The Dark Light by Sara Walsh

For the awesome spoilery review check it out here on GOODREADS!
The Dark Light by Sara Walsh

3.75 stars
For as long as Mia Stone can remember she has seen lights in Crownsville, Nebraska. No one has ever talked about it and it’s just something everyone accepts. Until boys from neighboring towns go missing and Mia sees a cloaked figure in the light. One day, Sol arrives. Mia thinks nothing of it, but while she’s hanging out with her friends she sees a tattoo on his back. Her little brother has the same tattoo. Questions begin to run through Mia’s mind and then Jay goes missing. Mia’s convinced Sol is hiding something from her and she’ll stop at nothing to find Jay. If you’ve read the actual summary on Goodreads, Amazon, or anyplace with The Dark Light’s summary, you’ll have seen the big printed open headway.
Mia is torn between two guys—and two worlds—in this epic, romantic fantasy.
Do not listen to this. It is a lie. OK? Don’t believe me? Trust me and about five other reviews I skimmed that said the same thing. I’m just reiterating it. This is definitely a hard book to rate. It’s not a hard book to like or maybe even for some love. I enjoyed it at times and others I would find myself drifting in and out of caring. This book isn’t short and it’s wordy at times, but it doesn’t bog down the story. There were a few info dumps but they weren’t really big info dumps that are hard to get past or make sense of. Walsh creates a beautiful world and I’m just not exactly sure what I feel for it a 100%.


The main female character is Mia. I liked Mia, but I didn’t love her. For a good quarter of the book I really liked her and then the main plotline falls into place and I started to feel as lost and disoriented as Mia. I didn’t like her as much. She was still interesting, but she lost some of her spunk. She did regain it back again, but I just didn’t connect with her the whole entire time. She was a good sister and that’s probably her best trait/ quality. She always put Jay before herself and that’s admirable in a YA heroine. Not very many older siblings in YA have a believable relationship with their sibling.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8

The main male character is Sol. I wish I could say Sol is swoon worthy, but he isn’t when we are first introduced to him. My first thoughts of him were that he was a cold and it was a turn off. I found myself liking him a lot more towards the ending, but I don’t think I’ll be writing his name on a notebook anytime soon. Sol was lacking in that swoon worthy charisma charm that I love from book boys. He did have a few moments where he would have those little moments, but they were easily thrown out the window. There’s an age 14 and up warning on my jacket’s flap. I find this warning very misleading. Usually when there’s this warning it means sexy time. (view spoiler)

Swoon Worthy Scale: 6.5
The Villain- In all honesty the villain is a pretty cardboard cutout of a villain. Yea, he’s done some pretty terrible stuff, but nothing during the course of the book other than (view spoiler) I wasn’t really put off by him in anyway and I don’t fear him. I feel like if he was in a great villain battle he would be one of those villains that just couldn’t hang and Voldemort would Advada Kadavira him or just break his wand in front of the entire legion of Death Eaters.


I think if he would’ve done something shocking like I don’t know sacrifice virgins, it wouldn’t even been a lot more scary. Think about it. That scared me to death when I read about in the Fallen Angels series. It isn’t cool, but it was a good tactical plot to make me afraid of the villain.


Villain Scale: 6

There wasn’t a huge cast of characters but there was a few. Willie, Mia’s best friend, she’s a girl by the way. I hope Willie is short for Wilma or some really old name because I would hate my parents if they named me that. I liked Willie, but in all honesty she was just there. I didn’t care for half the stuff that she said and her wittiness didn’t charm me. There’s Jay, Mia’s brother, I think he’s cute. We don’t really get to see much of him. I think it would be cool if we got (view spoiler) Seriously, don’t read that spoiler unless you’ve read the book. Delane is Sol’s best friend and I guess he may have been the guy that the heading of the summary was implying but even Mia laughed at the prospect of that when Sol mentioned it. Delane was cool, but he’s far too in lust with Vermillion to see anything else. I did really like him though. Speaking of Vermillion, I think her character is freaking awesome. I’ve never heard of a species like hers before and I found her interesting and new.

Character Scale: 9

This is a very fantasy like book, but it isn’t high fantasy. The world of Brakaland is absolutely stunning and Walsh did an excellent job of creating creatures that creeped me out. I don’t want to run into a visage demon at all. I want to see more well done concepts like this. I do come across them, but not often. This is just a concept that I really liked. I’m not a hundred percent sure what the lights had to do with Brakaland and the Barrier. I’m sure they mentioned it and I zoned out. If anyone could clear that up for me it would be nice. This book was good, but not great. I thought I would be blown away and I wasn’t. I was also surprised though since this book is completely different from what I expected it to be, but in a good way. It’s hard to say exactly how I feel about The Dark Light. I liked it a lot, but didn’t love it. Some things did blow me away though. Definitely give this book a shot. I know it looks paranormal, but it’s more fantasy. Not a fan of fantasy? Don't let that stop you either because it is a good book.


Cover Thoughts: The cover is absolutely beautiful. I love the cover. I think it’s the tattoo. I love covers with tattoos on them especially if they are on a guy. I mean have you seen the Lords of the Underworld covers? Muscley-backs for the win!