Review | 'For Darkness Shows the Stars'

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is the post-apocalyptic (of sorts) dystopian story of Elliot North, a Luddite, and her relationship with Kai Wentworth, a Post. Luddites and Posts compose the population in this society; a split that occurred after The Reduction, an occurrence resulting from technological revolution reaching an unpreventable state. The book is a tale of choice and temptation, developed at a disappointingly lukewarm pace.

Just a reminder, this review WILL contain spoilers pertaining to this novel, and although they are mild, I would not recommend reading this review to anyone who has not read FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS.

Let's analyze the pros and cons of Diana Peterfreund's novel, shall we?

CONS:
>There were points in the story where I thought "Oh, we're getting somewhere here!" and were just ultimately left alone. This story could have gone so many places, but it...didn't.

>There were so many unnecessary scenes of pointless dialogue and plot exposition placed haphazardly, to the point where it got a bit annoying.

>There's a lot of confusion and ambiguity surrounding The Reduction. I'm not sure whether or not that confusion was intended, but it definitely didn't work well with the plot.

>The motivations of some characters were so misguided and messed up. I think Elliot's constant attraction to Kai grew to be annoying, and I honestly began to ship Elliot/Horatio, and hoped they would end up together. Kai was never, and never would be, a good fit for Elliot, but she just fell back in love with him all over again multiple times. I could see where her reactions to Kai/Olivia's relationship came from, but there was not a lot of realism to the concept further than her initial, petty reactions.

PROS:
>The essence of Elliot's choice was very realistic, and it was supported with the letters that provided intermission to the story. In most YA novels, romance is centered solely around mystery or physical attraction, but this book has a much more understandable internal conflict; deriving from Elliot's early friendship with Kai, their separation as friends, and his return to her life. Elliot is then faced with the conflict of choosing whether or not to rebuild her relationship with Kai.

>Character development was mediocre in the book, but I wouldn't file that under my con list, so I suppose it belongs here. There were many characters to keep track of in this book--Elliot, Kai, Ro, Dee, Horatio, Olivia, Tatiana, among others--and they all seemed to get there own little spotlight, which was nice. There weren't any characters who played no significance whatsoever, so I'm glad Peterfreund paid attention to all of them.

>I touched on this a bit earlier, but I really loved the use of Elliot and Kai's letters. It help build the story, which was good.

>Peterfreund has a very fresh, open writing style. I feel like she has a lot of untapped potential.

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