Dark Application - Brian Krogstad & Lindsey Waterman

Description
Luke Jeffers is a student at Brafferton Community College in Fort Christanna, Virginia. Like any other college guy, he dreams about Amy, his grade-school crush, and finds time to party on the weekends while struggling to make his meager budget pay his bills. But unlike anyone else, Luke has discovered the secret Department of Defense Application for Remote Kinetics that unlocks a whirlwind of shocking events, and changes Luke's life direction forever.

While working as an intern at a Computer Information Systems research facility, Luke secretly downloads games from the main server onto his smart phone. Unbeknownst to him, Dark Application is also installed on his phone. And once Dark Application is installed on a phone, it can never be removed. Suddenly Luke's life takes on utterly unpredicted changes; he passes his first Chemistry exam, he mysteriously acquires a large sum of money, and he finally gets the girl of his dreams go out with him on Valentine's Day. Slowly the Dark Application sucks him in, and he becomes addicted and unable to put it down.

Lurking just around the corner in this thriller are horrific secrets and mystery that land Luke in a world of hurt, and he becomes entangled in a web of murder, lies, and criminal activities that shock the town and lead to his ultimate destruction. Dark Application: One, is the technothriller of the iPhone era and a fast-paced, quick read, that will lead into the next book of The Dark Application Series.

My Opinion
Standing at 26,391 words (100 pages) this book was an incredibly quick read that took only a few hours to read. Even though it was a shorter book than I would have normally like there was a lot of content packed into it. 

Dark Applications had a unique, modern and interesting concept as it followed Luke Jeffers when his life started to slowly be controlled by an app he downloaded. There was a lot of action included in the short amount of pages and it did keep you hooked when reading. It made you want to read on and find out what the phone was going to make him do next. The start also gripped me. It intrigued me into what had happened and linked with the ending nicely. I really didn't see the way it ended coming.

However sometimes the book lacked detail and jumped from once scene to the next quite rapidly. Although this didn't confuse me, I would have liked to have had more of a back story and for it to 'show me' with description rather than 'telling me' as I couldn't really connect with the characters as the book stands now. Also I found myself questioning the believe-ability of the plot and whether or not someone would really just follow a message on the phone without question. For me it just didn't seem realistic but maybe that was because of the little description or maybe it needed smaller tasks before building up to following directions.

As well as this the writing did become a little repetitive. I don't mean the story line but rather the sentence structure. Quite often there were occurrence where sentences that followed on from each other started with the same word "She...She...She..." I think the book could use another edit to pick up on this to help the writing flow smoother and not become repetitive.

Overall this was an interesting read that has both good and bad points. It was original, action packed and surprising which was great considering it is such a short book. For me though it wasn't as believable as I would have liked and the lack of detail made it hard for me to engage with the characters. I think this book could be really interesting if it goes through another edit so the repetitiveness is removed and it shows the reader instead of telling them.

Scarlette - Davonna Juroe

Description
Find the Beast ~ Find the Cure

Scarlette, an 18-year-old peasant, lives under a dark threat. A nightmarish creature lurks in the surrounding forest, killing the villagers one by one. When Scarlette's grandmother survives an attack, Scarlette learns that her grandmother hasn't suffered the bite of just any normal animal.

Now desperate, Scarlette searches throughout her province to find a cure. But there are those who want to keep their pasts hidden. As she begins to uncover the dark secrets of her village, Scarlette is befriended by a local nobleman and a woodcutter who share a gruesome history with the beast. To save her grandmother, Scarlette must unravel their mystery and solve an age-old crime. But as she pieces together the clues, Scarlette finds herself torn between the two men, both of whom want to be more than friends and hold the key to the cure.

What if Little Red Riding Hood was Real?

My Opinion
When I received a request to review this book I was interested by the dark, paranormal aspects. However I was slightly worried about the historical aspect of the book. I was unsure what to expect and was mostly concerned with how Juroe would use language, especially speech. All this was for nothing though and besides being based on old folklore and using a class system (peasants and nobels) I couldn't really say anything else was historical which was great.

I read this book in a few hours and although it took me a while to get into it, it did capture my interest and hold it all the way through the book. The plot was full of action, twists and turns that leave you guessing until the end and it was only a few chapters before the reveal when I figured out what was going on/who was behind what. I love a book that keeps you in suspense of who's good/bad, behind the events, or going to get together in a romance and this book definitely fulfilled that side of things. Juroe did a great job of revealing just the right amount of information to stop confusion but still create suspense. As well as this the romances (although not always pleasant) added extra interest and were intertwined in the story well so it flowed together without becoming disjointed.

