Darkness Rising Series Overview

Darkness Rising by Kelley Armstrong

A Semi-Spoilery Overview

Encompasses both Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising 

Welp, neither of these trilogies lived up to their ominous-sounding titles. I went in expecting something more in line with what Savannah went through at the end of Thirteen and it ended up being closer to the end of a CW teen school drama. Nothing remotely world-changing or even particularly dark happened in Darkest Powers or Darkness Rising. I think literally the worst things that happened were Nicole murdering Serena and the helicopter crash. I guess you could count Chloe accidentally raising an entire cemetery as “dark” but I saw that coming a mile away so it didn’t feel “dark.” None of this is to say that the trilogies were bad. They weren’t, really. A little bland at times, yes, but not bad.

I think it’s very safe to say that neither the Edison Group nor the Cabals know how to deal with people very well. It’s honestly hard to say which is worse… the circumstances are both similar and very, very different. Both were like: oooohhh, shiny experiments! Sure hope they don’t turn into PEOPLE some day. Sure hope we never have to tell them what we did to them. Oh no! We have to tell them now! Oh no! They don’t want to be under our control! Imprisonment! Murder! Just… you guys. What. The. Hell. Did. You. Think. Was. Actually. Going. To. Happen. You should have Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters that shit. Tell them the truth but make it as normal as you can! These are people, not objects. Thank the universe Sean Nast is helming their future at the end. He and Lucas Cortez were at the top of my “best case scenario Cabal people” list.

Anyway, specifically on Darkness Rising: I quite liked Maya as a protagonist. She was fairly chill through most the the trilogy. Capable in almost every scenario she’s put in. It was definitely refreshing after dealing with Chloe in Darkest Powers. I’m glad Maya did the smart thing with her love triangle, even if I would have loved to see some polyamory involved. Probably just me. But anyway, Maya was a good protagonist.

Rafe and Daniel, being Maya’s love interests/besties were the best fleshed out of the group of Project Phoenix kids. They were bother differing shades of chill boyfriend. Made a nice departure from the Dereks and Clays of the male love interest spectrum. Other than that, I don’t really have an opinions on them. They were there and supported Maya as best they could given the circumstances.

Still not sure how I feel about Ash. He kind of faded into the background once the Project Genesis kids were introduced and didn’t have much time with the Phoenix kids to get really well established. I kept envisioning a young Sam Carter from the Stargate universe whenever Sam was mentioned. Hayley was notable only because she shares a name with my bestie. Nicole for kind of the same reason (my sister’s original legal name this time), though it did help that she was psychotic so… yeah. Most of the rest of the characters were just kind of there and pretty one-note, which is completely understandable in a cast this large.

I think that’s mostly it for my thoughts on Darkness Rising. Better than Darkest Powers but mostly managing to hit the same story beats. Got your setup book, your wandering/traveling book, and your conclusion book. Not sure Darkest Powers would do well as an omnibus, but maybe a two book split instead. Not really sure.

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong

A Spoiler Free Review

I honestly found The Rising to be alright. There was a lot crammed into the last third of the book. The first third kind of felt like flailing and the middle was much more active than I think I was expecting. There’s a lot going on in this book. The last third basically serves as a coda for both the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies. So yeah, lots going on.

Not sure how I feel about Ash. He largely just comes across as bratty and much younger than Maya and the others. And, with the introductions of Ash, welcome to a lesson in racism from a white author out of the mouth of her Native character. Not that this conversation shouldn’t be had, and often, just, uh, feels a little weird to me… the also white person. As I’m thinking about it (I write these reviews over time and not usually all at once), it would also be odd to NOT encounter racism at all. I honestly think Armstrong does a good job tackling the issue.

I am very glad the Interracial Council and Lucas got brought up here. Heck, I breathed a sigh of relief when Sean Nast showed up. Of all the Cabal people who could have wound up in charge of the Genesis and Phoenix kids, Sean was the top of the list for the ideal person to handle them.

