by Kay | Jul 31, 2010 | Reviews, Summer Shorts |
Summer Shorts is a weekly feature on Dead Book Darling, reviewing great short stories every Saturday through July-August 2010.
Dangerous (Darkest Powers Story) by Kelley Armstrong
Rating:
Free online story! Click here to read the story on Kelley Armstrong’s website.
Thoughts: This brilliant Darkest Powers story tells us how Derek and Simon got to Lyle House. Considering Derek is insanely smart, I had been wondering how he managed to get himself and his brother locked up. Armstrong does a fantastic job explaining the circumstances. It’s rather tragic and rather wonderful – and, best of all, it’s in Derek’s POV.
Oh, Derek. *sighs* *gets misty eyed* Ahem.
Anyhow, this story is a hundred pages of epic brotherly love. Honestly – Derek and Simon could give the Winchesters (Supernatural TV) a run for their money. They had such fabulous interplay between them – both trying to protect each other (usually Derek was the only successful one) whilst bantering non-stop. It is fabulous.
Now, I expected to love Derek in this – and trust me, I did – but what I wasn’t expecting was Simon. Oh, Simon. He desperately wants to keep his brother with him, and tries so damn hard to make Derek admit to what he wants. Not that he succeeds – Derek is as stubborn as a mule. But while I understood the extent of Derek’s love for Simon from the DP trilogy, in Dangerous we see just how much Simon loves his brother back: an awful lot.
Bottom line? You absolutely must read this. Although, even though it is set before The Summoning – make sure you read that first. It will make the experience 100x better.
Kelley Armstrong is currently writing another online short story in Derek’s POV set between The Summoning and The Awakening. It is called Divided and is currently a WIP. Check her blog to see for regular updates!
by Kay | Jun 30, 2010 | Weekly Feature |
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that are being eagerly anticipated.
The Gathering (Darkness Rising, #1) by Kelley Armstrong
Goodreads – Awesome Darkest!series website
April 12th 2011 by Harper CollinsMaya lives in a small medical-research town on Vancouver Island. How small? You can’t find it on the map. It has less than two-hundred people, and her school has only sixty-eight students—for every grade from kindergarten to twelve.
Now, strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya’s determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya’s home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts getting negative vibes from certain people and things. It doesn’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret—and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark.
VERY exciting WoW post this week, because look! There’s a cover for The Gathering! Eep! It’s just so exciting, and makes the whole damn thing feel real. And sure, it’s not coming out for almost a year and the cover is no where near as awesome as the Darkest Powers covers but still… eep! THE EXCITEMENT!
by Kay | Jun 20, 2010 | Book Talk |
Unlike a lot of other YA bloggers out there, I did not “get into” YA from Twilight. I hadn’t read YA novels as a young adult and, to be honest, I didn’t even consider it a “real” genre. And even though I read Twilight to see what all the fuss was about, it didn’t change my mind on the matter.
And then, about a year after I read Twilight – okay, May 2009, but who’s counting? – I picked up The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong. I was intrigued by the concept of a teen who sees ghosts being locked up in a mental institution. It was just such a logical reaction to an inconceivable supernatural power, not to mention it meant lots of lovely opportunities to explore social opinions about mental illness. I was eager to see if Armstrong – who I had never heard of – could pull it off. Admittedly, I didn’t think she could!
I was so wrong.
I finished The Summoning that same night – and had ordered The Awakening by the next day. When it came, I devoured it. If anything, The Awakening was even better than The Summoning (even though it lacked all that deep – and very well handled – social commentary). When I found out that The Reckoning wasn’t coming out until the next year, I could have cried.
And during that epic wait, I went in search of all sorts of brilliant YA novels to keep me busy. YA book bloggers pointed me in the right direction, and led me to start my own – and the rest, as they say, is history.
Why are you bringing this up, you ask?
Because there is a brand new DARKEST POWERS WEBSITE!
It’s epic. The whole site is done up as Edison Group files, meaning Chloe is a “Case Study” and Derek’s bio is listed under “Known Associates”. Pretty cool, huh? It’s also got Kelley’s blog incorporated into it, complete with all her lovely DP-verse short stories. Not to mention a LOT of new information about her upcoming YA trilogy Darkness Rising.
The new trilogy starts with The Gathering (April 12th, 2011) and stars Maya Delany. Like the Darkest Powers series, it also focusses on teens who were subjects in Edison Group projects. But instead of a vague summary to keep fans wondering, Kelley has put up biographic information about all the characters in the new books – including one lovely German Shepherd named Kenji (*is in love*)!
And to top it all off, there is even a whopping thirteen-page excerpt from the book! How brilliant is that? Finding it isn’t too tricky – but you have to go into a “restricted area”, keeping with the theme of the whole site.
All of the old content is still there, including fanart, playlists and videos for the Darkest Powers. If you haven’t been yet, go now! And while you’re there, make sure to read Dangerous – a DP short story told from Derek’s POV!
by Kay | Apr 11, 2010 | Events for the Bookish |
Lydia over at The Lost Entwife has come up with a great challenge for the hour:
Here is your question: Think of your favorite book – has it been made into a movie? If not (and maybe you’ll need to go to your 2nd favorite book and so on), tell me if you’d like to see it made into a movie and pick one character from the book and give me information on which actor you’d love to see cast in the part. Make your post as fun as possible, tell me why you think the movie would be amazing and why the actor/actress you chose would be perfect in the part!