There were a few things though that annoyed me slightly. The first was that although the book hooked you, for me it moved at a slow pace and some sections I found had a bit too much description which lead me to only skim read certain sections. For me there was quite a bit of unnecessary detail that did nothing to move the story along and left the me wondering why I needed to know it. As well as this I didn't really connect with the lead character Scarlette. I'm not sure why this is but I found her attitude at times irritating and she wasn't as strong as I would have liked. It got better towards the end but for me there was a connection missing. I'm also glad I didn't see the cover before I agreed to review this book as I didn't really like it and it would have probably put me off.

The biggest issue I had with this book was the originality. I have read a few books like this before and seen the dark retelling of Red Riding Hood (movie) and it seemed that there wasn't much variation. I know it was a retelling but for me there wasn't enough to differentiate it from others like it. But hey there are hundreds of vampire novels out there that all have the same theme so it shouldn't put you off if you like the genre.

Overall this book was and interesting read and had a few twists and turns that kept me hooked. It did however move at a slow pace with some scenes needing more development and editing for unnecessary details. I didn't connect with Scarlette but that maybe just me and even though the story isn't all that original it may be worth the read if you are interested in dark paranormal books or werewolves.

Brightside - Mark Tullius

Description
Across the nation, telepaths are rounded up and sent to the beautiful mountain town of Brightside. They're told it's just like everywhere else, probably even nicer. As long as they follow the rules and don't ever think about leaving. Joe Nolan is one of the accused, a man who spent his life hearing things people left unsaid. And now he's paying for it on his hundredth day in Brightside, fighting to keep hold of his secret in a town where no thought is safe.

My Opinion
Brightside follows the story of humans who have the power of telepathy. Written from Joe's point of view it engages you in the action and Tullius does a good job of relaying the feelings and thoughts of the character. The first few chapters really grabbed my attention, throwing me into a new world while explaining certain aspects about life as a telepath clearly. It made me want to read on and the name "Thought Theives" Tullius uses to describe the gifted humans intrigued me. The plot line was original and different and did keep my interest however there were a few things that made it a struggle to read the book around about the halfway mark.

The first was that the book is written in terms of days. It jumps to random points in Joe's life while leading up to day 100. In the midst of this there are constant memories and flashbacks which although were easy to figure out and understand, for me it made the story too disjointed as it was frequently jumping from one place to another rather than following a constant flow. Some memories and thoughts also seemed to repeat themselves continually and by the halfway mark it was becoming slightly repetitive and I found it a struggle to stay focused.

The start of the book lead me into a false sense of security and turned into something I wasn't expecting. I was told it was dark fiction but I didn't realise how dark and twisted it would get. I normally like darker books but this book became too much towards the end. It slowly got darker and more graphic as it went on and I found myself skipping long sections of description as it made me cringe and feel slightly nauseated. When being asked to review this book it was the different theme and the prospect of romance that sold it to me most but the romances were not exactly romances, they were more based on a sexual side of things or Joe berating himself about previous events which became slightly annoying towards the end.

Overall this book was interesting and different but I would not recommend it to the squeamish/faint-hearted or a young audience because if the graphic content and language. Although it started well and did make me read on the graphic content did become too much towards the end and the disjointed nature of the flashbacks and days made it hard for me to focus at times.

My Swordhand is Singing – Marcus Sedgwick

Description

In a bitter winter, Tomas and his son, Peter, settle in a small village as woodcutters. Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut so that they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, or why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.
But Tomas is a man with a past--a past that is tracking him with deadly intent. As surely as the snow falls softly in the forest of a hundred thousand silver birch trees, father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.
 

My Opinion

OK, so because it is Halloween I have decided to re-read one of my favourite horror books. I still remember the scared feelings I had as I lay in bed after finishing this book for the first time. Reading it at 2am with just a fire light was definitely not the best idea... I lay awake for hours after the last few pages but even though I was scaring myself with my over active imagination I just couldn't stop reading. I loved the title and this is originally what drew me to the book as I really enjoy gothic/horror books.

This was the first book of Sedgwick's I ever read and since reading this book I have read many other books he has released. His writing is truly amazing! Sedgwick takes old legends, myths and period of times and twists them into a dark interesting, horror story.

The plot of this novel was great! It was dark, different and shocking with all it's twists and turns.

The character's were interesting and engaging and I found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into the world Sedgwick created. The bit that effected me most was towards the ending but by that point I was finding it impossible to stop. As well as this, the short chapters kept me turning pages just to find out what happened next. The books was incredibly atmospheric and I loved the darker version of a vampire/zombie story.

Even though this is like the fifteenth time I have read this book it still scares me every time. I don't know if that is just because I'm spooked easily but it is probably down to my over active imagination that gets lost in the believable worlds created by Sedgwick. I have definitely learnt my lesson though after the first time and now only read his work during daylight.

I can not recommend this book highly enough. Sedgwick's novels are some of the best I have read and his writing is great! If you want something that you can lose yourself in to get scared on Halloween this book would be great!  

Other great reads by Marcus Sedgwick that I have loved!