Book Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars #1)
By Diana Peterfreund
****

“In every letter, in every line, she saw him. He hadn't changed - he'd only grown into the man he'd meant to be.” 
― Diana Peterfreund, For Darkness Shows the Stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars is a futuristic dystopian/post-apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. It kind of blows me away that I just typed that sentence. (In a good way!)

Here's the deal: some time ago (in the future - her past, our future) humanity got a little out of control with the DNA engineering and splicing and whatnot sciencey stuff, and while trying to make a better human, ended up making a "reduced" human. Pretty much any baby born at this point was severely mentally handicapped. According to the lore, the folks realized that the world was going down the crapper, so they decided to just destroy everything. Enter the Luddites, who were anti-technology/anti-screwing-around-with-natural-stuff. Because they were au naturale, they weren't affected by the genetic engineering gone wrong, and survived the destruction by hiding away until it was over.

Fast forward to present day. The Luddites are in charge of things, including the care and maintenance of both the Reduced and the land. It's been a while since they came out of their hidey-holes and things are running again, though according to the Luddite traditions, which are basically don't screw around with nature and don't do anything that hasn't been done before. Another change is that the Reduced have started having babies that weren't mentally challenged. These folks are called Posts, or Post-Reduced. They're not so happy with the status quo, because they're mostly treated like property.

Enter Elliot North and Kai (aka Captain Malakai Wentforth). This is a YA novel, so the Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth love affair timeline has been moved up. Elliot was born a Luddite, the daughter of the Baron, and the only member of the family working to keep the farm and its workers thriving. Kai was born a Post to another Post on the North estate, and grew up as an apprentice to his mechanic father. Kai and Elliot grew up together and were best friends. They also fell in love when they were only 14 years old. Things got bad after Elliot's mother died and there was no one to curb Baron North's bad and negligent habits. Kai cut and run; Elliot was supposed to go with him, but she realized she couldn't leave the people under her care alone under the thumb of her father.

Four years later, Kai returns with money and some other Posts to stay at Elliot's grandfather's estate to build a ship that will allow them to explore what's left of the world beyond their island (which I believe is supposed to be New Zealand, or at least New Zealand-esque, I'm not entirely sure). Romantic tension ensues.

The twists from the original story are really interesting. Peterfreund created an interesting world, one that balanced a futuristic dystopian society, but also blended with events in Persuasion in a way that made them plausible in this setting. She captured the romantic angst that so engaged me in Persuasion, but in a way that seemed (mostly) realistic to two 18-year-olds. The moral questions of genetic testing and experimentation in people, animals, and food sources should have felt heavy handed for all the attention it received, but it felt mostly part of the crisis in the plot rather than moralizing.

I loved Persuasion. It's hands-down my favorite Austen novel, and this book really made me want to pick it back up for another read. Anne and Frederick's love story...just...unngg! I love it! I felt a lot of that same gut-clenching emotion over Elliot and Kai's love story. I'm normally not a big fan of post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories, but this story takes place when the world is rebuilding itself and change is underway, and without the hero and heroine being the major catalyst for that change, though they were a part of it. I liked that a lot. Things I didn't like included Baron North, though not the way Peterfreund wrote him, but the way a reader dislikes the villain. Seriously, Baron North takes on Professor Delores Umbridge style loathing.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. While there is a sequel, I think Peterfreund has been rather ingenious with the way she's going about the series: For Darkness is a stand-alone novel. The sequel has new characters who live in the same world, and this one based on The Scarlet Pimpernel. I kinda love that. I'm also loving that she's retelling classics that haven't been retold a gazillion times. And while this novel doesn't get the same level of love that I reserve for Persuasion, it still gets rather a lot from me. Highly recommended.

Romantical Fantastical - two romance reviews for the price of one!

I am about to attempt the impossible – I’m going to review two very different books by two VERY different authors in two very different time periods. That’s not the hard part. The hard part will be showing a correlation between the two. Mission: Accepted.

Most people are probably familiar with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Even if they’ve never read the books, they (at least the girls) are aware of the scene where Mr. Darcy (aka Colin Firth) takes a dip in the pond (I haven’t read P&P in a while, but I’m pretty darn sure that Jane didn’t write that).


