TW school shooting
This was a really relevant story about how the choices we make impact our future in ways we might not anticipate. I don't tend to enjoy stories where large-scale tragedies are a main part of the plot/set up, but I did like this story. I think it was because of the supernatural/magical realism twist that comes from the main character being able to see when someone is going to die. I have to say, too, that the mystery was really compelling--I found myself flying through this story trying to piece together what all was happening and the ultimate twist introduced caught me completely off guard.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is an engaging YA mystery/thriller. It had your classic “teen being stalked and getting mysterious notes” trope but with a bit of a twist. The main character can see when people around her are going to die. This one kept me guessing and I was hooked for the majority of this one. A fresh plot idea and a good read overall.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"The Darkness Rises" by Stacy Stokes is an engaging thriller/mystery that delves into the complexities of fate, guilt, and morality amidst the backdrop of a high school plagued by a haunting past. Before going into the book, I definitely recommend reading the content warnings for this book as the book does focuses on some sensitive ideas/themes, though they were all respectfully discussed throughout the book.

Whitney, the protagonist, possesses a chilling ability to foresee preventable deaths, marked by ominous black clouds hovering over individuals. However, her gift turns into a burden when a person she saves from death becomes a perpetrator in a tragic school shooting. Haunted by guilt and stalked by an unknown adversary, Whitney grapples with the consequences of altering destiny and wrestles with profound moral questions.

Stokes was able to create a very unique and engaging story that makes you think about whether you would make the same choices as Whitney, that if you had the ability to save others, should you actually save some people, depending on who they are. The book prompts introspection about the ripple effects of our actions. I really liked the unique take Stokes gave to the plot as I have read YA books before about characters who can predict death, but I have never actually read a book before that focused on the aftereffects of saving the wrong kind of person.

The twists throughout the book are extremely engaging as you will find yourself trying to guess who the perpetrator is right alone with Whitney. There are definitely a lot of red herrings in this book to keep you guessing, but I will admit that there was this clue towards the beginning of the book that made me predict entirely the big twist at the end. Even despite this, I still found myself guessing as the plot progressed. And despite the somber undertones, "The Darkness Rises" exudes a sense of hope through its message of redemption and the desire to do good. The well-rounded characters, particularly Whitney, established that feeling of hope. The romance in the book didn’t take over too much of the plot and was slowly developed, which I appreciated. I really enjoyed the complexities of the side characters, particularly Marissa and Penny, and how there was also a sense of loyalty in the characters surrounding Whitney.

Throughout the twists and turns of the plot, Stokes culminated the book in a satisfying conclusion that ties up loose ends while leaving a lasting impact. For fans of psychological thrillers and thought-provoking books that focus on morality questions, "The Darkness Rises" is a must-read that will keep you engaged and emotionally invested until the very end.

I had so many feelings reading this novel! I fell in love with all the characters and was so enthralled by the mystery that I read for hours on end. I was so sad at the end because I had to leave these characters behind, but I think they'll stick with me for a bit. In this novel, you follow a girl named Whitney who is dealing with some pretty heavy teenage things on top of being a survivor of a school shooting a year prior. New School year fresh start but there seems to be someone determined not to let her forget.
Whitney has the ability to see dark clouds above people who are marked for death, and she's dealing with guilt and a stalker in this gripping thriller, I had such a good time guessing who done it.

I love this cover!!! Please proceed with caution if you have trigger warnings.... there is definitely a trigger warning with school shooting!

I found the story intriguing and very easy to follow. This follows MC Whitney who sees when people are going to die and she can do something to change that to make sure they dont die. This follows the anniversary of the shooting and Whitney has a feeling someone is following her and leaving her messages that is really starting to scare her.

I enjoyed this plot and trying to figure out who was after Whitney. Great writing and will read more by this author.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Definitely a trigger warning for school shootings for this book. I did find this ya thriller to be intriguing. It follows Whitney who can see clouds over people's heads when they are about to die and she can do something to change that. The events take place the year following the shooting at the first football game of the year. The lead up to the anniversary of the shooting has Whitney wondering who knows as someone is following her and leaving scary messages. I definitely didn't see the twist coming and enjoyed trying to figure out who was after Whitney.

