Draw the Dark by Ilsa J Bick
Publisher: Carolrhoda, 2010
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Contemporary, YA
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
While the scratchy lettering matches whatever filter overlay they've put on the barn, the whole thing winds up looking rough and unfinished. The barn is an important element of the book, but nothing about it particularly draws the eye. It tries for dark and menacing, but the yellows and reds are a bit counter-intuitive, and this is something that, while not terrible, I would pass right over if I saw it on the shelf.
I need to be upfront here: this is a very difficult book for me to review. It was a difficult book for me to read, and separating my reactions from what's actually in the book is a bit of a challenge. In all honesty, if I weren't reviewing the critter, I probably would not have finished it. Which is not to say this is a poorly written book, but it does have some horrible things happening to children, and that's one of my buttons. Can't get past it. There's a scene wherein a drunken, abusive father is chasing down his six-year-old daughter after having killed her mother and beloved pet in front of her, and an infant is walled up in a hearth. As a mother, my reactions to these scenes are strong enough to colour the rest of the book, so let's get that disclaimer out there before we even begin to discuss the rest. Also, consider this fair warning for those who, like me, are profoundly disturbed by these types of scenes.
In the small town of Winter, Christian has never fit in. There's just always been something different about him, something dark the people around him want to avoid. And nobody will let him forget how people close to him have a tendancy to turn up dead. As if christian could forget. Deep down, he knows the townsfolk are right to blame him, even if they don't have any proof. He's always had the ability to draw a person's nightmares, even accidentally, and it ends up killing them.
Lately he's been having some disturbing dreams, full of blood and other things he can't understand. They're fractured and confusing and terrifying, and when he wakes up he finds he's done things he can't remember. Paintings on his wall, sketches in his notepad... vandalism on the side of a barn. The weird thing is, the more these dreams pop into his head, the more he's convinced there's something real, something important about them.
Finding out what his dreams are about is not proving to be easy, though. The people of Winter are close-mouthed, especially when it comes to history. They feel some things are better forgotten, and Christian can't help but feel they mean him as much as the events he's asking about. The images in his dreams are growing clearer, though, and he discovers what he's seeing is someone else's memories, the forgotten witness to an old, unsolved murder. And if Christian can dig a little deeper, he might not only uncover some answers, he might learn to control his ability to draw other peoples' darknesses.
Christian is a great protagonist, someone who can keep a reader's sympathy while he flails around out of his depth. He's trying to prove himself like any normal teen, he has a hard time fitting in, but if he could just learn how to use his abilities, he could be the most powerful of any of them. He's a genius who hasn't come into his own, but somehow his genius makes him more relatable. Maybe it's because he's very aware of how "weird" he appears to everyone else, or maybe I just have a fondness for quirks. Either way, Christian makes for a great combination of everyman with powerful potential with a voice that genuinely sounds like a teen.
The term "page-turner" has become a cliché, but it fits Draw the Dark. The writing easily carries you forward as the mystery slowly unfurls. Bick has clearly paid attention to the writer's advice of "tension on every page." It's not just the big whodunnit question that propels the reader through, it's all the little missing details. The small clicks are just as satisfying as the big ones, all the pieces adding together to make a much more complex picture than you might initially expect.
The beginning and the ending felt like they came from a different story, one which we only get a short glimpse into before it's swept aside and all questions it raises are ignored. The pace and tone are different, too, and while the opening helps us delve into Christian's head right away, it seems more like a gimmicky grab than a necessary part of the story. Past the first couple of chapters, though, the real story begins to take hold, the narration finds its footing, and we're into the page-turning part.
Draw the Dark is available in hardcover
as an e-book. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Contemporary, YA
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
While the scratchy lettering matches whatever filter overlay they've put on the barn, the whole thing winds up looking rough and unfinished. The barn is an important element of the book, but nothing about it particularly draws the eye. It tries for dark and menacing, but the yellows and reds are a bit counter-intuitive, and this is something that, while not terrible, I would pass right over if I saw it on the shelf.
I need to be upfront here: this is a very difficult book for me to review. It was a difficult book for me to read, and separating my reactions from what's actually in the book is a bit of a challenge. In all honesty, if I weren't reviewing the critter, I probably would not have finished it. Which is not to say this is a poorly written book, but it does have some horrible things happening to children, and that's one of my buttons. Can't get past it. There's a scene wherein a drunken, abusive father is chasing down his six-year-old daughter after having killed her mother and beloved pet in front of her, and an infant is walled up in a hearth. As a mother, my reactions to these scenes are strong enough to colour the rest of the book, so let's get that disclaimer out there before we even begin to discuss the rest. Also, consider this fair warning for those who, like me, are profoundly disturbed by these types of scenes.
In the small town of Winter, Christian has never fit in. There's just always been something different about him, something dark the people around him want to avoid. And nobody will let him forget how people close to him have a tendancy to turn up dead. As if christian could forget. Deep down, he knows the townsfolk are right to blame him, even if they don't have any proof. He's always had the ability to draw a person's nightmares, even accidentally, and it ends up killing them.
Lately he's been having some disturbing dreams, full of blood and other things he can't understand. They're fractured and confusing and terrifying, and when he wakes up he finds he's done things he can't remember. Paintings on his wall, sketches in his notepad... vandalism on the side of a barn. The weird thing is, the more these dreams pop into his head, the more he's convinced there's something real, something important about them.
Finding out what his dreams are about is not proving to be easy, though. The people of Winter are close-mouthed, especially when it comes to history. They feel some things are better forgotten, and Christian can't help but feel they mean him as much as the events he's asking about. The images in his dreams are growing clearer, though, and he discovers what he's seeing is someone else's memories, the forgotten witness to an old, unsolved murder. And if Christian can dig a little deeper, he might not only uncover some answers, he might learn to control his ability to draw other peoples' darknesses.
Christian is a great protagonist, someone who can keep a reader's sympathy while he flails around out of his depth. He's trying to prove himself like any normal teen, he has a hard time fitting in, but if he could just learn how to use his abilities, he could be the most powerful of any of them. He's a genius who hasn't come into his own, but somehow his genius makes him more relatable. Maybe it's because he's very aware of how "weird" he appears to everyone else, or maybe I just have a fondness for quirks. Either way, Christian makes for a great combination of everyman with powerful potential with a voice that genuinely sounds like a teen.
The term "page-turner" has become a cliché, but it fits Draw the Dark. The writing easily carries you forward as the mystery slowly unfurls. Bick has clearly paid attention to the writer's advice of "tension on every page." It's not just the big whodunnit question that propels the reader through, it's all the little missing details. The small clicks are just as satisfying as the big ones, all the pieces adding together to make a much more complex picture than you might initially expect.
The beginning and the ending felt like they came from a different story, one which we only get a short glimpse into before it's swept aside and all questions it raises are ignored. The pace and tone are different, too, and while the opening helps us delve into Christian's head right away, it seems more like a gimmicky grab than a necessary part of the story. Past the first couple of chapters, though, the real story begins to take hold, the narration finds its footing, and we're into the page-turning part.
Draw the Dark is available in hardcover
as an e-book. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.