Adina West

Overall I enjoyed this book and I like to read the next one.
The world building was pretty good; I got the sense that this world had more depth than we were seeing and had existed for thousands of years, which is always better than the writer clearly making things up as they go along.
Over all it's about a 24-year-old pathology technician Kat thinks she’s maybe anemic when she faints at work, but when she looks more closely at a sample of her own blood, she realizes that there’s something more than anemia going on. When her boss sees the blood samples she’s working on, things get out of hand, and before she knows it, she’s being offered a job in New York. All long we learn how she’s always been fast to heal, and that she didn’t know her father. We also learn that she can tell blood types apart by scent alone, and that she seems to have some sort of strange relationship with a wolf! Kat doesn’t know why she’s different though, and having never known her father, she realizes that he might be the reason for her differences.
There was something that I cant put my finger on that held me back from connecting with kat as a character, which made it hard as the main character. Maybe - because Kat doesn't do anything. She lets other people make decisions, shuffle her from place to place and guardian to guardian, never arguing or even asking questions. Or...
Let me ask you this, if you ate a whole bag of raw meat, wouldn't you have noticed while you were doing it? And even if you didn't, once you realized you had wouldn't you be majorly freaking out? Kat seemed a whole lot calmer about that then the whole slew of other minor incidences that occurred throughout this story.

This story leaves you asking yourself many questions such as; Is this going to be a werewolf story and/or will it have other supernatural creatures? the story starts and ends with Amarok who is certainly a man who can change/shape shifter into a wolf and why does he think Kat is one who is going to change everything which will benefit these supernatural creatures? Will this turn into a romance between Kat and Amarok? Alec likewise, the romantic interest, also remained a mystery, as did their relationship. ho is Kat's father? What exactly is a Dark Child? What is the story about and where is the Author going with it?
I must admit that there is some interesting ideas like, an interesting take on vampires and shape-shifters, even it was weird that west didn't like to call them Vamps (even though its a very spiritual vamps which, controlled their craving for blood). The undercurrent world of their world which protected by runs that clear only to there types. the corrupts organization of the directory its politics and its complicated relationships with the human world. what wasn't unique is the hierarchy inside this society and the fact that the shape shifters consider very low in the hierarchy. So low that they use them in scientific experiments.… (mehr)

The premise of Dark Child was appealing, though its execution left much to be desired. It started off very slowly and couldn't keep my attention - to the point where it took me two weeks to finally finish reading it. I wasn't invested in any of the characters and there was virtually no character growth; Kat was far too passive and willing to accept whatever she was told, the love interests (because of course there had to be a love triangle) were subject to the typical hero and bad boy archetypes, and the villain didn't even seem that bad. It wasn't until halfway through the book, when the unalil were introduced, that the action picked up and I became interested enough to read to the end. Unfortunately, the ending was quite abrupt: nothing was really resolved, leaving me with a feeling of disappointment and more questions than answers.

Despite this, Dark Child possessed a few redeeming qualities. Shape-shifters and vampires are quite prominent in paranormal fiction, and West managed to provide a fresh take on these supernatural beings and the legends and lore surrounding them. If I hadn't been told that Dark Child was originally released in five episodes, I wouldn't have guessed it: there were no obvious breaks or awkward transitions.

Overall, while Dark Child was much different from The Mortal Instruments, it was very similar to many other paranormal novels that I've read: cliched, enjoyable at times, and completely forgettable.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)