What if you could see that someone was about to die? Would you intervene? These are the questions that Whitney is forced to ask herself frequently, as she can see dark clouds above people's heads as a sign of foreboding death. Matters become more complicated when she saves a classmate from suicide, only for him to become the perpetrator in a school shooting. She has kept it a secret that she ever meddled in his life, and she thought she got away with it... that is until someone starts leaving threatening messages and photographs for her to find. Someone knows her secret and is seeking revenge.

I really enjoyed the concept behind this book, and I could see myself having discussions with my students about what they would do if they had this "power." The characters were well developed, and I especially loved the relationship between Whit and her Gammy. Certainly this is a complicated and potentially triggering story, given the content. I want to applaud Stokes' author note at the end and her call to action to put an end to school shootings.

Thank you Penguin Teen & PRH audio for my gifted copies.

Holy crap the twists in this book!! I seriously couldn’t put this book down. Usually YA books are a hit or miss for me but this one was definitely a hit!

I loved the plot of this book. It was very fast paced and entertaining. It gave me a lot of Pretty Little Liars vibes with all the who done it’s. The characters were really great as well. I loved Whitney and Gams relationship. Now this does deal with a lot of heavy topics, including a school shooting so please check your trigger warnings before readingRelease date is April 9th!

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for the e-arc!

4.75
This book was amazing!! I figured I would love it just based on the synopsis. I enjoyed the concept of The Darkness & I found the topics spoken about in this novel, albeit heavy, were handled with care and discussed well.

I did not see the plot twists coming & the story tied together so nicely. This was my first time reading a book by Stacy Stokes and I truly enjoyed the writing.

The story kept me engaged from start to finish and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I was so in tune with the story that I was even writing down theories and genuinely following the story and going through the motions as much as our main character Whitney was!

I felt connected to the characters, they all felt fleshed out enough to make an impact on me in some way! I laughed out loud at some scenes & even got emotional at others which I wasn't expecting!

I was just so invested in this story & I will 100% be recommending it for others to enjoy as much as I did hopefully!

PUB DATE: April 9th, 2024
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC copy of The Darkness Rises in exchange for an honest review.

Poignant and relevant, this story is a harsh look at how the choices we make can influence different outcomes in our future. In his case, saving someone wasn't necessarily the best choice.

I love how Stacy Stokes intertwines a little bit of magic into real life. The idea of being able to see when someone is close to death because of a dark cloud is so fascinating. I also love exploring the idea of the ripple affect and how saving someone can still cause problems. This book deals with heavy, dark topics, so definitely check trigger warnings if you need to. I really enjoyed the character Whitney and seeing her struggle with the ability to help people, but also the repercussions of saving someone. I am definitely looking forward to reading more from this author.

The Darkness Rises by Stacy Stokes tells an eerie, atmospheric tale of Whitney and her unique ability to tell when someone is in danger of dying. At the start of the book, she is plagued by nightmares of an incident from last school year that impacted the whole community. When those nightmares turn into someone seeking revenge against her, a plot that may involve anyone around her, the body count rises. Can she figure out who wants revenge before it's too late?

From the very beginning, I thought I had the mystery all figured out. With each turn of the page, my conviction grew stronger. But then, Stacy Stokes masterfully shattered my theory, leaving me utterly surprised. I couldn't help but applaud her for this unexpected twist. It's not often that a story can astonish me so profoundly, and it was a delightful surprise.

I loved the sci-fi aspect of the story with Whitney's ability, a unique power passed down from her grandmother. This ability, seeing a dark cloud over the head of someone who is going to die, allows her to prevent their deaths by changing the course of events. It adds so much dimension to the story and is written so complexly that buy-in was easy, and Whitney's character development was just sublime. The choices and decisions she has to make versus how her grandmother handled the ability create so much suspense and drama that it ramps the story to the next level.

This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who relishes a gripping paranormal thriller!

4.25 stars rounded down
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WOW. What a heavy, but phenomenal read. I read this book in one sitting, if that says anything about it.

