★★★☆☆ Be wary. Be clever. Be good.

One Dark Window

Rachel Gillig

I finished One Dark Window with a feeling of dissatisfaction, that I'm having a hard time explaining. When I updated my progress at 57%, I remarked "Too much smolder, too little actual fire." By that I meant that it seemed as if Rachel Gillig spent all her time telling us how to feel, and too little describing actual events. Now, objectively, that is false. One Dark Window is full of event -- there are battles and magic spells and romance. Yet, somehow, I can't shake the impression. If you asked me to summarize the plot of One Dark Window, I would find it difficult. Even though I just finished it last night, I have a hard time remembering the events of the story, or arranging them into any semblance of order -- salient/nonsalient, this happened because of that...

The Acknowledgements provide a small hint of the nature of the problem. Gillig writes, "To John, my husband who brags about me, holds and feeds me, who always has the correct answer of “Sounds spooky!” whenever I’m doubting myself—thank you." One Dark Window is, I suspect, the kind of book you produce if "Sounds spooky!" is your goal. It's big on atmosphere, at the expense of characters and story-telling. I think this is the feeling that produced my "Too much smolder..." remark.

I also have two specific things to remark on, one negative and one positive. As I already remarked, there is a romance. It is one of those annoying romances one finds so often in Young Adult literature, where we start with a guy and a girl who apparently can't stand each other. And then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, they kiss and are madly in love. Now, granted, she's beautiful and he's handsome, and they are forced by circumstances to work together. It is certainly realistically true that if you make two beautiful sexually compatible young people spend time together, there's a good chance that they will fall in love, or perhaps infatuation. It's not unrealistic -- it's just not very interesting story-telling.

That's the negative remark. The positive concerns the ending -- I really liked the way the book ended. Elspeth, our main character, is inhabited by something called the Nightmare. As the story progresses, she takes advantage of his powers, and every time she does, he becomes stronger. The story ends with the Nightmare completely possessing Elspeth. Now, I expected some Deus ex Machina to appear and save Elspeth before the end. That didn't happen. (Maybe it will in some subsequent book.) I was pleased that Gillig had the courage to follow the implications of her story through.

I thank NetGalley and Orbit Books for an advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

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