daynight (Daynight, #1)

by Megan Thomason

• ISBN10: 1480226556
• ISBN13: 9781480226555
• Publish Date: 26 November 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 342
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Content Warning: Rape, Forced medical procedures, and terrorist violence including forced artificial insemination and pregnancy, a bombing and execution murders.

3.5 Stars : All in all, it’s an YA dystopian with a unique premise and flair. Give it some time to work up and if you don’t mind the usual trends, it should work out.

Apparently I started this before and gave up on it. No notes on why. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right mood. Whatever it was, I didn’t have abandon it again and am most likely going to continue the series.

However, it didn’t immediately hook me and it was a slow build up. In the beginning, I could’ve put it down then and shrug it off. But it was easy to read and hoped it would pay off.

It did. In spades.

Worldbuilding

Daynight is very unique. It’s like a parallel alien world connected with Earth with weird-ass “afterlives” under a dystopian regime tangled with our government, genetics, and a bunch of shit still to reveal, I’m sure. Like how the fuck Kira became such a special snowflake.

I honestly don’t know where to start and wouldn’t want to ruin it. It’s not all very clear yet but it’s amazing so far. No holes or misses that I remember/saw.

With all the talk about cleaving and the uniqueness of the world, I figured there’d be something special about it. But it appears to be just another word for marriage. There’s even annulments and divorces. It’s creepy (these type of marriages are always creepy) and a letdown all the same. Where is the sci-fi magic?!?!

I have an older edition of the cover that’s all black. While the new cover is prettier, it also shouts about the opposite Earth type location. I’m not sure how I feel about that. That new discovery was a big part of my reading experience.

Perspectives & Characters :

Daynight is told through alternating perspectives from Kira the Special Snowflake Virgin, Blake the Dark Rebel Boy, and Ethan the Privileged Puppet.

I loved how the perspective switched between the three so we got to know them all. Believe me when I say if we only saw the outside, Daynight wouldn’t work as well or at all.

Blake is definitely my favorite for standing up for his beliefs. He made the difficult choices (IMHO the right ones) and I respect him for it. His tale of training and survival is heartbreaking and rage inducing. His perspective is unique for giving insight that is sorely needed.

Kira: meh, alright for a Snowflake Virgin I guess. She’s not bad but it’s mostly about her being the New Star Girl. It’s all about love angle drama and woe. That is, until later when she gets a backbone, starts becoming a person and making her own choices and experiences.

Ethan: Ugh. He was only a suave pretty boy until the end. All the love at first meeting emo antics didn’t sway or matter to me. Then it got interesting. Though it’s sad the most exciting thing about him is his genetics and the conspiracy around it and not himself.

Plot:

The dystopian society has the standard totalitarian state with harsh environments, which isn’t a complaint. There’s plenty of flair and pizzazz. I only bring it up to advise: if you’re familiar with the genre, there are certain things you’ll be able to predict.

Beyond that, several events were obvious like the Secondchancers (this was intentional, I believe with the prologue) and what/why of the medical procedures. And I wanted to smack Kira SF Virgin so many times for the romance mess with Ethan. So oblivious.

On the other hand, I certainly wasn’t expecting the twists with Privileged Puppet Ethan though. Or the [Redacted] Mastermind.

Blake kept upping the ante and seemed to be the main cause behind plot movement besides The Bad Guys. Besides Devious Blake, Ethan and Kira were The Wimpy Duo for the majority of the book.

Lust & Love Angles

In the end, it’s kinda, sorta, not really, maybe resolved. What I hated it most about it was again, Kira’s obliviousness. Besides that, I wasn’t against it as it seemed reasonable for Kira to have feelings and lust after Blake. Listening to her whine about her instalove connect with Ethan was tedious though.

Anime Hair & YA Eyes
You know how people joke about main character’s outrageous hair color and styles in anime?



I swear to gods, YA books have the same shit going on with people’s eyes. Especially romantic interests.

On pg. 11 we find yet another boy with “turquoise flecks” in his beautiful eyes. I’m honestly tired of it. Not only do you have to be extremely close to them but it also comes off weird and fake. I don’t bother picturing it and any references to it make me groan. A ring of color I can buy, but not magical sparkles.

It’s not like Anime where it’s part of the medium and style. While everyone is aware, it’s hardly a topic of conversation between the characters or noteworthy, it’s simply cosmetic. Here we have to wax poetic about eye color and their expression while taking it seriously. And I can’t.

Oh look, I have something in my eye. It’s…

[sstaley]

This dystopian novel plays out a little like a sci-fi novel. Some of the things that happen have the sci-fi flavor. For me, I don't mind that aspect at all. The first half of the book is filled with many questions and is hard to follow and you wonder, "What is really happening here?" The love triangle is huge, and just when you think you know what is going to happen, surprise! There were many surprises along the way in this novel. I liked that you were always kept on your toes about what was happening, why it was happening and what finally happened.

The bad guys, the SCI are disgusting, but of course they have their reasons for doing what they did. If this review sounds vague...that's because it is! You know me, I don't do reviews that give major things away. I hate to read reviews that do that, and don't want to spoil the book for future readers. Just know, this is a book that takes you on a wild ride. It is for older teens and adults. Their is talk of underage drinking, sex and murder...nothing is too gratuitous though.

I enjoyed reading this novel just because it was different, it kept you guessing and left you with an ending that makes you want to read the next book!

[inlibrisveritas]

Daynight is a book with some very interesting concepts and really unique sound. I’ve read quite a few books with different worlds but never one that involved an alternate and polar opposite Earth. At first glance this seems fairly cut and dry, with an alternate Earth and a institute that has much more power than most believe. However the farther I read the more I realized that it has a much more complex storyline and it incorporates not only a science fiction aspect but a fantasy one as well.

I unfortunately had a lot of problems with the storyline, which felt a bit underdeveloped because of the complexity. There is a lot to process for this one and while somethings are detailed out in a decent manner other things only allow a vague understanding. I loved the idea behind all of it, and was willing to put aside some of my science issue because of that.

Along with the undeveloped world building and lore, there is some lack of development of in the character area as well. Kira is smart and curious, and she would have been great but she gets obsessed over a guy when there is clearly a lot of crazy crap going on. Then comes in the biggest plot device of the story, Cleaving…which is the equivalent of marriage. However it’s a whole different level, it’s very permanent and very forced. If you choose to sleep with someone you are cleaved to that person and if you hit your 18th birthday without cleaving your Cleave is chosen for you. It’s a very drastic system and it made me a bit nauseous to see so many people so enraptured with the idea of choosing your husband/wife before you turn 18. I think I would have seen this drastic measure as a plus however it’s combined with insta-love in some cases and it becomes irritating and slightly weird. The multiple pov’s is actually a good addition to this because Thomason takes the time to let you see how each character thinks and responds to the situations.

I think that if there was some more time taken to fully develop the characters and all the concepts then this would have been a solid debut.