Review: Dark Parties

Title: Dark Parties

Author: Sara Grant

Series: None

Release Date: August 3rd, 2011

Number of Pages: 320

Publisher: Little Brown Books

Source: Bought

Sixteen-year-old Neva has been trapped since birth. She was born and raised under the Protectosphere, in an isolated nation ruled by fear, lies, and xenophobia. A shield "protects" them from the outside world, but also locks the citizens inside. But there's nothing left on the outside, ever since the world collapsed from violent warfare. Or so the government says...

Neva and her best friend Sanna believe the government is lying and stage a "dark party" to recruit members for their underground rebellion. But as Neva begins to uncover the truth, she realizes she must question everything she's ever known, including the people she loves the most.

I’m usually a big fan of dystopian novel, but I didn’t really love that book that much. I enjoyed it in the end, but there were to many things that annoyed me.

First of all, I didn’t like Neva that much. Never a great thing to see the main character falling for her best friend’s boyfriends from the beginning. Seriously, the first sight of him we have is right after he just kissed her. That bugged me, and I really couldn’t get over it for a good part of the book (I don’t really like the stealing your boyfriend thing, especially when they both don’t know him that much…)

The world was great; it was well constructed and reflects the dystopian idea really nicely. Yet, I couldn’t get over the feeling it reminded me of Matched and Delirium, but not as good. Maybe my expectations were too high, or something… I just couldn’t shake the feeling there was something missing to make me really like it.

There was clever thought that made me smile. I loved her name, and her snowflake tattoo, a reminder of her name, made me smile. It was a nice touch. There were many great twists to the story, keeping you on your toes until the end. Still, the characters stopped from really liking it. I did enjoy it, but I don’t think it will make my top 2011 list, that’s for sure. If you really enjoy dystopian, you’ll enjoy it. If you don’t really get what all the fuss is about, it’s probably not the best one to start with.

Still a great debut that will probably make me want to check what Sara Grant has in store for us next.