Review: The Dark Side of Night by Amanda Day

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy 

Pages: 307 

Edition: Kindle 

Source: Author

Oscar is a popular, yet seemingly normal guy who likes to hang out with his buddies and is studying to get into University. Cyan is completely complex and anything but normal. When Oscar stumbles into Cyan's 'world', his life is forever changed. Oscar must find a way to break through Cyan's tough outer shell and convince her to take him under her wing. There are things in this world that Oscar never knew existed and he's determined to learn more about them and how to kill them. After all, what he doesn't know could kill him and everyone else.

Let me start off with the story itself, I thought it was extremely interesting and enjoyable. It took me a little while to get used to the British vocabulary that the author (understandably) used. Once I got my head wrapped around that it was smoother sailing. There were a couple of minor editing errors but nothing that detracted from the story. One thing I did notice was that the author was quite loquacious and some of the scenes felt over written, if that makes sense. It's almost as if too much attention was paid to the smaller details. I did like the flow of the book, with alternating chapters based on the main characters. I think I would have preferred if the ending had stopped with Cyan's point of view instead of continuing on to Oscars,but it still worked.

Cyan is a strong character, she is well defined and I had no problem picturing her in my mind. I also related really well to her. I could absolutely imagine her loneliness and resulting aloofness. Oscar didn't come across as strong and he was a bit fuzzy in my mind. Maybe that's just because I didn't relate to him as well! The development of the relationship/friendship between Cyan and Oscar was engaging, although at times it did seem that Cyan was only interested in Oscar because of his aura and how it made her feel. That made me want to strangle her at times, but really you can't blame the girl for grasping at any good feelings that came her way.

Bonus- I loved how the title worked into the story!

Overall this was a unique read and a promising debut novel. I believe that the author has tremendous potential and I look forward to finding out what else Amanda Day has in store for us.

* I was given a free copy of this book for review purposes. The review is based solely on my opinion and was not influenced by author or publisher.

My Rating: 3/5 stars