A Neon Darkness is the second book in The Bright Sessions by Lauren Shippen. It was first published 2020 by Tor Teen, and the audiobook is narrated Charlie Ian. It is not a direct prequel or sequel from the first book, since it’s about another character, Damien who only showed up at the end and in a short scene in the first book. I was confused why the author choose him as a character to write a story about, but people who listened to the podcast apparently said that Damien was a far bigger role there than in the books. The story also makes far more sense if you have listened to the podcast and since I didn’t, well, some things might have gone over my head so have that in mind when I review this book.
Now, the story follows Robert, who later get the name Damien from their friends, and he has the ability to make people want what he wants. Going from place to place, living in other people’s houses after being abandoned when he was just a kid, Robert doesn’t really know about relationships. He meets a group of friends, who has lost their friend Blaze to a maniac. He learns that they all have abilities and that he is not alone. Wanting a family, he forces his way into their circle and goes head-to-head with a maniac who seem to be immune against his powers, in order to find his place in this world.
Now firstly, this is not a story about a hero. This is the story about a villain. Robert is narcissistic, controlling, childish and avoids feeling guilty while blaming everyone else for his faults. This is about a 19-year-old man-child having the ability to control people to do whatever he wants and it is just as creepy and scary at is sounds. The other characters are good as well, though I feel like us getting to know every one’s backstory sometimes makes the story come to a halt. It isn’t really necessary, though I wasn’t too bothered by it.
Much like the first story deals with depression and emotion really well, this one deals with Roberts narcissistic and love for control in a realistic manner. It is definitely one of the strong points and this book both creeped me out and made me cry which shows that the author has a real talent for writing these kinds of scenes. I remember one person writing that this story has a weak villain, but the man who kidnaps Blaze isn’t the villain or at least, not the main one. The main one is the main character and it is well done.
My complains with the story is the same as in the first book and that is that the powers are really random. The author uses the powers like a solution for her problems and they often makes no sense. Such as the kidnapper being immune against Robert’s powers, having super strenght and speed along with resistance to fire and electricity. It makes little sense considering the limitation of every other power the author has introduced.
The rules for Robert’s power also change, such as his power being able to wear off, but he can permanently erase people’s memories. Not to mention the memories thing doesn’t make sense considering that everyone is fully aware that Robert is controlling them so it shouldn’t be possible. At least not for long. His powers also are a proximity thing, when they go out of his range, they snap out of it so why wouldn’t the memory thing work the same way? The simple answer is because the author needs it to work differently, bending the rules to suite her needs. It is a slippery slope and the author is abusing the powers too much. She is trying to use the same powers as Robert, making us wanting what she wants, but it didn’t work with me. I was constantly frowning at the random changes in the powers.
The author is also doing some strange twists in the story, such as in a scene when Robert opens up and tells Neon about his parents. He is crying and she suddenly kisses him, and then she accuses him of making her do it. Considering that she sapped him with her electricity, which makes him unable to use his powers for a while, he couldn’t have and we see the scene from his points of view. We know he didn’t want that, but the author is for the rest of the book seriously trying to convince us that he did and that Neon was forced to do it.
So, the author told us just before this scene that Neon had a hard time settling down with her girlfriend and wanted more but now, we are supposed to believe that this wasn’t her. I thought it would be this morally grey thing where she is just casting the blame onto him because she felt guilty but, nope, that don’t seem to be what the author was after. There are some other places that had similar logic where she seems to originally want to show his friends using him for his ability, but the author always backed out of it in the last minute, casting blame onto Damien as a result.
Now, this doesn’t change that Robert is a bad guy, but I can understand why so many fans of the main character seem to latch onto the idea of him being misunderstood and being used by his friends. The author seems to send mixed signals in the book and I suspect that she wasn’t entirely sure how to write this part without making the friends look just as bad as Robert, which means that she changed it later on so that Robert would still be the villain by the end of the story.
Overall, the book was good but not for everyone. If you don’t like a story from a villain’s point of view or a slow-paced book, because this has a very slow pace, then I don’t think this is the book for you. Otherwise, it has some interesting topics and the characters are well developed and the story is, according to me, well written with only a few flaws such as the constantly changing superpowers and a bit of trying to make the other characters a lot more virtuous than they seem to be. I will give it a 8 out of 10, but only recommend it for those who have read the podcast since I am still not sure why this Robert/Damien is good enough to warrant a book just about him when I have only read about three sentences about him from the first book.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
Read with Senefer 