Review (ARC): There Will Come a Darkness

Review (ARC): There Will Come a Darkness 

Title: There Will Come a Darkness

Author: Katy Rose Pool

Expected Publication: 3 September 2019

Format: Paperback, ARC from Book Expo

Pages: 496

Favorite Character: Penrose

Rating: 3 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: The Age of Darkness approaches.
Five lives stand in its way.
Who will stop it… or unleash it?

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations―until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.

All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction. As chaos takes hold, five souls are set on a collision course:

A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.

One of them―or all of them―could break the world. Will they be savior or destroyer?

Review:

There Will Come a Darkness was one of my most highly anticipated books for 2019, yet I honestly found myself kind of disappointed, at least for the first half of the story. The book was advertised for me the perfect read for fans of Six of Crows, which made me a bit nervous at first, because, well, we already have Six of Crows.

There Will Come a Darkness has some SOC vibes, but also reminds me of The Legend of Korra because a major part of the story is that there is a man who promotes fear and hate of the Graced, and also has a way of taking their abilities from them. A decent amount of this book really falls in line of The Legend of Korra in a way that is almost too similar for my taste.

Overall, the premise of this book sounded fantastic! Prophecies, impending doom, complex characters who could save the world or end it, and adventure? Amazing! Absolutely everything I want in a book.

Unfortunately, with 5 points of view, a painfully slow first 200-something pages, info-dumping, and unnecessary repetition, the story is just really hard to get into. I might be the only person who did not find the world-building in this novel to be amazing. To me, it was just too slow, and with there being several locations in the book, each one took a long time to be described, and by the end of it, I was struggling to remember what was what.

The characters themselves were definitely interesting, but I felt like as a reader I was giving too much information about each of them immediately. It took away the mystery of the story, though there were some great plot twists thrown in later on. I guess my point, and concern for this book, is that information is just piled on top of itself, and at times, I felt like I was reading a text book rather than a YA fantasy novel.

After page 230-ish, There Will Come a Darkness starts to find its footing. The chapters are shorter, the plot moves along, and the characters are really interacting with each other. I quite enjoyed the second half of the book, and it makes me pretty excited for what’s to come in the second book.

Despite the slowness of the story, I really do look forward to the second book. There Will Come a Darkness definitely set up for what I think has the potential to be a great series. This book was okay, but I think Katy Rose Pool has a great future in YA fantasy. World building and spreading out information is incredibly difficult (especially with 5 main characters!!), and I really applaud her for wanting to fit so much into one book.

There Will Come a Darkness is expected to be published this September! Give this book a try and let me know what you think!

 

 

 

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