Dark Inside
Jeyn Roberts
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Pages: 329

Rating: 3.5 stars

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies.

Mason’s mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police–who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd.

Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.

Dark Inside was a book I was really looking forward to. I had heard all sorts of brilliant praise and while it was a still a good book, it sadly did not live up to the hype I had heard.

I loved the idea behind Dark Inside. The book was told between many alternating perspectives which was cool. Aries storyline was definitely my favorite of the four. The others had their interesting moments, but I wasn’t as into their storylines. I loved as the story got more chaotic, the storylines began to intersect.

I was hoping for more from the plot. I thought this one was supposed to be scary, and for me, it was a bit intense at times at the most.  This book took quite awhile to get into – it was after page 100 until the story picked up enough for me to be captivated enough to read more than a few pages at a time.

The characters were intriguing. I really want to know more about Daniel. He is so mysterious, never revealing much. I really liked Aries as well – she had spunk. Chickadee was another character who I really liked, even though she played a small role in the book. Some of the other characters bugged me at times.

This was a book I did enjoy overall, but I had a lot of issues along the way. I am curious about the sequel, more because I’m hoping for more questions to be answered. This was a promising debut, and I’m curious to see more from Jeyn Roberts in the future.