Well, I don’t really have a favourite book in the strictest sense. I do, however, have several contenders for the title. Unsurprisingly, to those of you who frequent DBD, I LOVE the Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong. Seriously. Big, Big Super!Fan.
So, I thought I would cast my two favourite characters from the series:
Dakota Fanning as Chloe Saunders!
She is an amazingly talented actress, and looks slightly too young. Chloe is described as a rather under-developed, young-looking 15 year old – and I think Dakota has a face that could pull that off even in her late teens.
This shot is from Dakota’s film Push, and she even has the crappy!red-streaks that Chloe has in the books. FATE. ♥
Steven Strait as Derek Souza!
Okay, so he isn’t covered in acne. But neither is Derek towards the end. He just has that rugged!handsome look, combined with possibly-werewolf-like!earthiness and a not-disturbing!well built body. And I think Steven could pull off the genius that is Derek.
And just look at those vaguely-emo!eyebrows – you’d follow a guy with those into the woods, wouldn’t you?
*sighs*
Anyhow, that’s my dream cast. *pets the pretties* Am off to continue reading Perfect Chemistry!
by Kay | Apr 6, 2010 | News, Reviews |
Today is the release date of THE RECKONING BY KELLEY ARMSTRONG! Yay! This is the final book in the Darkest Powers trilogy, which started with THE SUMMONING and THE AWAKENING.
You’ll probably have noticed from the layout (and my incessant squee posts) that I am a huge fan of these books. While most people got into YA because of the Twilight books, I got into the genre because of this series! The books are action-packed, and far too easy to devour. And they are packed with paranormal beasties: werewolves, necromancers, ghosts, evil!humans, and witches, oh my!
The Summoning Summary: Chloe Saunders sees dead people. Yes, like in the films. The problem is, in real life saying you see ghosts gets you a one-way ticket to the psych ward. And at 15, all Chloe wants to do is fit in at school and maybe get a boy to notice her. But when a particularly violent ghost haunts her, she gets noticed for all the wrong reasons. Her seemingly crazed behaviour earns her a trip to Lyle House, a centre for ‘disturbed teens’.
At first Chloe is determined to keep her head down. But then her room mate disappears after confessing she has a poltergeist, and some of the other patients also seem to be manifesting paranormal behaviour. Could that be a coincidence? Or is Lyle House not quite what it seems…? Chloe realizes that if she doesn’t uncover the truth, she could be destined for a lifetime in a psychiatric hospital. Or could her fate be even worse…? Can she trust her fellow students, and does she dare reveal her dark secret?
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Review! The Reckoning (Darkest Powers #3) by Kelley Armstrong
The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
Series: Darkest Powers #3on 2010-04-06
Pages: 400
Genres: Young Adult
Source: Purchased myself
Add to Goodreads
Rating: Only two weeks ago, life was all too predictable. But that was before I saw my first ghost. Now along with my supernatural friends Tori, Derek, and Simon, I'm on the run from the Edison Group, which genetically altered us as part of their sinister experiment. We're hiding in a safe house that might not be as safe as it seems. We'll be gone soon anyway, back to rescue those we'd left behind and take out the Edison Group... or so we hope.
SPOILERS for the first to books. But most are rather vague… if you aren’t a hard-liner, you should be fine!
Thoughts: It is so damn hard to write reviews for books you love, so I apologise in advance for the incoherence! I had been holding my breath for a year waiting for The Reckoning to come out. The first two books in the series were absolutely fantastic – action packed with a very subtle romance tension that made my stomach flip. So needless to say, getting my hands on the last of the Darkest Powers trilogy as exciting as getting a new Harry Potter book as a wee girl.
Where to start? Well, Armstrong successfully managed to include plot twists and turns I was completely unprepared for. Considering I had had a year to think it over, I thought I had a pretty good idea how this book would go. I was so wrong! The action was violent, sudden, and unexpectedly terrifying – and intensely emotional. Chloe and Derek had to do some things they really weren’t ready for, and it pained me to read what Armstrong put them through.
Only that angst? Made it the book all the better.
We also got a great look at Tori’s character. She was such a villian in the first book in the series, but The Reckoning has really made me like her. Apparently she can be just as good a friend as she can be an enemy (not that she’d ever admit to liking any of these losers!) Armstrong includes some very subtle hints at what lies beneath her bitchy exterior – Tori engrossed in The Count of Monte Cristo was one I was not expecting. I would love to read more about her in Armstrong’s next YA books!
I am not going to comment too much about the romantic triangle in this book – other than to say it plays a much bigger role and is dealt with extremely well. If you hadn’t picked up these books because of their lack of romance, well, you should have. Read all three at once, and you won’t be lacking for a thing.
And how about the ending? Well, The Reckoning really does feel like the end of a trilogy – but not the end of a series. There are still plenty of questions left to explore, and plenty of characters you will want to hear more from. I was left totally satisfied, but also ludicrously excited about Armstrong’s next trilogy!
Bottom line? The Reckoning is the best book in an amazing trilogy and I would give it ten stars if I could!
OMG I’ve finished it! What now? Armstrong is going to be publishing a new YA trilogy in the same verse, and Chloe should be featured in it (just not as the protagonist!) She also confirmed that she will be writing more books from Chloe’s POV – but we will just have to wait a while. To hold you off, read Kelley Armstrong’s short story Dangerous. It is from Derek’s POV set prior to The Summoning – explaining how he and Simon ended up in the Lyle House.
