Tagged: slavery
Rising Dark by A. D. Koboah
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
When the newly married Reverend Avery Wentworth embarks on a journey to the Americas to begin a new life, he foresees only joy ahead of him. But along with the shocking evils prevalent in a world of slavery, he comes against a much older, darker evil that steals his soul and turns him into a creature of the night. Cut off from humanity, he wanders through a wilderness of despair. A nameless, faceless creature forced to exist in the shadows, his only hope for salvation is the vision of a beautiful Negro and three words: Wait for me.
Rising Dark is the long awaited sequel to Dark Genesis and takes us from London 1757 to present day America in a love story that defies, time, death and the all-too-human flaws inherent in mortals and immortals alike.
[Full disclosure: I was contacted by the author and received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the things that struck me about Dark Genesis was the strength of Luna’s character. In her life as a slave she goes through absolutely horrific things and that really affects her later on, even when Avery proves over and over that he would never ever hurt her. As she learned to trust him, their love developed naturally but at the same time she still had trouble trusting. They go through so many trials together that you can’t help but love them as a couple. But at the end of the novel when Avery (through the eyes of one of Luna’s descendants) reveals that Luna is gone, you wonder what went wrong with the two of them. In Rising Dark, we definitely start to get an answer.
Here in Rising Dark we see both what happened to Avery before and after the events of the first novel. It was very interesting to see his early life in London, his move to America, his marriage and then his horrific transformation into a vampire. What I liked best about his character was that although he goes through some very awful things he still manages to be kind to everyone, especially Luna. When she learns to trust him and love him he is very understanding and caring but as she grew drunk on her power, things began to change between them. Seeing Avery’s heartbreak over the whirlwind borderline abusive relationship between the two of them that develops is just heart-rending. As their mutual happiness turns to ash, it’s very interesting to see how they both deal with it. It really says a lot about both of their backgrounds and their personalities. I can’t tell you much more without giving away spoilers, but Avery (obviously) does not cope very well with his beloved turning into a monster.
The plot was a lot more fast-paced than the plot of the first book. Avery’s life story goes rather quickly so that we catch up to the point where we meet Luna fairly soon. After that, it’s a whirlwind of plot twists and turns as the two of them play out their growing push-and-pull dynamic. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen between the two, A. D. Koboah throws in a huge twist in the plot and forces you to re-evaluate your predictions. This is especially true toward the end of the novel when Avery meets the descendants of Luna’s human children and discovers that a mysterious evil is stalking them as well. Rising Dark ends on a cliffhanger and although in some cases this second book raises more questions than it answers I felt that it wasn’t an unsatisfying ending. It just made me want to get my hands on the third book even sooner.
One of the things that makes the Darkling trilogy stand out to me is the fact that A. D. Koboah has just a beautiful writing style. I have never been to the United States or England but she creates a very believable picture of life everywhere from a Southern plantation to the dark streets of London. Through her descriptions, she not only paints a picture of daily life throughout the past three centuries but she also creates a sort of air of foreboding tied into the dark evil mentioned in the blurb. It makes you want to read on even when you feel like you should probably put the book down and do something productive like sleep or eat. Even if the pacing was slow, Koboah’s writing style would most definitely keep you hooked. I know it did for me and now I can’t wait to learn the conclusion of Avery and Luna’s story in the third book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.
Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.
But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.
For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
This is another book where I honestly don’t know where to start because there are so many things wrong with it. I’ll try my best, though.
Okay, so the premise of Perfected is that genetically perfect humans are being engineered and sold as pets. This is not quite stupid but so ridiculous my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I realized that Kate Jarvik Birch was tone-deaf about things like politics or social movements. I would have believed this premise had she actually done some decent world-building instead of just setting this in what seems to be the present. There’s a lot of problems with setting it in the present but I’ll start with the main one: the American people would never again accept slavery.
Yes, there is illegal slavery all around the globe, even in the United States. But for it to be ingrained into the legal system as actual legislation when the government can’t even pass the simplest bill right now? That’s ridiculous. It would be political suicide in this current culture to even mention something that might possibly be resembling slavery, let alone outright slavery of human beings. No one can even agree on genetically modified food, for crying out loud! How do you think making designer babies would go over in the next five years? And for them to be made into slaves? Yeah, right.
Like I said, I would have been more lenient with the premise of the books had the author done her work and did some real world-building. I could have understood maybe slavery coming about after some catastrophic events that reshaped the American social and political environments forever. Something like a world war, perhaps. At least then it would have an aura of possibility. But as it is, saying that the legislation got passed simply because of corporate donations and pressure is so simplistic it’s insulting to the readers. I’m Canadian and I understand that it’s not that simple in American politics, even with outrageous amounts of money.
It doesn’t take a cynical reader like me to realize that young, beautiful girls being bought by wealthy old men is a recipe for sexual slavery. It’s alluded to in the novel and is revealed as the reason Ella’s predecessor was removed from the home but it’s never really explored or even presented realistically. The fact that Ella doesn’t even know what kissing is beggars belief when these girls are trained to go into the homes of wealthy men. Add that to the fact they’re sold into prostitution when they’re no longer cute and you have to wonder why the ‘breeders’ (the people who create these girls) don’t have them spayed (their word, not mine) in the first place or at least teach them basic sex ed. Yes, I know they’re kept naïve and innocent but some things are just too unrealistic.
Okay, even if I ignored all of the things wrong with Kate Jarvik Birch’s premise and world-building I still wouldn’t be a huge fan of this book. Ella has been bred and taught to be compliant so she makes a ridiculously boring narrator. She’s not interesting and not even really that sympathetic. Penn, just don’t get me started on him. One minute he hates the sight of Ella the next he’s got his tongue in her mouth. Ugh. I really, really, really hate Insta-Love.
