What do You think about Darkwater (2012)?
After reading the Incarceron series I expected much the same of Catherine Fisher's latest, Darkwater. Instead, I found myself immersed in a good old fashioned ghost story akin to Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King. Sarah Trevelyan has seen the ruin of her family name and the deterioration of her father's health due to her grandfather gambling away the family estate of Darkwater. When the new lord of Darkwater Hall comes to town he makes Sarah his assistant in his alchemy experiments and she goes to live at Darkwater. A mysterious tramp tries to save her by explaining what exactly happened with her grandfather that night and Sarah begins to think that something is not right about Lord Azrael or Darkwater Hall. Sarah makes a bargain to save her father's life, perhaps with the devil himself and is given 100 years to make amends. Fast forward 100 years when Sarah is due to pay off her debt and life at Darkwater Hall, now a school, is still not as it should be. Mr. Azrael is back and looking to collect more souls. Will Sarah be able to save herself and make amends. Perfect pick if you are looking for a good old fashioned gothic thriller.
—Kim McGee
I'm a sucker for any book involving deals with supernatural creatures, so I knew I had to pick this book up The concept of getting anything you want--for a price of course--intrigues me and Darkwater did not disappoint I couldn't put the book down. One of the nice things about this book is its quick pace--the reader is never bogged down by unneeded details. There's also a downside to this--we, the readers, never really get to know the characters as well as we would like to. I know enough about the main characters, Sarah and Tom to give a pretty good description of them, but they aren't the sort of characters that will linger in my mind. Tom's twin brother, Simon, is merely used as a plot device. What's his personality like? His interests, his hobbies? Ultimately, there's some surprises in this book, and if you're looking for a quick, fun read, I definitely recommend it. However, if you're looking for good character development,I'm afraid this book disappoints There are novels out there that drag on way too long, but in this book's case, I felt like it was actually missing big parts of its story.
—Kayla Mendoza
I liked the concept of this story, the idea of bargaining one's soul to get what you most desire, but past that, this book didn't live up to my expectations. The story is told in two parts, Sarah's and Tom's. Sarah's story takes up the first half of the book, late 1800's to early 1900's or so in England, with her family and how they fell down the social ladder to ruin, and Sarah's attempt to return her family's status back to where it was. She makes a bargain to regain her family's wealth and uses it to better the lives of the people in town to account for her family's past sins. Then the book shifts to Tom's story in modern-day England (I'm only sure its England cause of the comment of Big Ben striking 10 on the radio), and then the trouble with the story really begins. First Simon. Simon is Tom's twin who died when they were born. It is never explained why Tom can see Simon, or why he sticks around for that matter (there are theories but nothing is confirmed). Then there is Lord Azrael.From the synopsis and first half of the story, he is already marked as the bad guy. But in the second half, it seems like he may be the good guy. (In the end I just assumed he was neither good nor bad since it was never explained fully). Another confusing character was the tramp. The old homeless guy Sarah meets who seems nice and tries to warn her about Azrael, and again in her side of the story it seems easy to figure out which side he is on, only to continue reading and find out it is not the case. In fact, nobody is who they seem. The POV were also confusing to follow, despite the narrative being in third person. In Sarah's half, all of it was told from her perceptive, but Tom's half was told from both of their perspectives, which made little sense and caused me trouble when I was thinking Tom was the one saying these thoughts and then become confused when I found out it was Sarah's mindset I was in. Overall i think the story was okay, not much else. It was engaging at times and the last few pages had me really into the story, but the ending really left something to be desired, in fact most of the book left something to be desired. Maybe the author intentionally made it so you are suppose to figure out who the characters are and which side they are on, I do not know, I figure I'd just stick this one in the left-something-to-be-desired category.
—Briana
