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lawbooks600's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Score: Six and a half out of ten.
That was a unique book. I wanted to read Dark Blue Rising by Teri Terry for a while but I put it off for a few months until I saw it hiding on a library shelf. It looked like few people read it, so I picked it up and glanced at the intriguing blurb. When I closed the final page, the book was flawed, but enjoyable.
It starts with Tabitha or Tabby, living with her mother, Cate, in the opening pages until Tabby's mother is arrested for an unknown reason and another character took Tabby somewhere else. The pacing is slow in the opening pages, and I thought the entire narrative would be tedious to read, but at least there are more action scenes in the finishing pages. Did I mention Dark Blue Rising is almost 400 pages long? Something was off about Tabby based on her dialogue, making her seem more naïve than her peers, like when she had to learn text messaging. There is a mystery aspect where Tabby discusses an organisation only known as The Circle, whose logo is four connected circles, but it's still unclear who they are, other than an environmentalist group.
Tabby is now in a leisure centre where she can swim as much as she likes, as it is her passion, then she joins a training program with other swimmers, before finally going to an elite but isolated swimming institution. There are a lot of scenes where I get to see Tabby doing what she enjoys best, but it got tiring and repetitive over time. Tabby's naïveté isn't a new character trait to me as I saw that in other works I've read from different authors. Tabby stays in that final place for a while. Nothing intriguing about that. Except for when Tabby swims alone and discovers a human fish hybrid, which must've been a result of an experiment. The conclusion shows the UK, Tabby's home country, affected by storms, but at that point I disconnected from the narrative. Perhaps Red Sky Burning would be an improvement.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Full trigger warnings: Car crash, death of a person, near-death experiences, physical injury, blood depictionlybrarie's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I have been a huge fan of Teri Terry's books since I first read Slated a few years ago. This is my second read of this book in preparation for the sequel coming out shortly.
I think Teri Terry has some fantastic ideas for her stories, the concepts and plots are always so intriguing for me. In my opinion, this wasn't the strongest of Terry's books but I do think it was a great set-up for the rest of the trilogy with some mysteries I definitely cannot wait to solve. This book was a bit slow in places, but overall it was a pretty quick read (I read it in about 3 days). I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.
I think Teri Terry has some fantastic ideas for her stories, the concepts and plots are always so intriguing for me. In my opinion, this wasn't the strongest of Terry's books but I do think it was a great set-up for the rest of the trilogy with some mysteries I definitely cannot wait to solve. This book was a bit slow in places, but overall it was a pretty quick read (I read it in about 3 days). I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent
Minor: Animal cruelty and Kidnapping
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