Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis
- Pub. Date: September 25, 2018
- Publisher: Razorbill
- Pages: 368
- Series: Give the Dark My Love #1
- Rating:3.5/5
- Goodreads/Amazon
When seventeen-year-old Nedra Brysstain leaves her home in the rural, northern territories of Lunar Island to attend the prestigious Yugen Academy, she has only one goal in mind: learn the trade of medicinal alchemy. A scholarship student matriculating with the children of Lunar Island's wealthiest and most powerful families, Nedra doesn't quite fit in with the other kids at Yugen, who all look down on her.
All, except for Greggori "Grey" Astor. Grey is immediately taken by the brilliant and stubborn Nedra, who he notices is especially invested in her studies. And that's for a good reason: a deadly plague has been sweeping through the North, and it's making its way toward the cities. With her family's life--and the lives of all of Lunar Island's citizens--on the line, Nedra is determined to find a cure for the plague.
Grey and Nedra continue to grow closer, but as the sickness spreads and the body count rises, Nedra becomes desperate to find a cure. Soon, she finds herself diving into alchemy's most dangerous corners--and when she turns to the most forbidden practice of all, necromancy, even Grey might not be able to pull her from the darkness.
Review: I can never get enough books having to do with necromancy, now that I think about it there aren't that many books I have come across that have to do with the subject matter so of course, I had to get my hands on Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis.
I went into this novel expecting a fast-paced read from the very beginning and honestly, it wasn't. It was a slow build up the first half took me quite some time to get through, not that it wasn't interesting because it was but I didn't have the urge to flip the pages and read and read and read to my hearts content, I was able to put the book down, walk away and not have that urge to hurry up and pick it back up to see what happens next. It wasn't until the second half of the novel where things picked up and my curiosity started flourishing. This also wasn't my first Beth Revis book and I know she is one hell of a writer so I stuck with it and as expected wasn't disappointed.
There are two points of views in Give the Dark My Love, Nedra and Grey and the whole time I could not understand why Grey's POV was important, I don't feel like he moved the story along in any way, we learned a little about the politics of the world through him but nothing that couldn't have been figured out through Nedra. I really did not find him interesting and could care less about his character. Is it wrong to say I hope Revis just totally gets rid of his character in the next book? And if romance is a must maybe bring someone in who is a lot more complex and multidimensional?
Now on to what I loved, Nedra is the definition of an Anti-Hero and I loved it. It is so refreshing to read novels with anti-heroes. Nedra started off with good intentions but things happened that drove her to take the most drastic of measures. I don't want to give spoilers on why but I was rooting for her throughout the whole novel. I found her life and her world intriguing which is what kept me reading the first half when things were slow.
The book gets dark, really dark, I would definitely put Give the Dark My Love in the horror genre especially the second half and I am so excited for the next book. Overall it started off slow, there were some things I didn't like but nothing that took away from my overall enjoyment of the book and I am looking forward to seeing what becomes of Nedra.
