Sixteen-year-old Neva has been trapped since birth. She was born and raised under the Protectosphere, in an isolated nation ruled by fear, lies, and xenophobia. A shield "protects" them from the outside world, but also locks the citizens inside. But there's nothing left on the outside, ever since the world collapsed from violent warfare. Or so the government says...
Neva and her best friend Sanna believe the government is lying and stage a "dark party" to recruit members for their underground rebellion. But as Neva begins to uncover the truth, she realizes she must question everything she's ever known, including the people she loves the most.
Release Date: August 3, 2011
Publisher: Little Brown
Age: Young Adult
Source: ARC from Publisher/ Author
Could you imagine living in an encased world? You are not just enclosed by the four standing walls in your house, but your entire space is pre-defined. You live inside a bubble, there is no escaping. You have never been in an airplane; their isn’t enough space. You don’t see too many birds; too many fly into the protectosphere - the bubble. The Government controls everything-the weather, the people, even your limits. No body tells you too shoot for the moon because you can’t. You can barely even see the moon through the Protectosphere. Then, to make it all worse, people start to disappear.
What you just read is exactly what I was thinking while reading Dark Parties by Sara Grant. Throughout the entire book, I just kept placing myself in Neva’s shoes. I began to hate the imaginary government, as if they really did exist outside of the book. Sara Grant has written a book that leaves you wondering and questioning, imagining and feeling. That is what I liked about the story. There were also parts that I didn’t like.
Dark Parties definitely had an interesting and distinct storyline, although it also reminded me of other Dysotopias that I have read. At one point, when Sanna (Neva’s best friend) is speaking about her brother she says “ Something’s happening, but he doesn’t know what.” That actually reminded me of both Matched by Ally Condie and Divergent by Veronica Roth, but maybe thats just me. Also, at one point, Neva’s mother starts to act slightly mysterious, which reminded me of Divergent. One of the characters was named Effie, which reminded me of the Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins, but the similarities end there. Dark Parties barely resembled other books, I’m just trying to say that some parts of it just reminded me of other books.
Dark Parties is narrated by Neva Adams, the 16-year-old, rebellious daughter of a government official. She is considered an adult in the eyes of the government. Neva’s world consists almost completely of lies. History only tells that before the protectosphere was sealed, there was only despair and chaos and that the government protected its citizens by building a barrier. Citizens are fed lies like “There is nothing lies outside the Protectosphere.” There are some citizens who fail to question that, and others who refuse to believe the lies that the government forces at them. Neva is, of course, the latter. I found Neva to be very interesting because at times she was fearless and only concerned about escaping the protectosphere, but at other times, she only cared for others like Sanna, Nicoline, and her Grandmother. I cannot really decide whether Neva was a Static or Dynamic character, but I did like her.
Throughout the story, Neva has a questionable romance with a boy named Braydon Barlett, who happens to be Sanna’s boyfriend. Neva can’t decide how she feels about him, but constantly thinks of him. I found Braydon to be a very Dynamic character, almost too Dynamic. I liked that he was mysterious and hard to figure out, but at the end of the book, I was still questioning his morals and motives.
At the begining of Dark Parties, I found myself lingering on each page, hoping that the story would pick up, that being said, the story was off to a rough start. Contrary to my thoughts at the beginning, the story thankfully did pickup! I started to get into it and wound up liking it overall. You should go buy a copy of Dark Parties by Sara Grant, even if you get off to a rough start with the book, please continue to read on because it will pay off!
Overall: ✮✮✮✮✩(4 out of 5)
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