This book deals with the aftermath of a school shooting and the guilt of a girl who might have been able to stop it. It’s definitely a triggering read so proceed with caution.

The plot of this book was interesting. I’ve read books about the aftermath of school shootings before, but I think this author did a really good job at addressing these issues. This book does a good job of addressing the shooting in a compassion way, highlighting survivors guilt and trauma. I think it was really well written in that regard. Having this added element of magical realism in Whitney’s ability to foresee death added a unique take on the story. The writing was engaging, I did not want to stop reading. I really enjoyed how this book had twists and turns, keeping me guessing the entire time. I genuinely did not see the ending coming and I loved that element of surprise I got.

The characters are well written. Whitney feels so realistic and you can feel her anguish and guilt leaping off the page. Even the side characters had great dimension to them, telling their own stories in a way that really added to the overall story. Whitney’s interactions with them was so genuine, I felt like I was interacting with them as well and living right inside their story.

This is a must read YA book for this year.

What if you had the ability to see death before it happens... but you saved someone who wasn't supposed to be save and now the consequences are coming back to get you? Whitney has the ability to see when people are close to dying, she's saved a lot of people... but the last person she saved ended up becoming a school shooter... and now she's haunted and wracked with guilt over it. It's been a year since the tragedy and she's been trying to escape the memory.... yet someone knows she saved the killer.... and they want her to confess or else they will hurt people she cares about. Whitney has to find out who did it before everyone she loves is killed. From the surviving family members of those who were killed to the mysterious new boy at her school who she finds herself getting closer to or even her ex boyfriend who played a part in causing the shooter to snap, it could be anyone and time is running out. The person who is after her has given her only a few days to confess before they take matters into her own hands. This was a fun mystery. I liked the bit of "powers" element in the story and the twists were fun. I think this is an interesting mystery read that people will have a fun time reading, it really keeps you going throughout the book and Whitney is a sympathetic protagonist, she tries so hard to do good but no good deed goes unpunished. It's a fun read overall and I think anyone who enjoys a mystery with some thrills will have fun with it.

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Viking Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

"That day, I learned that choices are like dominoes, each one piling on top of the next until there's nothing left but a pile of destruction."

Whitney can see when someone is about to die a preventable death. A black cloud forms over their head, giving her the opportunity to stop it. A year before our story begins, Whitney saw a fellow student about to jump off a building, and she talked him out of doing it. Then he went on to commit a mass shooting at a football game. Someone knows she played a part in it, and they want her to confess before the anniversary of the shooting.

Whitney has to try and find who is hunting her before the memorial, or her friends or family might be hurt, and she could be exposed for what she's done.

This story takes me right back to the Christopher Pike thrillers of the 90's and I Know What You Did Last Summer with a little bit of Black Swan because of the dance team element. It also had this interesting philosophical take on, "Is everyone worth saving?" and "Does everyone deserve a chance to live?"

Should it be Whitney's choice to play God with her power?

She's trying to figure that out while also uncover who is stalking her. I think the most important aspect of thriller is the villain. Was I shocked to find out who it was at the end? And was it a shock for shock value sake, or was it a believable culprit? I can confidentially say, "yes," to both.

This was an edge of your seat psychological thriller that delved deep into morality and the choices we make.

TW: Suicide, mass shooting, alcohol use, abuse

Oofta this was a heavy read, but also a fast and thrilling read, all wrapped in one. I say heavy because - first you should check the CW at the beginning - it deals with the aftermath of a school mass shooting. But to add another layer of complexity to it, the book introduces the question of : if you had the ability to save people, is a potential mass shooter someone you would save?

Whitney Lancaster can see when people are about to die when she has the ability to save them. It manifests as dark rain cloud apparitions above the person’s head. Since she began seeing these apparitions as a child, she took pride in saving all of these people. However, it’s not until recently that she realizes the unintended consequences of saving people destined to die: what if the person is better off dead? What if that saved person would go on to hurt or kill others?

Whitney grapples with the guilt of having saved a fellow student from trying to commit suicide, who shortly after goes on a shooting spree during their high school’s football game. As the one year anniversary looms closer, Whitney starts receiving threatening notes from someone who appears to know her secret and wants Whitney to pay.

