Review: Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Moments after several huge earthquakes shake every continent on Earth, something strange starts happening to some people. Michael can only watch in horror as an incidence of road rage so extreme it ends in two deaths unfolds before his eyes; Clementine finds herself being hunted through the small town she has lived in all her life, by people she has known all her life; and Mason is attacked with a baseball bat by a random stranger. An inner rage has been released and some people cannot fight it. For those who can, life becomes an ongoing battle to survive - at any cost!

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen - now it's our turn!

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With so many dystopian and post-apocalyptic books out on the young adult market, it really does take a lot to pull something new out and impress me. Dark Inside was one of those books that had a fantastic synopsis but I was worried that it wouldn't be unique because the whole 'people suddenly going crazy and murderous' has been used so much in movies.

On the surface, Dark Inside was totally amazing, the plot was amazing and the execution was absolutely perfect. It was one of the most thought-provoking, scary and unique apocalyptic novels that I have ever read and I zoomed through it in about three hours. Looking deep down there were a few issues, which I'll mention in a minute, but these issues didn't make me enjoy Dark Inside any less. I just feel as though I should mention them as I am, after all, reviewing this book and not just writing a post gushing about how amazing it was.

The plot was unique, I wouldn't actually call it dystopian or post-apocalyptic because the apocalypse happens during this book (but I'll tag this review as that because I don't know what else to put it under), and it isn't quite zombies because these aren't rotting, hands out, "braiiiins" zombies, they are something much more terrifying - normal human beings who have been taken over by the dark inside of them, intelligent human beings who are strategically ridding the world of those that haven't turned murderuous and that is what makes the book as scary as it is.

My issues with the book were few, and I would like to mention that in no way did they ruin this book for me. I found that because the book was switching between five characters, with little difference in the narrative voice, I didn't relate or connect with any of them as much as I felt that I could have and I feel that we should have focused on two of them, (Aries and Mason, the two with the strongest narrative).

There were also a lot of events that seemed unrealistic, such as Aries's group not being found, which were essential to the plot but I felt was too 'lucky' to be realistic. This wasn't such a big deal because our characters all had their share of good luck as well, so it evened it out.

Overall, I absolutely loved Dark Inside. It was totally unique and had me holding my breath in fear until the very last page, despite not being able to connect with the characters I was totally dragged into the storyline. I am so excited for the sequel. I would recommend this to dystopian fans and thriller fans.

Overall Rating: A

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Stand Alone/Series: First in a series
UK release date: 2nd September 2011 (Released in the US in November)
UK Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Book received for review from the fabulous people at PanMacmillan