Review: Darkside

Darkside by Belinda Bauer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

WHAT.
THE.
FRICKAFRACK.
DID I JUST READ.

I am ... at a loss for words.

This book was absolutely DULL and FRUSTRATING and COLOURLESS and BLAND and basically a struggle for the first 350-odd pages. I considered DNFing it so many times. It was THAT boring. I hated all the characters and I hated having to learn about every inhabitant of the town and I hated the small-town setting and I hated the absolute ridiculousness of how badly these cops were doing their job.

AND THEN.

It just ... took off. Everything started happening, puzzles came and were solved in a rush, people were suddenly revealing secrets ... everything that was boring about this book vanished and suddenly I couldn't stop. The whole story just unravelled and I had no clue what was going on and now I've finished it and I'm just ... in shock.

I have so many issues with this book, not the least of how it's made me feel on finishing it. I mean... what the heck WAS that.

So let me break it down:
-The pace is terrible
-The characters are all awful
-The plot is almost non-existent
-Dull setting
-Last 100 pages came outta nowhere

So mostly I hated reading it but then it got ... not good, but addictive? and then it ended in such a fked up kinda way. I just ... I don't know how to rate it. Let me spoiler-rant for a bit.

(view spoiler)[WHAT THE FRAGGLE ROCK WAS THAT ENDING. It's so psychotic. I'm so frustrated that it's never really properly explored? Also why did it wait til the last 100 pages to tell us about everyone's secrets? About Jonas's sordid past? Why did we have no clues? I mean it just didn't make a lot of sense to me? I'M SO FRUSTRATED. Why would Lucy stab herself in the throat? That seems like such a weird place to stab yourself. Also, why? How does that help? He's literally a psycho on edge because you tried to kill yourself so how is the answer suicide? And speaking of suicide, are we gonna talk about Danny's confession? Are we gonna clear up that whole stable incident? Jonas lives, but because we now know what the deal is, the story just stops??? If you ask me, this book should have started at 350 and kept going from there. What a waste of all that last minute drama. It just doesn't sit right with me. (hide spoiler)]

Ok I know I'm doing it backwards but basically this book is about a cop in a small town who has to solve a murder, while dealing with fancy cops from the 'big smoke' (out of town, anyway) and also trying to care for his ailing wife, who has MS. But someone starts taunting him by leaving notes about him not doing his job, and he's a bit mystified as well because he knows everyone in the town and how can any of them be capable? So then we get to know all about them for 350 pages. Also he's in his 30s but acts like he's bloody 60 or something.

The book focuses so much on the town and its inhabitants that the plot just feels thin and barely there. It's quite dull unless you dig the small-town vibes, but it picks up in the last 5th of the book and if you're anything like me you'll be left wondering what the heck just happened.

I can't say I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I saw it through to the end.

I've loved the other two Belinda Bauer books I've read and you can appreciate her writing with that last bit, but overall it was mostly just disappointing. I'm happy to wash my hands of it, to be honest.


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