle everything that has happened, I am going to listen to the podcast and re-read this book again to build a stronger connection between these two stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing me this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

#ANeonDarkness #NetGalley

3.5 stars.

If you have listened to The Bright Sessions podcast, you may be as excited as me to know this is the "origin story" of Damien. If you are not familiar with The Bright Sessions, I'm not sure you would get too much out of this book - although I HIGHLY recommend the podcast, it's excellent :)
We learn in this spin off how Robert came into the name and persona of the villainous Damien and it is a wild ride, with a litany of new and interesting unusual/atypical characters. Occasionally heart-wrenching, as with all good villains, Damien's motivations are completely understandable, especially as in this book he is 18.
A Neon Darkness refers to not only the character of Neon, but also L.A where the majority of this novel is set. I loved the atmosphere and think it was a great setting for this particular story.
Looking forward to book 3!

A Neon Darkness by Lauren Shippen is another spinoff novel based on characters from the Bright Sessions podcast. I previously read and reviewed The Infinite Noise in the same world. The two books only really have the setting in common and can be read in any order. A Neon Darkness is actually a prequel to the story in the podcast, following the younger version of one character in particular.

Los Angeles, 2006. Eighteen-year-old Robert Gorham arrives in L.A. amid the desert heat and the soft buzz of neon. He came alone with one goal: he wants to see the ocean. And Robert always gets what he wants.

At a very young age, Robert discovered he had the unusual ability to make those close to him want whatever he wants. He wanted dessert instead of dinner? His mother served it. He wanted his Frisbee back? His father walked off the roof to bring it to him faster. He wanted to be alone? They both disappeared. Forever.

But things will be different in L.A. He meets a group of strange friends who could help him. Friends who can do things like produce flames without flint, conduct electricity with their hands, and see visions of the past. They call themselves Unusuals and finally, finally, Robert belongs.

When a tall figure, immune to their powers, discovers them, the first family that Robert has ever wanted is at risk of being destroyed. The only way to keep them all together is to get his powers under control.

But control is a sacrifice he might not be willing to make.

This wasn't exactly an easy book to read. Not because of the writing style — that was perfectly adequate — but because the protagonist is not a nice person. For most of this book he isn't trying to be a bad person, but he is, essentially, the villain in the future (during the time of the story in the Bright Sessions podcast). So I didn't very much enjoy spending time with him in the book, though the the other characters and the glimpses we got of the institute were more enjoyable. Actually, the other characters were all very interesting and complex, once we got to know them, and I think Shippen did a good job of portraying the diverse cast in a nuanced way, despite the constraints of writing from the first person perspective of a self-absorbed white guy.

It's very hard for me to gauge how a new reader would find this book. The start, before I realised who the protagonist was (I try to forget about blurbs by the time I come to read the book, and it's been a while since I listened to the podcast), was interesting and had me invested in the story. By the time I realised the identity of the protagonist, I was already not not exactly enjoying being inside his mind. I think that even without prior knowledge of the character, many readers would react to him similarly to me. Perhaps being invested in learning about his backstory would be more motivation to read.

If it weren't for the choice of protagonist, I would have given this book 4 stars. It's unusual for me to dock half a star for the unlikeability of the protagonist, but it felt warranted in this case. I mainly recommend this book to fans of morally grey characters, as well as fans of the Bright Sessions podcast who want to know more about Damien's backstory.

3.5 / 5 stars

First published: September 2020, Tor Teen
Series: Bright Sessions — a series of standalone stories (and a podcast or three)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

I got this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a huge improvement comparing to "The Infinite Noise".

I found the characters to be way more interesting than the ones from "The Infinite Noise". It was fascinating to see the MC grapple with his superpower. On one hand, he could get anything he wanted, on the other hand, the power made it very difficult for him to form a genuine human connection. The side characters are also compelling and each of them has their own struggles.

I also liked the setting much more in this book (Los Angeles) than the one in the previous book (high school). It was vibrant and it showcased various parts of the City of Angels.

One of the main things I disliked in the first book was that it was kinda boring and the plot felt repetitive. In this book there was so many action, location changes and plot twists that you didn't feel stuck in one place at all.

Add to this an unconventional ending and you have a solid, fun book.

Robert Gotham, or Damien as he is also known, has consistently been a character I simultaneously sympathise with, relate to, and entirely abhor ever since I first listened to the The Bright Sessions podcast. Lauren Shippen’s characterization of Damien is so compelling, and this book traces those aspects wholly wonderfully. I would recommend listening to the TBS podcast before reading any of the spin-off stories, but especially this one. All the characters are wonderfully written - it is reflective of Shippen’s greatest strengths, honesty writing people - and the development of these individuals, the emotional progression, all of that is why this book should be read. Because of the focus on these characters, the main villain (who essentially drives the plot), seems less threatening and the plot lacks the sense of urgency that should come with that villain. Still, Shippen’s story here is solid and a great addition to the TBS universe.

A Neon Darkness is actually my first visit to Lauren Shippen’s world. I was impressed with how easily I was able to step into it, even without the benefit of having read her first book, The Infinite Noise, or listening to any episodes of The Bright Sessions.

The story centers on Rob Gorham, a young man who has the ability to manipulate people to do what he wants. In its more overt uses, his targets act more or less like the subject of a Jedi mind trick, going blank-faced and doing whatever he asked, no matter how unreasonable. Rob never has to worry about money, as he can easily get people to let him stay at the fanciest hotels and apartments free of charge. But in its more subtle uses, Rob’s powers manifest by making people more open about themselves when he’s curious about them. Or it makes them more interested in being friends with him. This leaves Rob in the uncomfortable position of never knowing if he’s truly forming a bond with someone or if it’s just his powers doing what they naturally do. As Rob meets Neon and Indah—the first people he’s ever known to also possess superhuman abilities—it feels like he’s finally found a place to belong. But his obsession with controlling his environment constantly threatens to jeopardize his newfound friendships, leading to a realistic struggle between his desire to be accepted and his desire to live in a world where he knows people’s feelings about him are genuine.

The cast is a bit on the older side for a young adult novel. Rob is the only one who’s technically a teenager—eighteen at the start of the book; nineteen for the majority of it. His struggle to find where he fits into the world and what he wants out of it, however, is a classic YA theme that I think many readers will connect to. The characters are all very well-developed, even if the logic of their choices came off as a bit sketchy at times. For example, Neon never realizes as a teenager that her electrical powers need somewhere safe to discharge now and again. (If static electricity can be discharged when too much builds up, it seems at least worth trying the same with magical electricity.) These flaws in character logic aren’t frequent enough to disrupt the story, and most of them happen when the characters are under extreme stress, making them a bit more understandable.

Overall, I enjoyed this quieter, more realistic take on the superhuman genre, and I’m curious to give the podcast a try.

You should probably listen to Shippen's podcast "Dark Sessions" before reading this book.

Anyway, I didn't enjoy the story. There's no character development. Neither the main character Robert, nor the secondary characters really develop over the space of the novel. The plot is very slow and repetitive.