Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies.Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd.
Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.

This review is long over due. I read this book at the end of December and never got around to reviewing with the bustle of the holidays. Of course, it's only when I need to write a review that I remember that I still need to review Dark Inside. (I try to post a review about twice a week and so far my blog has been desolate and empty this week.) 

I have talked to the author of this book before and I was interested to read it, and I found it to be an interesting read if one that didn't answer many questions. 

The opening scenes are one that you might find in a classic science fiction movie: the Apocalypse is here. Gigantic tornadoes sweep the nation, people get killed in the brink of an eye, the hospitals are overcrowded and people swarm the streets simply looking for food and shelter and trying to avoid the deadly creatures. A group of teens work together to help each other and try to survive. 

Now, in the sense, that's something I might find at the movie theater. And there are other books (and movies) on Apocalypses. Sometimes these books that seem ripped from movies seem better fit to remain on the screen, and others (like Divergent ) are a nice popcorn read. I wasn't sure which way Dark Inside would fall. In the end, it seemed to be a nice popcorn read with a good deal of substance. 


The plot was interesting, and of course, adventurous. The scenes of horror were described nicely and as well as terrifying me. (Jeyn definitely knows how to write horror.) I did feel like I didn't know much about the Baggers, and so many questions were left unanswered. I know that this is the first book in the series, but at the end I was left fairly bewildered. 

The characters-- there are a LOT. Jeyn chose four teens to write third person viewpoints from (Aries, Clementine, Mason, Michael) but the teens meet plenty of other people along the way, some that they join with, others that they betray, some that betray them. It was hard to keep track of all the characters at times, and they would switch back and forth between "rescue groups" so often I got confused. But all the narration was very realistic and sounded how real teenagers speak, and I related to all of the characters and their predicaments. 

As for the writing, Jeyn is a very gifted writer. She wrote third person extremely well and made each character defined. Her writing was very fluid, and scary. As mentioned before she definitely can write horror. This book isn't really the paranormal/sci-fi hybrid one might make it out to be as much as a scary, horror-filled novel. She's a good writer to watch and I'll read the sequel. 

If you like horror, sci fi, or you just want to be scared, this is a good book and a strong start to the series.