Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Four teenagers on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found. THE DARK INSIDE is a stunning, cinematic thriller: 28 DAYS LATER meets THE ROAD.

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs... Now it’s our turn.

Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even worse is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, hooking on to weakness, turning the unwary into hunters, killers, crazies.

Mason: His mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground. Everyone he knows is killed.

Aries: A school bus, an aftershock and a crash. Pulled out of the wreckage by a mysterious stranger, she’s about to discover a world changed forever.

Clementine: An emergency meeting at the town hall that descends into murderous chaos. Outside the rest of their community encircle with weapons. How can those you trust turn into savage strangers?

Michael: A brutal road rage incident. When the police arrive on the scene they gun down the guilty and turn on the by-standing crowd. Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad?

Hardcover, UK, 368 pages Published September 2nd 2011 by Macmillan Children's Books

“There was a connection between what the crazy man and Daniel had said. Something had been triggered with the earthquake. Something awful.”

Characters: As this story is told from 4 different main characters perspective. It gives the readers an inside look to many different things happening in several states. We start off by getting a inside look at the the crazy activities going on through Michael who gets pulled out of school just before people go in to bomb it (there were hundreds of school bombings reported at the same time). Then we move to Clementine who experiences the earthquake and in the aftermath run to a safe place to hide from the people that are starting to riot against each other. Clementine barely escapes from a town meeting in which all the doors are barricaded shut and all the townspeople inside shot. And finally Michael who has several run ins with maniacs and nobody to turn to for help.
Originality: I have honestly never read anything like this before. The fact that it's not just an Earthquake and the aftermath, it's a whole combination of all out madness that is happening worldwide. It's not even safe to hide because the people that are affected by this strange madness are out to find you, they will search every corner of your house to exterminate you. There is very little explanation behind the madness, no easy way to get out, no place to run, who can you trust? There are some similar stories like Ashfall by Mike Mullen, that hit on a couple of these same ideas, but nothing close to the immense intensity this whole story takes on with it's variety of events and the mystery of what might have been released that is making the world go crazy that is above and beyond just the massive Earthquakes that have taken place.
Plot: The main storyline here is where do you go? Who do you trust? What now? Do you run and hide from every noise for the rest of your life..is there a rest of your life. Where is your next meal coming from and with no means of communication how do those left sane learn about each other. The last possible idea being, maybe you just have to fight back, but fight for what? What is left.
Writing: There is very little downtime in this book. With the stories continually changing and shifting to different events, states and activities the people are always on the move and something new going on. The writing makes this amazing because it's not overwhelming. There are very shocking things that happen in this story. It's intense and horrific events take place that sometimes are pretty gruesome. So you want to be prepared.
Krista Rating: Of course the title and description lets the reader know how dark this novel will get. I think it was an amazing read and as the ending leaves for potential continuation with the story, I am one that is hoping for a deeper look into the psyche of the more animalistic thoughts that are going inside of the crazed out people's heads, but some insight into what is driving them to act upon those thoughts has got me stuck thinking more and more about this book, even after finishing it.