Monday, February 23, 2015

Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars

Title For Darkness Shows the Stars
By Diana Peterfreund
Genre YA Scifi/fantasy
Pages 407

First sentence Dear Kai, my name is Elliot and I'm six years old and live in the big house.



Synopsis
Elliot made a choice four years ago to stay on her father's estate instead of going with the love of her life Kai. When Kai suddenly returns well off and successful Elliot has to face the choice she made even if it's breaking her heart. In this post apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, love conquers all.



What it has going for it
I loved the way this one starts out. It's definitely a YA post apocalyptic world but it still stayed pretty true to the original classic Persuasion.

Elliot stays behind and makes the choices she did for a good reason, well, a better reason than in the original and I liked the effect it had on my opinion of her. She has more spunk.

Even though the cover has nothing to do with the book or story I loved it.

What's lacking
I really hated the Reduction idea. Mainly because it wasn't really fleshed out very well. Which wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't such a huge part of the story but it was. If the preCORS pushed science too far that they caused the Reduction then why were they pushing it again? weren't they worried? I don't know. It just irritated me.

What was with the author choosing to make Elliot's dad a bad guy? That drove me crazy! Having him vain and lazy in Persuasion was good enough. No need to make him evil.

Kai was kind of a jerk.I mean, I get it. He was mad she didn't go with him but sheesh, she actually had a reason to stay behind and choose the estate over him in this version and he was much ruder than Captain Wentworth.

The letter just wasn't as good as the original. No letter will ever be as romantic as Captain Wentworth's letter to Anne. Sigh!

Yea or nay?
It started out OK but just got boring at the end. I prefer the original.

10 comments:

  1. +JMJ+

    I really like Persuasion! With Captain Wentworth's letter going for it, I really wonder why it's not better loved.

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  2. Ya, Kai was a jerk! I agree about the letter too. It wasn't as good as Wentworth's. Did you get a new wallpaper?

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    1. I did get a new wallpaper. Thanks for noticing. :)

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  3. I haven't read Persuasion so I can't compared. But I couldn't get over how big a jerk Kai was in this story. I felt bad for Elliot with all she was trying to keep together and he was just mean and crappy. So I wasn't much of a fan of this either.

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    1. I had a little more patience with him because I'd read Persuasion but yeah. It was hard reading how mean he was.

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  4. I have this on my TBR and will probably read it soon, but I can completely understand your feelings. The letter is never going to be as good as Captain Wentworth's in Persuasion! I have a feeling I will prefer the original too but will still give this one a chance.

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    1. Oh, is worth the read. Persuasion is just better.

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  5. I'm interested to see what I'll think, especially since I've now finished Persuasion (yay).

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    1. Yay! I knew you could do it. I look forward to your reveiw.

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