Review: Dark Eyes by William Richter

Wally was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a child and grew up in a wealthy New York City family. At fifteen, her obsessive need to rebel led her to life on the streets. 

Now the sixteen-year-old is beautiful and hardened, and she's just stumbled across the possibility of discovering who she really is. She'll stop at nothing to find her birth mother before Klesko - her darkeyed father - finds her. Because Klesko will stop at nothing to reclaim the fortune Wally's mother stole from him long ago. Even if that means murdering his own blood. But Wally's had her own killer training, and she's hungry for justice.

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I was original drawn to Dark Eyes by how different it is to YA books that we tend to see these days. This book has no monsters, no overdramatic romantic storylines and a hell of a lot of action, and I mean real action.

This book is compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I don't see the similarities, aside form the action and the mystery and the kick-ass heroine. Sure, I think YA fans of The Millennium Trilogy but I think that's just the genre rather than the content. I did really enjoy the book, the action and the pacing and the writing were pretty much perfect and I just absolutely loved Wally, she was amazing.

I think that Wally deserves her own paragraph. I loved her, she was the perfect protagonist. though at times I didn't understand why she had given up a perfect life for life on the streets,  I loved the person that she was. She was strong and street-wise, she led her group of street-kids and they respected her. I loved how she was strong and determined and yet she still mourned when she lost somebody that she cared about and she still had times where she was unsure, yet she always got herself up and got on with things. I also liked her group, especially Jake since he didn't just follow her plans like everyone else did, he questioned Wally's motives.

The storyline was very twisty/turny. I never even knew what was coming... I never even had any ideas! I was thrown off at the very end and totally fooled! That twist completely got me! The pacing was pretty much perfect though there were a few times that it started to drop.

Overall, aside from doubting Wally's decisions at times I can't say much about this book. It was a little slow at times but for the most part I really enjoyed it.

Overall Rating: B

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Book released August 4th 2012 by Razorbill (PB), originally published 15th March 2012 (HB)
Book received via the publisher for review.