Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle, #1)
by
Rachel A. Marks
Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.
In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. In their company, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But when he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, he awakens powers he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.
With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness at bay and accept his brilliant, terrifying destiny?
**I received Darkness Brutal from Skyscape via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.**
"I've spent my whole life trying to save people that didn't want to be saved! I've done everything to stop something inevevitable. And I failed. Every. Time." I take a shaky breath. "If it's the end of the world, there's nothing I can do anymore. I'll watch it burn."
It's almost a mainstream in every YA-paranormal books that the main character has to be hero-like, special and powerful, well, this book made an effort not to make Aiden O’Linn, the male lead of this story like that, and it works - atleast for me.
Darkness Brutal was fast-paced, thrilling and compelling. There were times when I had to put my phone down and stop reading for a moment , not because it bores me but mostly because I had to catch my breath and to collect my thoughts because I find it hard to predict what would happen next. Which is obviously a good thing.
The world building was dark, scary and creepy and yet it was interesting. Each and every characters has their own snarky personality and don't just exists to highlight the main lead of the story, it was awesome!
Aidan O'Linn's life revolve around surviving and protecting his half-sister, Ava, after a demon that killed his mother in front of him marked her. He has handy inborn unique abilities that can seriously kick-ass.
"Why can't I just know how to play Xbox or baseball?It's like I fell from the fucking sky."
Obviously he's unable to figure out where these abilities came from. The identity of his father is a mystery, since his mother seldom talks about it.
"I'm fairly tan, unlike my pale mom and sister. Maybe my dad was from India. Or maybe he was from Mars."
Her half sister has been bounced of from different foster home while Aidan is living by himself in the streets to work part time while finding a perfect safe place for him and his sister.
Then he met a group of Ghostbusters. Actually they call themselves as
Paranormal Investigative Agency.
Apparently, this group help people who were having "strange" or "unexplained" troubles. At this point, regardless how full of shit he thinks this people are, he's out of options. He needs help, badly- or the demon might claim his sister away, and he can't let that happen.
There he met people who has strange abilities- although not too powerful like his or his sister's.
"Jax brightens at the sight of me. "Ah, the Chosen One has returned!" He says in a very dramatic voice. "The one who shall be the one most powerful!"
I give him a look that I hope says: Shut the fuck-up ass face."
Romance: Aidan and Kara has no appeal for me. Really, they aren't swoon worthy even after all the sexual tension-or do you call that magic tension? - anyway, they fail to recruit me on their ship or maybe it has something to do with the fact that there weren't much of a romance in this book.
I didn't despise Kara. She's... what you call a Tsundere in an anime - a character development process that describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time, cited from Wikipedia. She's broken, scarred and a kick-ass. She's had a tough and very disturbing life but she's strong, way too strong, I'll give her credit for that.
"A heartbeat passes and then another, and it's as if an understanding, like we're finally seeing the truth of how we fit together. It's so subtle. I would have missed it if I blinked."
I didn't like the attempt of a love triangle of this story. Really, it was unnecessary.
Overall: Seriously this isn't a perfect book. There were talk of rapes and there were a lot of gore and curses that can be found in this book. I can cuss like a sailor since the dawn of time, and it doesn't bother me. So the foul language doesn't matter to me, if anything the character felt more real to me. I think Darkness Brutal is a great pick for Urban Paranormal junkie pips. Looking forward to read the sequel.
Rachel Anne Marks is an award-winning author and professional artist, a surfer and dirt-bike rider, chocolate lover and keeper of faerie secrets. She was voted: Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, but hopes she’ll never have to test the theory.
The book sounds so interesting because of your review! I like it :)
ReplyDeleteThis book was so good and awesome on its own way! :) Thank you so much Claire! :* :)
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