Picture drawn by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009. Header made by S.F. Robertson, 2010.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
"In the dystopian future of For Darkness Shows the Stars, a genetic experiment has devastated humanity. In the aftermath, a new class system placed anti-technology Luddites in absolute power over vast estates—and any survivors living there.

Elliot North is a dutiful Luddite and a dutiful daughter who runs her father’s estate. When the boy she loved, Kai, a servant, asked her to run away with him four years ago, she refused, although it broke her heart.

Now Kai is back. And while Elliot longs for a second chance with her first love, she knows it could mean betraying everything she’s been raised to believe is right."- summary from Amazon

I put this book off way too long. I finally read it because I was seeing Peterfreund at an event, and even though they're not related, I wanted to have it done before the companion book came along. I absolutely adored this book. I've never read Persuasion but looking over its summary, I can see the similarities. It's also written in a similar style to Austen, I felt; not completely, but there is more of a formal nature to the prose.

Elliott is a wonderful main character and I really enjoyed reading her story, especially the bits in between chapters showing letters between her and Kai over the years. It was really cute to see those and really get a glimpse into their interactions and friendship. I also want to say that I hated her father and wanted to just kill him throughout the entire book.

I thought Peterfreund did a good job setting up this post-apocalyptic world and explaining everything without it seeming like slogging through a ton of details. It's an interesting world and there's some great reveals throughout the book. I liked seeing Elliott and Kai together and Peterfreund wrote their back-together scenes beautifully, really showing the tug of war inside each of them. They obviously both want the other, but there's a lot of hurt and pain to get through before that can happen. It's handled so well.

Overall, a fantastic book and I strongly recommend it. I'm excited to read the companion book, which is based on The Scarlet Pimpernel (another book I've never read, lol).

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

1 comment:

  1. I love this books so much, and cannot wait for the companion either.

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