A Beautiful Dark (A Beautiful Dark #1)

A Beautiful Dark (A Beautiful Dark #1) by Jocelyn Davies

Rating: 2.5 stars


I was so so so angry after reading this. I really disliked the whole story line and particularly, the main character. The main character was so pathetic and stupid! I really don't see how a girl like her can even be a main character! Let me summarise the plot in a couple of lines: A whinny girl was supposed to have great powers (which seemed non-existent until almost the very end). Two hot guys came along, each had their own agenda. The oh-poor girl fell for them. She couldn't make up her mind about either of them. One minute she distrusted one or the other of them, the next minute she completely couldn't live without him. She tried to learn to control her powers and make up her mind about the guys and which side to take (they each came from a different side) and failed (in both areas). Then came a shocking ending which made me go: "What the hell are you thinking, author?" No, definitely not "good-shocking", it was more like "Are you freakin' serious?" kind of shock. 


So now let's move on to why I hated the main character so much. From the above summary, she sure seemed pathetic. Most of the time I just really wanted to smack her head hard and slap some sense into her empty head. (OK, I'm usually not a violent person, but I felt like strangling her at one point of the book. She sure knew how to push my buttons.) Skye was such a whiner! She cried all the time. And by "all", I really meant ALL. Every few pages she would have a break down. You really couldn't go through a single chapter of the book without some sort of tears or 'heartache'. Awww, poor Skye, so sad! (NOT) I meant really, she was supposed to be all-powerful and kick-ass! Not a cry-baby who was controlled by how hot some guy looked! Before the two guys came along, she was a straight-A student, after the first day she met Asher and Devin, she was a goner. From an A to a D, ah-hemm, are you really that pathetic?! She was even supposed to keep up her perfect results and get an early-accept to Columbia University!
 Now, another thing, after a guy's played with your emotions and acted like a jerk, you still go running back to him and looking for him when you are sad, where is the logic in that? After someone treats you like crap, would you still hang out with them? Seriously, the flaws in the story continued to trail out, one after another like an out of control wheel rolling down the hill. 


The main character and her actions as well as the two male characters and their actions really decided the fate of the book for me. After the first page, it all went down hill. I didn't connect with any of the characters, they either seemed too fake for me, or too pathetic and stupid, or too much like a jerk. I really recommend the author to read over her characters' personalities before she kept writing and analyse the faults in the character constructions. Maybe with better characters, maybe even with ONE better character (I would really perfer it to be the main character), the book wouldn't have been so bad. I actually felt really sorry for the book, I couldn't even hate it.


The plot was not very innovative, the whole Light side and Dark side thing had been written countless times. Not much really happened in the book and the events weren't very memorable, as were the characters. The author had an original idea coming, and it could have been something worth a read if it had been developed and thought through better. Unfortunately it did not happen. The writing/language of the book was not of very high quality either, there were places where I felt a little awkward (not many though) and the structure of her writing really could have been better. The overall feeling of the writing felt like it had no centre point. It had a climax in the story, but it felt like the author just let go of her brain and let the pen wrote down anything she was thinking at the time. The flow of writing was everywhere, it didn't stay together as one whole. Sometimes I didn't see the connections between lines while other times I thought the lines weren't necessary at all. But still, the quality of the writing was the best thing of this book (so there, you can judge how good the rest of the book is yourselves). 


The ending was really abrupt. It was as if the author just slammed a cold wall in my face and stop me from seeing what's coming. It did not fee like a proper ending at all and that the author was in a hurry to finish. 


Overall, the book could have been condensed a bit (some parts dragged on) and added a bit more after the ending so that it didn't feel so abrupt and cut off. The plot and characters could both have been developed and re-thought a lot more while the author should have keep more of the originality of the story and not so much cliche from other YA novels. But I made it to the end without throwing it down, so that was an accomplishment. I still have an interest in the next book. But if I started reading it and it still has similar quality to this one with immature and stupid characters, then I will throw it down after the first few pages without a backward glance. 


Synopsis from Goodreads


On the night of Skye's seventeenth birthday, she meets two enigmatic strangers. Complete opposites—like fire and ice—Asher is dark and wild, while Devin is fair and aloof. Their sudden appearance sends Skye's life into a tailspin. She has no idea what they want, or why they seem to follow her every move—only that their presence coincides with a flurry of strange events. Soon she begins to doubt not just the identity of the two boys, but also the truth about her own past.

In the dead of a bitingly cold Colorado winter, Skye finds herself coming to terms with the impossible secret that threatens to shatter her world. Torn between Asher, who she can’t help falling for, and Devin, who she can’t stay away from, the consequences of Skye’s choice will reach further than the three of them could ever imagine.A Beautiful Dark is the first book in a captivating trilogy by debut author Jocelyn Davies.