Well Derek’s definitely coming across as more of an ass than he probably needs to be. Not that I didn’t think he was to begin with, but still… Getting these two groups together would probably have excited me if I were younger, but now it’s just like… ya’ll are all waaaay too pigheaded to be any type of real help to each other. Not how it turns out, but those were the initial thoughts. I think Kit being there definitely helped smooth things over between the groups.

Okay first, the ending of this book and this series feel rushed. Second, polyamory is a thing that ought to be considered whenever a love triangle is brought to light. You have more options than monogamy, even as a teenager. Work that shit out. And of course Maya does work that shit out and in a much less dramatic way that I was thinking it was going to go, so I’ll just let all this stuff lie. Definitely wasn’t counting on Armstrong to go the polyamory route. I do also want to say that there’s a paragraph toward the end talking about the dating pool needing to be wider and… just ugh. Why’s everyone always have to be super focused on dating? Romance is not and should not be the end-all, be-all for anyone, period. End mini-rant.

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

A Spoiler Free Review

Nothing like starting out with an improbable helicopter hijacking and probable character death. Having never been in a helicopter myself, I can’t speak to the realism here, but… I really don’t buy any of what happened in the first 15 pages of this book. Just… feels like they all should have been dead, or crashed, at the very least. Not gonna say I was glad when they did eventually crash, but… yeah. I think it would have happened a lot sooner than it did.

Teens wandering around in the forest is no more interesting than teens hitchhiking across states. I question the adults who are going after them, too. Like, if ya’ll had shown up without guns — even if they are tranq guns — your case would be a lot easier to argue. But no, you choose violence so the teens have a very valid excuse for running the fuck away from you. Seriously, the Cabals and the Edison Group really need lessons in how to treat people.

Anyway, that’s pretty much how this book went. Maya and the others basically running away from Cabal operatives, hoping to head home, and eventually making it. I guess it was a little more entertaining than The Awakening, but not by much. At least there was barely any relationship drama to get into, so that was nice. I’m definitely not a fan of full-on relationship drama.

I did like the fact that Maya and her friends actually talked to each other about their plans. Glad to see actual group dynamics in action. I also like how Maya’s transformations were described and went down.

Pretty bog-standard Armstrong trilogy middle book, to be honest. Ya know, based on the one other specific trilogy of hers I’ve read. Not much actually happened aside from the beginning and the ending.

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

A Spoiler Free Review

After reading the Darkest Powers Trilogy, The Gathering was a breath of fresh air. That said, it’s definitely more up the alley of a CW show than it is anything else. There’s just a lot of teen drama. Not especially boring but also not especially engaging, either. I won’t say I was bored at any point while I was reading, but I also don’t really remember a lot of the details.

I thought Maya was a satisfactory protagonist. She’s spunky, has an actual personality, and is grounded as a person. The other characters are honestly blurs, in my brain. I remember the secondary characters — Daniel and Rafe — of course, but most of the others… nothing interesting pops up. They’re there to fill out Maya’s world and they do that well.

It is a little interesting to have a completely outside perspective on the St. Cloud Cabal. And by outside, I mean human. Having read other books set in Armstrong’s Otherworld, I know who the St. Clouds really are, even if their aims are beyond me, and Maya, at this point in the Darkness Rising trilogy. Of course, the mention of Dr. Davidoff from the Darkest Powers trilogy made me roll my eyes. But he’s only mentioned in this book so… yeah. Not a big thing.

I’m not normally a fan of abrupt endings. In fact, I never picked up any of the Divergent series after the first one because of this. However, I’m going to continue with the Darkness Rising trilogy, mainly because I know it’s a trilogy and I like the author. But yeah, do be warned, it just ends out of nowhere.

I would also like to mention that I read the "Enhanced Edition" on Kindle. It's got a couple little short stories that sort of flesh out a couple things from the book and a yearbook section and character profiles. I probably would have eaten this up if I were younger, but... yeah. That's definitely stuff for a younger audience than my 33 yrs.