Innocent Darkness (Aether Chronicles, #1)

by Suzanne Lazear

A hoverboard appeared in her rearview mirror. "This is the Los Angeles Air Patrol," a voice boomed. "I command you to land your vehicle in the name of the law." Noli Braddock and her best friend V's incident with a flying auto have landed them in a heap of trouble. And when Noli is sent to a spirit-squelching reform school in San Francisco, she's sure that her rebellious adventures are over. Meanwhile, Kevighn Silver has been ordered by the Faerie Queen to bring a mortal girl back to the Otherworld. The magic requires a blood sacrifice every seven years, and only a mortal girl who shines with the Spark--a girl like Noli--will keep the Otherworld from complete destruction. When an ill-timed wish sends Noli tumbling into the Otherworld, she's more homesick than ever . . . until V arrives to save her from an untimely demise. But who exactly is V? And if he helps Noli escape, who will save the realm of Faerie from utter annihilation?

• ISBN10: 0606264469
• ISBN13: 9780606264464
• Publish Date: 8 August 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 April 2021
• Imprint: Turtleback Books
• Edition: Bound for Schools & Libraries ed.
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 408
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

The cover of Innocent Darkness called to the cover whore inside me and she immediately had to have it. I mean look at it~ in all of its steampunk finery. As the first book in the Aether Chronicles I went into this book expecting a steampunk novel with a fantasy twist. What I got was a young adult fantasy with a steampunk mention. I am noticing a trend in YA novels that seem to cross multiple genres and I am personally not happy about it. It waters down the genres and has me as a consumer leery about what I am actual buying. Despite my disappointment I did enjoy this dark fantasy.

The tale begins in steampunk-gooey-goodness as we meet our protagonist Magnolia “Noli” Braddock. She and her friend V are working on her missing father’s flying car. They reside in an alternate version of Los Angeles in the year 1901. We quickly learn that Noli is perceived as a hoyden and has a knack for getting into trouble. When she takes the flying car for an unauthorized spin she is forced to attend a reform school in San Francisco. This is where the steampunk element ends, except for a few teasers here and there that felt thrown in. At the school Noli tries to behave so she can be returned to her mother. The school is horrible with incredibly cruel punishments and a creepy staff. She befriends a girl named Charlotte, who would rather stay in this dreadful place then be returned to her uncle. When things get to be too much to bear Noli makes a wish to be "any place but here." She wakes to find herself in the Otherworld. The tale that unfolds has elements of suspense, sexual tension, magic, fairies, and romance.

The characters in Lazear’s world are interesting but lacked depth. Noli is a brilliant child who tries to please her mother and has always had a crush on V. Her brilliance constantly competes with her maturity level and she wavered back and forth between them. She wasn't developed enough for me and some of her actions were annoying. V adores Noli and has secrets, lots of secrets. Kevighn Silver is the huntsman for the Queen. He is sent from the Otherworld to find a young woman with the spark. While on his quests he indulges in hired woman and opium. There is something a little sick about Kevighn and he gave me the creeps.
The path the author leads him on never really worked for me. Both V and Kevighn love Noli and I feared the dreaded love triangle. Noli did choose but the loser is not satisfied. The Queen was interesting and kind of reminded me of the queens from Alice in Wonderland and Snow White. I like Charlotte and my heart tugged for her. Overall these characters were unique but under developed.

The world-building was both exciting and disappointing. I really enjoyed the back story and the altered concept of 1901. Sadly this altered version of 1901 was not completely believable. Language, settings and circumstances didn’t quite jive for me. Lazear’s description of the Otherworld and how both worlds are kept in balance was both creepy and original. I loved this world and wanted to know more. The Fae world and its rules while not new were nicely depicted.The pace flowed nicely with highs and lows. There are two climatic scenes towards the end. One was very predictable and the other while not unexpected was filled with tension and excitement. While this novel had its flaws I still enjoyed it and will give this series a chance to redeem itself in book two.

