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| The cover is gorgeous. Sophisticated, yet edgy. |
The Dark Space
Authors: Mary Ann Rivers and Ruthie KnoxPublished: 1 June 2015 by Brain Mill Press
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Format: Kindle ebook
Source: Purchased
Links: Goodreads, Publisher
Synopsis:
College senior Winnie Frederickson has accomplished nothing in four years but summa cum laude and the power of invisibility.
A professor’s kid, carelessly popular Cal Darling feels like he’s been going to college forever. If there’s anything left to learn, he’s not going to find it in the classroom.
The theater department’s “make-out class” is famously hard to get into, and what goes on between the twelve people who take it every spring is an annual topic of speculation. Winnie needs one more arts class to appear well-rounded for fellowships. Cal is just… bored.
The dark space – a class, a place, a state of mind – is ready for them both.
Rating:
Review and Discussion:
It is with sadness and disappointment that I write this review. It fell so incredibly short of even my lowest expectations, which I hadn't even considered could possibly be met.
I have been a fan of co-author Ruthie Knox for a while; I love her adult romance novels (About Last Night is my favourite), as well as her new adult novels under her pseudonym Robin York (Deeper and Harder). But this latest work of hers with Mary Ann Rivers – The Dark Space – was so far from her previous works and did not meet any of my expectations.
When I read Knox's newsletter where she shared the story behind The Dark Space, I was expecting to only love the story. I was expecting a beautiful coming-of-age story, one with mature themes and powerful plots to give readers an uplifting and heartwarming experience. Something like Deeper.
Instead, I experienced confusion, frustration, and annoyance while reading this book.
I sincerely tried to love this book, but as I kept reading, searching for something to grasp onto, I found that there was really nothing for me to love. It had good intentions to be a beautiful book about growing up and finding yourself, but it just wasn't executed well at all.
Nothing felt properly developed; characters were sketchy, the plot was shaky, and the general feel of this book was uncomfortable and disjointed. It felt like the beginnings of a story – planning things out in a crazy fashion – instead of a final, ready-to-publish book. Each chapter felt more like a short story, as though the authors had written another, longer book for these characters, and had just selected a few bits from that book, cut and pasted them into this book. I felt that the chapter didn't really connect, that the POVs changed too often, and that each section was surface-level story telling with no way to make deeper connections about the intended messages of this book. Each section felt more like a short scene than a full chapter arc.
I struggled to connect with the characters, because I felt that I wasn't given an opportunity to get to know them. We missed so much of their story, which was summarised in later chapters to try and fill the gaps. At one point, there were a bunch of characters involved in the one scene, but I had no idea who any of them were. Had I met them before? Aren't Beth and Sarah the same character? Why are they suddenly having weird, twisted orgies?
That was another aspect of the book I didn't enjoy – the bizarre, totally not believable sex. Orgies, suddenly sleeping with a guy you've known for five seconds, fucking each other during class, having your sexual debut filmed for your final project. It was all just too weird for me. The sex, the characters, the story, everything about this book.
I really wanted to love it, but I just didn't enjoy any of it whatsoever.
I have been a fan of co-author Ruthie Knox for a while; I love her adult romance novels (About Last Night is my favourite), as well as her new adult novels under her pseudonym Robin York (Deeper and Harder). But this latest work of hers with Mary Ann Rivers – The Dark Space – was so far from her previous works and did not meet any of my expectations.
When I read Knox's newsletter where she shared the story behind The Dark Space, I was expecting to only love the story. I was expecting a beautiful coming-of-age story, one with mature themes and powerful plots to give readers an uplifting and heartwarming experience. Something like Deeper.
Instead, I experienced confusion, frustration, and annoyance while reading this book.
I sincerely tried to love this book, but as I kept reading, searching for something to grasp onto, I found that there was really nothing for me to love. It had good intentions to be a beautiful book about growing up and finding yourself, but it just wasn't executed well at all.
Nothing felt properly developed; characters were sketchy, the plot was shaky, and the general feel of this book was uncomfortable and disjointed. It felt like the beginnings of a story – planning things out in a crazy fashion – instead of a final, ready-to-publish book. Each chapter felt more like a short story, as though the authors had written another, longer book for these characters, and had just selected a few bits from that book, cut and pasted them into this book. I felt that the chapter didn't really connect, that the POVs changed too often, and that each section was surface-level story telling with no way to make deeper connections about the intended messages of this book. Each section felt more like a short scene than a full chapter arc.
I struggled to connect with the characters, because I felt that I wasn't given an opportunity to get to know them. We missed so much of their story, which was summarised in later chapters to try and fill the gaps. At one point, there were a bunch of characters involved in the one scene, but I had no idea who any of them were. Had I met them before? Aren't Beth and Sarah the same character? Why are they suddenly having weird, twisted orgies?
That was another aspect of the book I didn't enjoy – the bizarre, totally not believable sex. Orgies, suddenly sleeping with a guy you've known for five seconds, fucking each other during class, having your sexual debut filmed for your final project. It was all just too weird for me. The sex, the characters, the story, everything about this book.
I really wanted to love it, but I just didn't enjoy any of it whatsoever.
About the Authors:
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| Ruthie Knox |
New York Times bestselling author Ruthie Knox has published over a dozen titles in adult contemporary romance and New Adult romance (writing as Robin York). Nominated for four RITA awards in her first two years as a published author, Ruthie has been translated into German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Her New Adult novels Deeper and Harder made Library Journal’s best-of list for 2014, and Deeper was recognized by RT Book Reviews as the best New Adult title of last year.
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| Mary Ann Rivers |
Building on extensive experience as a published poet, Mary Ann Rivers launched her career in fiction with the must-read novella The Story Guy, which Library Journal recognized as among the best ebooks of 2012. Rivers has since made waves with the emotional Snowfall (translated into German) and her Burnside Series, which receives attention for its unusual characters and unparalleled contemporary worldbuilding.
Ruthie Knox and Mary Ann Rivers exchanged tens of thousands of emails, texts, words over the phone, and manuscript pages before a single provocative email exchange dared them to direct the energy and love in their conversations into a story. Soon, a shared intelligence they dubbed “Third Brain Mill” had written a book and started another. They haven’t looked back, and they dare each other and their Third Brain Mill regularly—usually while taking a walk together.
I actually LOVED this. It took me a minute to adjust to the style, but then I just kind of fell into it
ReplyDeleteThis book was like nothing I was expecting and like nothing else I've read, its as close to poetry as I've ever seen a romance novel get, LOVED http://bit.ly/1FRFT8z