Slightly less-well-known is Jane’s last completed work, Persuasion. This is the story of Anne Elliot, a sensible young woman who was “persuaded” to let the love of her youth go, only to meet him again eight years later. Then she gets to watch as all the young girls flirt with him and all their married acquaintances guess which of the young girls he’s going to end up marrying.

This book, as many that were written in times past, may be a bit difficult to get started; the language and style are very different than what we’re used to today. And it doesn’t help that the first few pages seem dry. But the opening is actually an introduction to Jane’s snarkiness. Poor Anne isn’t just past her prime without the love of her life, she also has to deal with her ridiculous and vain father, a conceited older sister (both of whom think Anne isn’t worth their time or concern), and a hypochondriac younger sister. Jane brilliantly and scathingly writes these characters; they’re deliciously awful.

Snarkiness aside, this story (for me) can be summed up by a few lines toward the end of the story:

I believe you [men] equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as—if I may be allowed the expression, so long as you have an object. I mean, while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.

In other words, Anne never stopped loving her Captain.

You do have to work more for this book than most fluffy romance novels, but it’s worth the effort. The only problem I had with it, and it’s a minor one, is Jane’s habit of naming multiple characters by the same first name. This may be true to the times, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out which Charles she’s referring to in a given scene.

Next up, a tale as old as time: Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy fears he will eat girl, so boy dumps girl. Girl mourns loss of boy. Girl befriends werewolf. Girl has to rescue boy (who happens to be a vampire). And they lived happily ever after (at least for a few weeks).

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon, the second book in the Twilight Saga (if it's a "saga," you know it's gonna be angsty) and recent blockbuster hit. The first book in this series has our two main characters, Edward and Bella, meeting and falling in love. In New Moon, Edward is afraid that he or his family will be overcome by Bella’s tasty scent and, alas, kill her. So, for her sake, he leaves (thus making this the least favorite book in the series for thousands of teens). Bella, deep in depression, finds that extreme activities and her good buddy Jacob are the only things that make her feel a little better. And then she finds out that Jacob turns into a giant wolf and is the archenemy of all vampires. Mayhem ensues.

So how in the world can I possibly compare Jane Austen’s sensible heroine and her sea captain with a high school girl and her vampire and werewolf? Why would a grown woman choose to read this Young Adult novel? I have a theory (This is my personal opinion. If you are an adult and you love these books, but not for my reasoning below then I’m sorry, but this is my blog; if you disagree, go write about it on your blog!):

What draws me to Meyer’s books is the all-encompassing angst. Sometimes, maybe when the weather is gloomy or you’ve had a bad day or week, you just want to read something where you can have a good mope. And there is no better book from this series than New Moon for excellent mope-age: the whole world revolves around you and getting dumped means the end of everything. Poor Bella is practically comatose for the first half of the book, all because the love of her (short) life is gone.

Confession: I do love these books. There’s just something about them, despite the stalkery aspects of our hero and all the drama, that draws me in. And I think it may have something to do with what I described above. An adult woman, with all of her job, family, school, and/or general life issues, doesn’t get to wallow in much of anything, and reading about a story so me-focused can give a thrill. It’s that young love that’s all fire and excitement. The rest of us, like Anne Elliot, have to pull on our big-girl panties and get on with things, but a vicarious mope can set you free.

Bella, like Anne, lost her love. They both have their happily ever afters, and in between, they have their angst. In Jane Austen’s world, so much can be said by a single look or gesture. In Stephenie Meyer’s world, the pain and joy is more visceral. But in both you can find a good love story. (Good being entirely subjective, of course.)

So if you’re looking for a good angsty book, I’d recommend both Persuasion and New Moon. Which one just depends on the kind of angst you’re in the mood for.

Title: Persuasion
Paperback: 150 pages
Price: $6.95
Publisher: CreateSpace (November 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1440468397
ISBN-13: 978-1440468391

Title: New Moon
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 608 pages
Price: $7.47
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; First Paperback Edition edition (May 31, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316024961
ISBN-13: 978-0316024969