daynight (Daynight, #1)

by Megan Thomason

[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.