Scardust

Wow, what a unique read! Dark yet hopeful, witty and flawed, the characters are well written and feel "real". The world building is good but I would have loved to have a bit more. Thank you!

This is going to be a tough review to write. Not because the book was bad, far from it. Scardust was a very interesting book. It completely took me by surprise. It was filled with so many surprises and, at times gut retching sadness, as Raleigh struggles to fulfill his promise to his brother as he tries to move on with his life. It's all the unexpected, the sharp curves thrown at Raleigh, and not giving any of it away, that is the tough part. Suzanne van Rooyen has created quite the roller coaster ride.

A quick rundown of what Scardust is about. The year is 2037 and the city is Dead Rock, Texas. Raleigh is desperately trying to get money for tuition so that he can go to school and eventually be part of the MarsLife colony. Escaping to Mars would fulfill the promise he made to his dead brother as well as get him away from the hellhole of his current life. Selling his bone jewelry and working for his brother-in-law isn’t cutting it so sells his body as well. There’s a lot of self-loathing and shame involved but in his mind, the end justifies the means. All this changes when Raleigh witnesses what he thinks is a meteor crashing in the desert. Instead of finding a meteor, he finds a naked man covered in blood, bruises, strange swirling scars and no memory of who he is. Raleigh and agrees to help him and calls him Crow. Every time they touch, they see each other’s memories and it becomes harder to resist their growing attraction. There are things Raleigh is hiding and won’t even admit to himself and unless he does, he may lose it all.

Let me start with I did struggle with this book in the beginning. I spent a bit of it head scratching trying to figure out where it was going. I got Crow was a mystery to the story and his side was going to take a while to unravel, Raleigh was a bit of a conundrum. I didn't immediately warm up to Raleigh because at times I felt I was missing something. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. The introduction of Crow and his interactions with Raleigh eventually had me changing my mind. Secrets started to come out and it finally hit me. This dark strange story actually had rhyme and reason to it and just like that, I was hooked. My problem was I just wasn’t patient enough but once I pushed through I found myself quickly getting sucked into the story. There’s a slow build up between Crow and Raleigh, as they experience each other’s memories. It was a completely new experience for me to get to learn characters this way. But as much as I got sucked into the story, I was completely unprepared for everything that happened in the last half of the book. Wow!

I think back and revisit all that has happened; pushing through my initial my doubts, growing into the characters, and I realize that Scardust was worth it. I doubt there will be a second book for Raleigh and Crow but if there was, I would be at the front of the line to get myself a copy. Will read anything else by Suzanne van Rooyen? Most definitely. Read Scardust and discover its mysteries for yourself.

I received this book from the JeepDiva for the express purposes of an honest review. The opinions and rating of this review are solely mine and in no way was I compensated.
Stars - 4, Flames - 2.5