Kim M's Reviews > Pitch Dark

When a terrorist organization crashes Laura Cruz’s ship into the John Muir—a 400-year-old vessel designed to preserve natural resources from Earth during the crisis that drove humans from the planet—she finds herself having to face former-human monsters who kill by screaming, having to flee an unknown hacker who always knows where she is, and having to evade the wealthy family who use technology to try to control her. She happens to run into Tuck Morgan, an original crew member of the John Muir who has recently awakened from a multi-century stasis, and together they fight to save the severely damaged ship, its natural resources, and the surviving members of both crews.

I’m giving this book 3.5 stars. It may not be as popular as some of the other YA books that have been released this year, but honestly, I think it’s higher quality than a lot of them. With the exception of the fact that they put Yosemite National Park on a spaceship (yeah, you heard right, YOSEMITE IS ON A SPACESHIP—BLUE SKIES AND ALL), there aren’t a lot of eyeroll-inducing aspects to the premise. This book has many strengths, many weaknesses, but overall, it’s a pretty good book.

Mostly good stuff:
(1) The dialogue is great. Everyone—Tuck especially—has a strong voice, and for the most part, nothing feels stilted. The dialogue is natural and people’s personalities come through.
(2) The characterization is mostly good. From the dialogue alone, I have a good idea of how each of the characters is. My only complaint is that, since so much of the book is spent silently running through tunnels or fighting monsters or almost dying in other ways, there isn’t a lot of time for the characters to really show who they are through actions. Characterization through dialogue is great and important, but it’s not the only aspect important to a personality. I want to see the characters interact with each other more and for there to be a variety of high- and low-intensity character- and relationship-building scenes. (We get some more of this toward the end, but I just really want more.)
(3) The Latinx representation is awesome. The Latinx population does not get featured much in American literature, so it was refreshing to read a book where a Latina main character kicks some butt while letting her culture and heritage shine through. Also, the inclusion of Spanish words is fun.
(4) The buildup of suspense at a scene level is excellent, especially toward the beginning. The first few encounters with the “mourners” are gripping. The rule is established: you can’t make a sound or they will find you. Naturally, this rule leads to some highly suspenseful scenes structured in just the right way to make your heart beat quicker. However, once I was well into the book, the novelty of the mourners wore off, and due to (view spoiler)[the lack of any lasting damage happening at the hands (eh… voice?) of a mourner ever (hide spoiler)], I just didn’t think they were creepy anymore. It’s like the author forgot that they were supposed to be scary and changed them from creepy terrifying monsters into minor annoyances.
(5) The terrorist organization, Pitch Dark, has a great motivation. Humans destroyed the Earth, and now they’re trying to colonize other planets. Rather than allow humanity to forge a path of destruction throughout the entire universe, Pitch Dark wants them stopped and destroyed. So like, they’re totally evil. But they’re also… kind of right?

Problematic stuff:
(1) The beginning is a little bit slow moving. To me, at least. I don’t know what it is; maybe the fact that not much time is passing and so there’s not time for much to happen besides the main plot of saving the ship? I definitely enjoyed a lot of scenes at the beginning, but it was a slow go for me. The scenes I liked were awesome, but the in-between stuff was a little boring?
(2) The romance is too fast. I mean, I know traumatic situations can bring people together. But when two people have known each other for like two minutes and they’re already thinking about how much they care about each other I just kinda roll my eyes. I have no problem with Tuck and Laura, but their interest in each other always feels forced upon them by the author to me.
(3) One of the “bad guy” groups is kinda lame. The mourners are cool (at least at the beginning), Pitch Dark is cool, but the Smithson family feels like such a random addition. Like, the story would hardly change without them existing. In theory, I like the idea of having opposition from so many sides, but all the sides need to contribute in order for it to work. As it is, the Smithsons just try to control Laura, (view spoiler)[fail, and then go to jail (hide spoiler)]. Eluding the control of the subjugator is far too easy, and they’re SO obvious about it that I don’t know why no one has discovered it before.
(4) Speaking of the subjugator, I don’t understand why it’s even there. It could be a really cool addition—a piece of parasitic technology that forces you to obey your oppressors and prevents you from revealing its presence to anyone—but it literally didn’t do anything. Laura always manages to wriggle out of her commands before any real harm is done, whether by finding loopholes or using sheer willpower (um, okay?). I mean, come on. If this awesome device is secretly trapped under Laura’s skin, I want to see it cause a disaster. I want Laura to actually do something terrible, to perhaps be seen by witnesses and be a real fugitive. (Yeah, she technically already is a fugitive, but it doesn’t really feel like it because it’s never a serious issue.) Or she could do horrible stuff in secret and have no way to warn anyone. Just, SOMETHING. Something besides Sebastian SUPER OBVIOUSLY telling her to walk on her injured and bloody feet in front of people and Laura awkwardly obeying. (Like, dude, like, how come no one has figured this out yet? HE’S SO OBVIOUS.) Also, (view spoiler)[how did TUCK of all people notice the subjugator in her throat? He’s a kid from 400 years ago when technology was far inferior and he’s known Laura for a few hours. Not to mention they’re in the dark deepdowns of the ship and running for their lives. What about her best friends and family? Just saying, if it’s that easy to notice, they would’ve already seen it… (hide spoiler)].

So there it is. This book does plenty of things well, has plenty of flaws, and is overall a pretty good book. I really hope more people pick it up.