This novel had the potential to be so much more. Fans of fantasy and the Fae will enjoy Innocent Darkness, while fans expecting a steampunk series will be greatly disappointed. The cover and the tale do not match and despite my disappointment this was an easy, light, enjoyable read. This could have easily earned, a five cups of coffee rating, had it focused more on the fantasy aspect and added more depth and detail. The next book in the series has yet to be titled and has an expected publication date of 2013.

I want to thank Flux and netGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
my rating 2.5

[Ashley]

As posted on booknook - YA and Fantasy book reviews

I was first drawn to this book by the cover. I think it’s gorgeous and really interesting. I love the depiction of Noli and immediately wanted to read the book! Unfortunately, the cover art is a very poor representation of what this book is about. There is very little steampunk and Noli doesn’t even dress like the girl on the cover. She mostly wears fancy dresses and was appalled at the idea of wearing a sleeveless dress.

The beginning of the book started out with promise. Noli is really spunky, strong, independent, and some would say a little too carefree. She doesn’t like to follow rules, she’s just out to have fun. She just illegally flew and crashed a flying car with her neighbour and best friend V (Steven), and she’s in trouble. Her options are to either go before a judge or attend a “reform school.” Her mother, desperate to save her daughter’s reputation, sends her to the school. The school turns out to be incredibly abusive. They literally beat the spunk and independence out of the admitted girls.

I was intrigued. I thought Noli was an interesting character and I was hoping she’d be really rebellious at the reform school. I was looking forward to her taking control and getting the heck out of there. And that’s about where the story went downhill…

While Noli is at the reform school, we start to learn about Kevighn. He’s from the Otherworld and he’s out hunting for a new woman. You see, the magic of the Otherworld relies on creativity—known as “Spark”— to survive, so every few years, a girl with Spark is sacrificed (killed) for the sake of this civilization. Right now the Otherworld is in desperate need of a sacrifice, so the pressure is really on. In between doing opium and sleeping with prostitutes, Kevighn is searching for a girl with a strong Spark. Then, he finds Noli at the reform school..

Kevighn’s usual routine is to seduce women into coming with him to the Otherworld and proceeding from there. So he takes Noli to his home, but as he’s about to “get to work,” he finds himself falling for Noli. He loves her innocence, her kindness, and how she turns his house into a real home.

This is about where the book started to really turn me off. I hated Kevighn’s character. I didn’t like his obsession with opium and “soft women” (as he put it). I found it distracting and a little unnecessary. We’re reminded of his addiction to both in every chapter from his POV. Secondly, he came off as just a creepy guy. He kept seducing Noli with his ‘charm’ and lies and she kept falling into it and I hated that, which leads me to my next issue.

Noli really changed throughout the book, but not in a good way. She went from being spunky, daring, and carefree to being naive crybaby obsessed with her reputation. Funny, I thought the whole reason she got sent off to reform school was because she didn't care about her reputation. As the story went on, I failed to see what was so special about Noli. Why does she have so much Spark? Any independent, carefree, creative, rebellious qualities she had faded very quickly as the story went on. She went from being potentially interesting to really bland. I thought her friend Charlotte — who supposedly had less Spark — was a lot more interesting.

Towards the second half of the book, Noli starts developing a relationship with V and it becomes clear that she’s really prude. It just seemed completely out of character. V would start making some advances and she’d literally say, “We can’t do this — what about my reputation??” What happened to carefree, spunky, do-whatever-I-want Noli? I didn’t expect her to be a slut, but she basically saw kissing as the equivalent of home plate.

Okay let’s talk about V. For most of the book I adored him. He was an awesome character and I was dying to know more about him. He was courageous, determined, and the perfect best friend. He would do anything for Noli and that was awesome. I really felt like I got invested in his character and sympathized with him. Except towards the end he got really annoying. At first he kept saying to Noli, “I won’t lie to you like they do — I’ll tell you the truth,” and at first he did and I loved him for it. But then later he was kind of hiding something from her and it just confused her and pissed me off! Then later, he kept trying to push his Fae culture onto Noli. When they’d kiss and Noli would blabber on about her reputation, he’d basically say, “Things are different in the Otherworld. Give yourself to me now.” A little paraphrasing, but his words weren’t far off. :P Even though I didn’t like Noli’s prudishness, it annoyed me that V suddenly seemed to have litte respect for her desire to remain “marriageable.”

