Darkness Falls - Jessica Sorensen

Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls #1)
by Jessica Sorensen
14th March 2012
Jessica Sorenson 

When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across. Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:
Rule #1—Never go out after dark.
Rule #2—Always carry a weapon.
Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bitten.
But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply?
The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires.
No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told. But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure.

Sorensen has completely changed the word vampire by portraying them as not the beautiful, mysterious creatures that we have come to know but by making them ugly, scary and the monsters that they were originally made to be, this book is a refreshing break from today’s stereotype.

I fell into Kayla’s world easily and after the first few chapters it was easy to grasp the backstory and understand just what Kayla’s world was about. This book shows an apocalyptic future filled with vampires that were created as a result of something humans did but the most intriguing thing is that no one seems to remember life before the virus spread, except Kayla. Just one memory, but it’s enough to keep her asking questions.

I was completely blown away by this book because it has kept me confused and intrigued, I still can’t figure out how everything fits together or even who Kayla really is and that’s how I know I loved it. Being able to see the end of a story a mile away is something that constantly irritates me because I want to feel shocked and surprised by a character and their decisions.

Sorensen has achieved this flawlessly because Kayla herself doesn’t even know who she really is or what she wants. The gaps in her memories creates gaps in the story that make it impossible for me to fill, I can’t guess what’s going to happen because I don’t have all the information and that makes this a gripping read.

My favourite element of this book is that it’s not a love story; it’s a story about a girl struggling to figure out who she really is and what role she plays in the world, much like the rest of us. Love does come into the story pretty early on but not in the way I was expecting and it never becomes the focus of the book, it is something that so far has been kept to the side and only mentioned where necessary and that’s because Kayla doesn’t really understand love or any of her feelings in general and this is something else that makes it impossible to know which direction she’s going to take.

I couldn’t have guessed that this story would take the direction it did and I was genuinely surprised to find that it is not a story that focuses solely on the supernatural but a story that combines magic and science to an extent. I am looking forward to seeing where this story leads and what’s in store for the next book it has already become one of my favourites.

Check out Jessica Sorensen's blog here

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- Stephanie