Review: Dark Inside

by Jeyn Roberts
publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
date of publication: November 1, 2011
format: hardcover
pages: 336
source: purchased
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N

From Goodreads:

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies.

Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd.

Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.

What I Thought

What can I say about Dark Inside without over-simplifying?  To say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book feels like taking the quick and easy way out with regard to my feelings after reading it.  There are so many parts of this book that led me to alternately get lost in my own imagination and sit upon the edge of my seat with bated breath.  It is such a tangle of thrills, sadness, and horror that I am left unsure as to what aspect I enjoyed the most.  Suffice it to say, Dark Inside featured the best of all aspects that make a book appealing to me.

The plot that runs throughout this book will stay with me for quite some time.  It is truly terrifying in that it doesn't involve zombies or monsters.  The threats involved are Mother Nature, herself, and the very darkest recesses of the human mind.  The fact that some unknown catalyst is causing the majority of humanity to turn into ruthless killers is altogether chilling.  As I thought about the possible causes and ramifications of such an event, I felt even more disturbed.  This isn't a story you will be likely to forget for a long, long time.

The characters whose stories we get to view are each compelling in their own ways.  Mason, Aries, Michael, Clementine, and the mysterious narrator known as "Nothing," each bring something different to the table.  Each has a different heart break, a different strength, a different motivation, a different personality, and a different outlook on life, all of which lead them in the same direction as time goes on.  I can't choose a particular favorite from amongst this cast of characters due to the sheer greatness of all of them.  These characters are so well-written and imbued with such spark that it is very easy to become invested in each one.

Finally, let's talk about setting.  Dark Inside begins with 4 different towns in which the 4 different characters live.  Each town is hit by catastrophe in different ways.  This goes to show just how far-reaching the mysterious events behind the end of the world truly are.  Though each town is a different size and affected in different ways, they all share a common problem: the Baggers (the term used to describe the killers at several points throughout the book).  Whether the town falls to earthquakes, bombs, or a type of genocide involving the unaffected, each setting is the same in that nothing will ever be the same again.  As the characters travel across their countries and make their ways toward each other, we catch glimpses of other places that have been struck by disaster in different ways.  It is a truly horrifying landscape against which the story takes place, and the descriptions given make each come to life in the mind's eye.  This aspect of the book is so well done that I have absolutely no complaints.

If you are a fan of dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction, then you have absolutely got to read Dark Inside.  There is so much action, description, and character-building taking place within the pages of this book that you won't be disappointed.  Though a second book hasn't been mentioned so far as I can tell, I hope that we will be able to continue following these characters throughout this tragic, horrible world they are left with.  This was a truly satisfying read that I can see myself reading over again in the future.