Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls, #1)

by Jessica Sorensen

When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across.

Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:
Rule #1—Never go out after dark.
Rule #2—Always carry a weapon.
Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bitten.

But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply?

The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires.

No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told. But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure.

• ISBN10: 1467930598
• ISBN13: 9781467930598
• Publish Date: 20 April 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[clairelm]

This is a brilliant vampire story with a difference. Unlike the usual YA 'vampires are beautiful, deadly creatures' theme that tends to run through books, these vampires are more like the zombies from films. They're proper vampires and they don't actual feature too heavily. Add in a city controlled by a group who relish power and fear above everything else, some hybrids who don't seem to fit either group and a set of outsiders who managed to survive in the brutal wilderness, you have the perfect setting for a dystopian adventure.

I really liked Kayla. She's a strong willed character with a forgotten past who has to fight both herself and the system to survive in the city, and then the people she should be safe with, outside. As her memories come back, Kayla learns more about herself, and it's not all welcome news. She faces the biggest decisions of her life, and her memories are haunted by a question. 'What lies behind the red door?'

The other characters as well, particularly Monarch and Maci are well written and Kayla has a great surrounding of supporting characters who help make the world seem real and push the story along.

[Angie]

I was quite excited to finally read Darkness Falls. I love vampires and I love dystopias, so it sounded right up my alley. Sadly, I was let down. While the premise was great, the world building was lacking. A virus has swept through society in the near future (2031) and turned part of the population in vampires. The humans now live underground in a place known as The Colony, which is run by a group of people called Highers. There are also warriors, like Kayla, who...I'm actually not sure what they do exactly, since it seems like no one wants to go out to fight vampires except for her. Anyway. One day, Kayla is selected for "the gathering" and wakes up in a body bag outside the city with two other people, including a very creepy little girl.

I had so many questions the entire time I was reading Darkness Falls. This world just makes absolutely no sense to me. Kayla is clearly something more than human, but is she part vampire, part Higher, something else? What exactly is a Higher? Then there's the fact that Kayla doesn't know what bruises, kissing, time, or angels are. No one can read, since books were destroyed when the virus appeared. But what do books have to do with vampires? And this is only 19 years into the future, so surely there are people who can read and can teach the youngsters now. Apparently not. It just seems like too much change in too little time, and there are lots of holes.

Another major problem I had with Darkness Falls was the lack of answers about anything and how conversations just went in circles. Kayla has no memories of pretty much her entire life, but she's told she can get them back. She also meets Aiden, who she knew from before, but he refuses to tell her anything, because she needs to figure it out on her own. When he does offer up information he keeps asking if she's sure she wants to know, or that he'll explain it all to her later. A later that never comes. Then when someone is finally going to do some accelerated memory retrieval, Aiden stops that because Kayla needs to remember naturally. Why does it matter how her memories return?! She (and we) needs to know what's happened to her! It was a lot of push and pull for nothing.

Darkness Falls was just weird for me. I love this premise, but I don't think it was executed well. The world building is incomplete, and the narration is quite jumpy in the beginning since Kayla is constantly blacking out. We don't get any answers, and frankly, by the end, I didn't really care anymore.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.