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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Dark Star by Bethany Frenette


Dark Star
Dark Star is the realistic hero story.  Set in the Twin City the novel tells the story of a modern hero, Morning Star, and her daughter Audrey.  Audrey is the main character, she’s a bit rough around the edges and a joker, oh also she is somewhat psychic.  She has lived all her life with the reality that her mother is a superhero at night, thankfully her best friend, Gideon, also knows this secret.  Gideon is the perfect personality to counter Audrey rough edges.  Not only is her mom a superhero but she also has a sidekick, Leon, who happen to appear to them 3 years prior to the opening of the story without warning. 

Audrey starts to notice things changing.  First there are the missing girls.  Girls are going missing around town and neighboring places and no one knows why.  After her friend is hurt, Audrey must figure out what is going on.  Because she repeatedly ignores her mother and Leon’s warnings, she gets attacked by a Harrower.  That’s right; her mother doesn’t fight crime of the stealing and killing kind, but of the demon kind.  This opens a can of worms that Audrey didn’t realize existed.  Not only do demon exist but there is also a group of demon fighters that exist, a clan if you don’t mind named The Kin, and Audrey’s mother, father and grandparents are part of the Kin, so is Leon.  Audrey is now the key to something and the harrowers want her dead… it will take a lot of self-discovery and perseverance to defeat those that haunt her.

Dark Star reminded me of the adaptation of Batman by Christopher Nolan.  Granted they are both on different playing fields but if we strip things away and sticks to the basic concept, both stories are similar.  It is the journey, the inner discovery and the sacrifice that make both stories important.  The main heroes of both stories aren’t superman, they have big Achilles heels and can be swayed for good or bad; however, the change comes from within them.  Audrey had not considered herself to be superhuman or even just psychic, she hadn’t seen her life going into this direction but after some soul searching she is ready to take on what comes at her. 

With a strong MC and supporting characters Dark Star is a great book.  Especially with reach gems like: “He never got bullied nor had his head dunked in a toilet or whatever else the little cannibals in elementary school come up with when they decide to eat their own.” Or great character profiling/descriptions “Detective Wyle chuckled.  He looked tired and even scruffier than the last time I’d seen him.  He certainly knew how to play the brooding antihero, all rough edges and stubble and dark rumpled hair.”  For her first book I think Bethany Frenette hit the nail on the head and wrote something that will be able to keep people excited and intrigued. 

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