I originally thought the story might have been more interesting if it started from when she discovered she had these “powers” and ending with the school shooting, but I think that’s what made this book unique. And it was fun to add a mystery/suspense/thriller aspect to it. As a whole, I thought this book was excellent, and I really enjoyed it. I really appreciated the authors note about gun violence and mass shootings, particularly school shootings, at the end.

This is a pretty solid YA thriller, that has some pretty common tropes when it comes to supernatural thrillers that involve psychic powers. But what I liked the most about it was the way that Stokes approaches the very sensitive and upsetting issue of gun violence, and how she has a school shooting reverberate through a community and through our main character Whitney. It's an emotionally charged issue, and Stokes does a really good job of making it approachable to her audience without making it seem like she's getting on a soapbox (and I saw this as someone who would be wholly open to a soapbox about such things). Whitney's trauma could be through her psychic powers (in that she stopped the shooter from killing himself when she saw 'the darkness' around him, and a few days later he murdered 8 people), but it's also an interesting look at survivor guilt, trauma, and grief, psychic powers or not. She also has a really solid author's note about the subject which I really appreciated.

I'm. not the target audience for THE DARKNESS RISES so some of the thriller and plot elements didn't click as much for me, but I know exactly who I would recommend this to, and I liked that Stokes trusts her target audience to be able to handle some heavy topics.

Wow, a thriller with paranormal elements and a main character that will make you feel for her immediately. I did figure out the end but it didn’t take away from me enjoyment of the book.

"The Darkness Rises" by Stacy Stokes is a thrilling and immersive young adult fantasy novel that transports readers to a world of magic, mystery, and danger. Stokes, with her vivid imagination and masterful storytelling, delivers a gripping narrative that will keep readers spellbound from the very first page.

At the heart of "The Darkness Rises" is protagonist Ava Lopez, a young woman with a mysterious past and a hidden power waiting to be unleashed. As Ava embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about her heritage and the dark forces threatening her world, she must confront her fears and embrace her destiny as a powerful sorceress. Stokes expertly weaves together elements of adventure, romance, and suspense, creating a richly textured narrative that is both captivating and thought-provoking.

Stokes's writing is lush and atmospheric, with evocative descriptions and vivid imagery that bring the world of the novel to life. From the towering spires of the magical city of Adelina to the shadowy depths of the Forbidden Forest, Stokes's world-building is immersive and enchanting, drawing readers into a realm filled with danger and intrigue. Her attention to detail and richly imagined settings create a sense of wonder and awe, making "The Darkness Rises" a truly immersive reading experience.

Moreover, "The Darkness Rises" is not just a fantasy adventure—it's also a story of self-discovery, courage, and the power of friendship. Stokes deftly explores themes of identity, belonging, and the struggle to find one's place in the world, as Ava navigates the complexities of her dual heritage and the challenges of mastering her magical abilities. Through Ava's journey, readers are reminded of the importance of staying true to oneself and standing up for what is right, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

The novel is also notable for its well-drawn characters and intricate plot twists. Stokes populates her story with a diverse cast of characters, each one with their own motives and secrets to uncover. As Ava embarks on her quest, she forms unlikely alliances and confronts formidable adversaries, leading to unexpected revelations and thrilling confrontations that keep readers on the edge of their seats.

In conclusion, "The Darkness Rises" by Stacy Stokes is a must-read for fans of young adult fantasy. With its engaging characters, immersive world-building, and thrilling plot twists, it's a book that will transport readers to another world and leave them eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. Stokes has crafted a captivating and unforgettable novel that is sure to leave a lasting impression on readers long after they've turned the final page.

3/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for an advanced copy to review for my honest opinion.

I thought this book was so dark and it had me ensnared through out. I loved that the author didn't shy away from a controversial topic and used that topic to send a message. The darkness being visible was such a unique concept that really got me wondering if it would be a blessing or a curse. I also loved how Whitney had this inherent want to do good. In a world that could easily make her want to shut down she kept that wholesomeness at her core. The twists were also unpredictable. Well done!