Book review: For darkness shows the stars by Diana Peterfreund

For darkness shows the stars.

Author: Diana Peterfreund.

Pages: 402

Goodreads rating: 3.98

Buying links: Amazon/ B&N/ TBD

Summary:

It's been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family's estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot's estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth--an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret--one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she's faced with a choice: cling to what she's been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she's ever loved, even if she's lost him forever.

Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

 

  

 

For darkness shows the stars by Diana Peterfreund is the weirdest book I’ve ever read.

Yeah, not the best way to start a so-called review but it’s the truth. This book was weird in the best way of weirdness.

To be honest, probably I’m the only girl of my country who never read a book by Jane Austen, yet, I saw the movies (loved them!) and I know how awesome this author is. When I read that For darkness shows the stars was inspired by a Jane Austin’s book I got curious, but I never had the chance to read it until I was approved to and ARC of Across a star-swept sea.

I’m not going to lie, this book was really difficult (to me) to understand in the first chapters. I don’t know if it was because of the terms or that I didn't put enough attention, but I was really, really lost. But then, when I got everything clearly, I wasn't able to put it down.

Yes, this was a dystopian book with no violence or horrible death, but it was cruel, and at the same time it was truly romantic.

I loved the letters between Elliot and Kai because I think it was a great way to let us understand the plot even better.

A world destroyed because the men played God was really unique. And after that a young girl trying her best to make her lands a better world for those weaker was so beautiful and charming.

In my honest opinion, this book reminds me a little of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but in a future world. The fleet is a lot like the gypsies in the novel by Garcia Marquez. Traveling around the world, being as close as a real family, discovering new things. Yeah, that was really special, and I loved to see it in a book like this.

Elliot was the strongest and the most loyal character that I’ve known. She doesn’t fight with a sword, she doesn’t shoot, she doesn’t organize a revolution but she fights for love, for justice, for her lands.

And Kai… he was so lovely. He was cruel almost the half of the book but we come to see him as he really is, we can understand him.

The fleet is unique! I loved each one each one of them specially Donovan and Andromeda…

And the names? If you think I loved all the things mentioned above, just must to know that I loved the names almost as much as the story itself.

The only sad thing is that the romance “romance” had to wait until the last chapters of the book. I thought that there will be a sequel of this story but I’ve seen now that the ending was meant to be like that and now I understand. And know I like it.

So, if you’re a Jane Austen fan, if you liked One hundred years of solitude, if you like weird and sad dystopian worlds, then you are going to love this beautiful story by Diana Peterfreund.

“Envy hurt exponentially more than heartbreak because your soul was torn in two, 

half soaring with happiness for another person, half mired in a well of selfpity and pain.”