The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
It’s 1 a.m., and I am wondering why I didn’t buy the rest of Bree Despain’s Dark Divine trilogy. Looking at it from a sleep perspective, it is probably good that I didn’t because I would have just jumped right into devouring it. As it stands, I am plotting how best to go about getting the other two books while still keeping on my current book schedule.
The Dark Divine didn’t catch me at first. The beginning was clever, a bit slow and filled with all kinds of girl drama that I have mostly managed to stay away from. The one thing that stood out was Despain’s ability to describe more than the sights in a scene. She was especially good at describing how things smell, like the cute boy after a shower, she just kept those olfactory descriptions coming. She was also able to describe how things sounds. Reading is such a sight based activity that it seems many authors forget that there are other senses. Despain brings these things to life in a way that few authors are even capable of doing. Even though people think in stream of consciousness, it is difficult to tell a cohesive story and let the main character’s mind go wherever the normal thought process would go. Despain does an excellent job of keeping Grace Divine’s thoughts seemingly random and still tied to the story. As long as I felt the beginning was, the ending was far too short, but that was clearly by design. Despain uses creative foreshadowing and doesn’t reveal the end until it is time to reach the climax, and the entire third act is the climax with a short section for denouement. The story delivers on several levels, has engaging characters, and ultimately asks the questions that really matter – most importantly, how do we go about forgiving someone? While I am trying to decide the best way to go about getting the other two in the series, you would do well to pick up all three starting with The Dark Divine. I would hate to have anyone have to wait until morning before they could start making headway on the next book in this series. |
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