The plot is moderately paced but there are absolutely no surprises. Of course the previous girl got pregnant with the Congressman’s child and was killed. That’s why his wife was so opposed to getting a new ‘pet’. Of course Penn and Ella try to escape and claim refugee status at the Canadian border. There were no real twists or turns to the plot and I don’t think you have to be a cynical reader like I am to figure out what’s going to happen in the end. Mind you, it ends on sort of a cliffhanger so they can make a franchise out of this if it does indeed become the new Chemical Garden series or The Selection.
Don’t be fooled by pretty covers, folks. It’s not worth it.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
Dark Genesis by A. D. Koboah
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Life for a female slave is one of hardship and unspeakable sorrow, something Luna knows only too well. But not even she could have foreseen the terror that would befall her one sultry Mississippi evening in the summer of 1807.
On her way back from a visit to see the African woman, a witch who has the herbs Luna needs to rid her of her abusive master’s child, she attracts the attention of a deadly being that lusts for blood. Forcibly removed from everything she knows by this tormented otherworldly creature, she is sure she will be dead by sunrise.
Dark Genesis is a love story set against the savage world of slavery in which a young woman who has been dehumanised by its horrors finds the courage to love, and in doing so, reclaims her humanity.
I’ve been putting off doing a review for Dark Genesis for two weeks now. It’s not because I’ve forgotten the plot lines and character names and have had to re-read it or because it’s so horrible I don’t have the energy to write a review. No, it’s because of how amazing it was.
Words really don’t do this book justice. It evokes so many different emotions in the reader from happiness to despair and everything in between. I’m not the sort of person that cries over books frequently, but believe me when I say the waterworks were on for this one, especially at the end. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the author sends a huge plot twist your way that you’re desperate for the next book.
Dark Genesis is a book with a strange sort of beauty. A. D. Koboah’s descriptions and vivid imagery are absolutely unmatched; you’re instantly transported to Luna’s world. Yet the topic that features in her book, slavery, is anything but beautiful. Koboah didn’t flinch away from all of the horrors slaves like Luna had to face and one of her greatest strengths was how she portrayed the effects of such treatment even years afterward.
On the topic of Luna, she is an incredible character. She’s now one of my favourite heroines ever not only because she was such a strong woman but because she had to go on a long journey of self-reflection to become that woman. The time she spent with Avery really did change her, even if the scars from her years of enslavement were still beneath the surface. Avery too was a very flawed character and you don’t really realize the depth of his sorrow until the end of the novel. He’s not your typical vampire the same way Luna isn’t your typical heroine. I won’t go into much more detail than that because I don’t want to spoil all of the good parts for you.
The plot remained relatively fast-paced despite being a mainly character-driven novel. That in itself would have been quite impressive if not for the fact that there were so many plot twists. Believe me, you may be able to predict some of the twists but most will blindside you in a good way. I read Dark Genesis two weeks ago and I’m still reeling from that final twist at the end of the novel! It’s hard to believe that this was A. D. Koboah’s first novel. I don’t expect this level of awesome from many established authors, yet here I am writing this review.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t like vampire novels. If you like any sort of character-driven novel or even just plain historical fiction, go and download Dark Genesis this instant. It’s free on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as an ebook so it’s not like you’re losing anything by taking a chance on this wonderful novel.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Drought by Pam Bachorz
(Cover picture courtesy of Pam Bachorz’s website.)
Ruby dreams of escaping the Congregation. Escape from slaver Darwin West and his cruel Overseers. Escape from the backbreaking work of gathering Water. Escape from living as if it is still 1812, the year they were all enslaved.
When Ruby meets Ford–an irresistible, kind, forbidden new Overseer–she longs to run away with him to the modern world, where she could live a normal teenage live. Escape with Ford would be so simple.
But if Ruby leaves, her community is condemned to certain death. She, alone, possess the secret ingredient that makes the Water so special–her blood–and it’s the one thing that the Congregation cannot live without.
Drought is the haunting story of one community’s thirst for life, and the dangerous struggle of the only girl who can grant it.
In most books there is often a sentence or question that keeps coming up for me as I read them. The recurring question for me in Drought was: “What is going on?”
Pam Bachorz raised so many questions in Drought, but very few of them were answered. Who is Otto? Why does his blood have magical properties? Why hasn’t the Congregation escaped after 200 years of slavery? Why did Otto leave? Why haven’t any kids been born since the Congregation formed? How did Darwin West enslave people like this? And why is the Congregation completely in the dark about modern inventions when it’s 2012 in the story? Surely Darwin wasn’t able to keep them completely isolated.
There are some pretty heavy religious undertones in the book, but they made no sense whatsoever. The Congregation is much like a cult and Ford introduces Ruby, the main character, to the idea that they’re worshipping a false god (Otto), but I had no idea where Pam Bachorz was going with it. As my English teacher frequently wrote on my essays, “So what?” Why is religion discussed so much in Drought but never actually plays a believable role in the motivations of the characters?
Ruby, the protagonist, is decent enough I suppose. Like in most YA novels, she is 200 years old but essentially acts like a teenager and falls in love with a teenager. Okay, I get that the Congregation ages much more slowly than regular people, but really? Even if you are treated like a child for 200 years, if you see the kind of violence Darwin West inflicts on your own mother, you’re going to grow up a lot faster than Ruby has. Her ‘romance’ with Ford feels completely contrived. It’s like the author didn’t know how to make readers truly connect with the characters; her writing doesn’t have that much emotion in it, to be truthful.
Drought had so much potential but ended up being a complete mess plot-wise and character-wise. This is one of the few series I will not be continuing in the foreseeable future.
I give this book 1/5 stars.