A Broken Darkness

 What a ride! It moves very fast and does NOT stop, with events coming one after the other, so fast that it feels like you???re hanging onto the interior of a speeding car that you absolutely cannot stop. In fact, it???s easy to speed through all the things that are going on, try to match the breakneck pace of the storytelling by speeding up one???s reading pace, but that makes it easy to miss little nuances that add context and dimension to the bigger scenes. I had to remind myself to slow down every so often because of that.

That being said, another thing that???s relentless about this is the heartbreak, especially given the climax of the last book. Nick???s emotions are pulled three ways: his righteous anger at Johnny, his loyalty to Johnny, and his desire to do the right thing, to take the path that will save the most lives, that will do the most good. Inevitably, in wanting to choose to do the right thing, Nick finds himself compromising on his anger: asking himself if he???s understanding things wrong when it comes to Johnny, trusting her despite her actions in the previous book, despite knowing the truth of their friendship. He wants so much to believe that she could be better, that she could save the world without hurting more people, but at the same time he is so very, futilely, ANGRY.

Actually this anger is something that keeps coming up throughout the book in relation to Nick and the world around him. He???s just???he???s so ANGRY. It???s not something that colors absolutely EVERYTHING that goes on in the book, but it???s in the background: this low simmer that colors certain specific thoughts and actions. I also find it interesting that Nick???s ambivalent about his anger - mostly because he realizes he hasn???t been allowed to be angry at all, but also partly because he thinks that his anger has to be for a good reason.

Speaking of, I just have to say that I love how hard Nick tries to be a good person. Sure, he does and says hurtful things, selfish things, but when it comes down to it he also desperately strives to be a good person, or at least to make good choices. Of course, doing so is difficult, given Johnny and what happens in this novel, but there???s something lovely about someone who tries to do good, even with the world imploding around them.

I also have to say that the creepiness got upped a little bit in this novel. It still reads more like a thriller than a horror novel overall, but there were moments where I had to pause a little and stare at something NOT the page because I was getting spooked.

Overall, this was a great continuation of the first book: a little creepier, with higher stakes, but rooted in the same emotional conflict of the first book: Nick and Johnny, and how their relationship has changed, but also stayed the same. Definitely looking forward to getting a copy of that last book, because I need to see how this whole series ends, especially given how this novel ended. 

This should be right up my street. It's a contemporary take on Lovecraftian cosmic horror, with guest appearances from our old friends Nyarlothotep and Azagthoth. There's some convincing evocations of those weird and eldritch dimensions just beneath our own, and epic battles against crawling tentacled horrors. The book also has interesting things to say about colonialism and empire, allied to Indiana Jones style globetrotting and adventure. So why aren't there five stars at the top of this review?

It's the lead characters, I'm afraid. One of them is just an awful awful person, and the other knows it but trails round after them like a little lovesick puppy dog. To make matters worse, while they are capable of talking to other characters like adults, the conversations between the two of them are smug self important banter full of lame humour and smart arsed oneupmanship that's more suited to minor showboating on Twitter than it is facing down alien threats to our very existence. It deflates any tension that's building, and frankly makes me want to punch the pair of them. I'd read the first book, so to be fair I knew this going in. I'd hoped that the revelations at the end of that one might have changed this dynamic, but they haven't really, not in any practical sense. It's probably just me. If you like Joss Whedonesque clever clever dialogue, and let's face it a lot of people do, you might well find it charming and fall in love with them, but it didn't work for me. It's unfortunate that the thing I didn't like is front and centre, because there's an awful lot otherwise that is good here, and I'll look out for more by this author.