THE DARKNESS RISES By Stacy Stokes

Dani Young 

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE DARKNESS RISES By Stacy StokesThe Darkness Rises by Stacy Stokes
Published by Viking Books for Young Readers on 4/9/24
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

SOMEONE WANTS REVENGE…

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.

Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late.

Short and Sweet Review

Whitney has the ability to see when death is coming for someone in the form of a cloud over their head. Whitney tries to save most people from the darkness and other times she just can’t. But Whitney does end up saving a boy and he ends up being the perpetrator of a school shooting. Now Whitney is being eaten away by her guilt. Someone knows what Whitney did, and now they’re leaving her threatening notes. Whitney has to figure out who’s after her, before she ends up being the one with a dark cloud over her head.

This is one of my favorite books I read this year. It was an interesting concept that Whitney could see when death is close to someone, she’s able to save some people but she can’t save them all, and that’s something she learns the hard way. When the shooting happened Whitney was on the dance team and helped save her teammates but during the new school year she’s quit dance and is really trying to move past what happened that night. Whitney starts to find threatening notes in her locker and she realizes that someone knows that she stopped the boy from committing suicide, but it looks like she was plotting with him. The person blackmailing Whitney wants her to admit that she has abilities and that she was the cause of the shooting. The only person who knows what Whitney can do is her grandmother but she’s currently in a nursing home and isn’t doing the best. The blackmailer continues to get more bold and leaves Whitney more threats. Whitney doesn’t know who is behind it but it’s hard to figure out who could be behind it because there were a lot of people at that football game. It’s a bit of a thriller as Whitney races to save the people she loves because they’re being targeted and she just wants to put everything behind her. I did love her character because she has a big burden to bear it would be hard to see these clouds and know that you can’t save everyone, and funny enough her nickname is supergirl. I will say there was a romance in the book and I did enjoy is I thought Whitney and her partner had chemistry that came off the page. When the culprit was revealed I was so nervous that it would be someone I wasn’t expecting and had grown to love, but the ending was great and I loved it.

Everything was so well written and I was hooked to this book from the very first page, I just needed to know who was after Whitney and what was going to happen next. I would 100% recommend this book, I absolutely loved it!

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