Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Dark Rise

First off, I love the premise. Starts out as a very typical, Light vs Dark & Chosen One fantasy, but it becomes pretty clear about 1/3 in that the author is planning to subvert tropes and flip some things around.

I love the beginning of the book. I throws you right into the action and makes for a great start. I will say there are A LOT of male characters with basic names you're introduced to early on, and I had some trouble keeping them all straight in my head.

I also LOVE the ending. Even having figured out the main plot points, I was still super impressed and engaged with how it was writen and how the details were tied in.

The book really plays into this idea of history being doomed to repeat itself and has many characters struggling against the roles they find themselves cast into. I think this is a super interesting dynamic and sets up for book two phenomenally.

Now the bad parts. The pacing in the middle was off for me. There were sections with nothing but info dump that dragged on and others with plots and quests that felt super rushed. A lot of side quests were packed into the middle that I felt could've been either cut or expanded. As it was ... they simply existed. I also felt there were too many side characters mentioned that ended up with little to no plot relevance. Definitely a forgivable offense, but worth noting.

All in all, a good intro to what seems like a very promising series.

Content Warnings

drasticpear's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional tense

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Everything faded, this world insignificant; James was the only real thing in it. You, you you. James's extraordinary beauty pressed in like a knife; it hurt.

Fuck me this was good. The characters are all interesting and loveable. I love Will & Violet's friendship. The fuckin twist! The goddamn ending! God!

Content Warnings

rinniebeanie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Goddamn it, c.s. pacat has done it again. //Positive

No but for real, capri is one of my favorite series ever and so I've finally gotten around to read dark rise. The beginning is a bit slow but it's necessary for the signature pacat world and lore building. The last few chapters fly by like a bullet train, you won't know what hit you. Even being able to infer or guess what will happen will not prepare you for what actually takes place.

Content Warnings

k8buysrum's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The story was so good, it just took a little while to get it going. There’s quite the lull of world building information in the early to middle section that was a little dull. But the main characters are great. The unfolding of information and plot is great. I leave the first book all twisted up inside for how things may go in the second. I’m looking forward to reading it!

Content Warnings

evbyrd's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Content Warnings

thymeslyp's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This is a knock off of The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. It’s well written but a pretty blatant copy and what it adds isn’t very interesting imo.

there is a twist at the end but if I tell you there is a twist then you’ll easily guess what the twist is

at the end of the day a really good last hour of an audiobook doesn’t make up for the lead up being fairly boring.

I don’t like books where 3/4 of the characters are just there to die

Mild vent- I picked up this acclaimed TikTok book only to find out it's just a clone of one of my favorite books that won a newbery.

This book: dark rise, main character: and English boy named Will (17) who is on the run from some scary other world baddies "the dark". He finds the "light" who are called stewards and learns magic from the old steward while hanging out in a pocket out side of time. All very Arthurian legend coded.

The award winning book from 1973- titled 'The Dark is Rising'. Main character a boy name Will (12). Creepy things begin happening to him and on his 12th but he finds out he is a member of a group of spiritual beings called the old ones who exist outside of time. He learns magic from the eldest old one (will is the youngest and last to be born) who happens to be Merlin if you know Arthurian legends. The only ones are the "circle of light" that stand against the darkness.

Content Warnings

offthecarousel_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Hmm.... this book left me pretty conflicted. I liked the characters, the plot seemed teased throughout the book so things seemed to come along mostly naturally, though a couple things felt a little choatic. Once again, I've stumbled into a book that's probably too dark for me, but I want to trust the author that there will be comfort at some point later in the trilogy (I've read something of theirs before). Based on reviews of the second book though it seems like I'll be waiting for book 3 for that lol. I've tipped it to 4 because I realize I think parts of this book just aren't aimed with me as the audience in mind.

One thing that seemed strange to me were that the events of the book seem cyclical. The main characters would sneak out of the sanctuary to do something dangerous and then go back in. Then they'd sneak out again to do something and go back in. Then, wouldn't you know it, the book ends with a character sneaking out once again. It just felt repetitive when those are the big moments in the book.

The other thing that frustrates me is when a character is one of the main POVs of the book but a good chunk of their thought process is hidden from us because of plot twist reasons. I felt like for Violet's POV, we got a lot of internal thoughts and feelings, but Will's POV was more distant with lots of his thoughts and feelings hidden from the reader. Will's full thoughts are only revealed after he's made a decision or done some action. When that happens I'm very tempted to say, "Just don't have things from his POV then," but... I feel that it's done deliberately so the reader's feelings echo Violet's in the end. It's frustrating for me, and not a stylistic choice I'm a fan of, but it's done fairly well.

That said, I do enjoy a lot of the dialogue between characters and the way their friendships and trust developed. I'm semi-interested in reading the rest of the trilogy.

Content Warnings

More...