I also encountered many grammatical errors that interrupted my reading. I did read an e-ARC so hopefully these will be fixed in the final copies. Most of them are just blaringly obvious misuses of “he/her/his/she.” For example:

He body went aflame at his touch, but fear still lingered in the pit of her belly.

Finally, the end was way too convenient and too “easy.” I can’t say much without spoilers, but just know that it kind of came out of nowhere and was annoyingly convenient. If you don’t care about spoilers, click the link below to see what I mean.

So everyone is looking at Noli to become the sacrifice to the Otherworld, then her friend Charlotte from the reform school shows up. At the beginning, Charlotte was a great character. She’s like your sparky, bubbly best friend who you can talk to about anything — especially intimate topics like sex. Anyway, she was perfectly fine at the beginning of the book but suddenly now, at the end, we find out she has a tumor! Since her days are numbered anyway, she volunteers to be the sacrifice to the Otherworld. Problem solved! Thank god for tumors?

The beginning of the book was interesting and promising, but the end just really dropped off. I almost didn’t want to finish the book and I had to push myself to complete it. I just didn’t get invested in the story, Noli got annoying, and I didn’t have a strong desire to “find out what was going to happen,” and then when I did get to the end it was way too convenient and unimaginative. I probably won’t be bothering with the rest of the series. :(

Before I got this via Netgalley, I was so psyched! Steampunk? Horrible Boarding School? Mysterious man? Sacrifice? Sounded like a recipe for success in my book. Sadly, no. While reading I was hooked. I kept wanting to go back for more. But after reading I just felt kind of "meh". The plot itself if what hooked me in, but there were many things that bugged me.


The Good:

I think Innocent Darkness started off good. You've got your rebellious teenage girl who goes against the social norm (Go Noli!). Girl and her geekishly cute best friend get into lots of fun shenanigans. Girl gets sent to crazily strict boarding school. Beating ensues. Enter gorgeous man. And through the portal they go! Sounds fun huh? And it was.


I wasn't in love with Noli but I did like her rebellious nature. She was just trying to make money to help her mom even if fixing objects wasn't what a girl should do. Her determination was admirable. And I felt absolutely awful for her when she went to the boarding school.


I also liked her best friend V initially. A bit cliche, but I like the whole friend turned love interest. It's cute. He was endearing with all his geekiness and a good and caring friend to Noli.


The boarding school was well-written because the author really gave off the feeling of despair. It was a horrible place with a creepy doctor and sadistic teachers.


The Bad:


Not really steampunk: I mean, yeah, it's there at the beginning, but then the rest of the book takes place at the boarding school and in the Otherworld so don't expect much steampunk.


Kevign: He wasn't really awful. He was in some ways alluring. However, I just wish he was more so. I wish he gave off a more mysterious, dark, dangerous and enticing atmosphere. He had some allure to him, but nothing to make me fall for his dark persona. I wish he was more like the Darkling from Shadow and Bone. Now thats seductive done right.


The last half: As I said, I liked the first half well enough. I felt bad for Noli and I liked V and was interested in Kevign. However, after a while, it got very repetitive. If I had to read the sentence "opium and soft women" one more time I was going to punch someone. Not to mention, it got very...risque. It's not that the risque part was awful or anything, it just didn't really fit with the first half of the book. It's not to say they were bad or anything (though one part was...interesting?) it's just the tone felt very different from the first half. It was definitely more for older audiences. I don't feel like the transition was well done. If the writing was like that throughout it would've been a different story. The first half was more innocent and then V changes and Bam! To be honest, I don't really know how to describe it without giving things away. Let's just say I didn't like the change in V or the storyline. Also, I saw the ending coming.


Overall:


It's good. Some will like it more than others. While I saw a great disconnect between the first half and the second half, there are many people who simply fell head over heels for this book. Also, there is no doubt in my mind some will find Kevign intriguing. Sadly, I didn't. I thought I would like V but in the end he changed for the worse in my opinion. Overall, I liked it, but sadly didn't fall in love with it like I was hoping.


All the best ♥
Mackenzie @ Oh, For the Love of Books!