Thank god Samantha didn't turn out to be a ghost. They've been done in every way, shape, and form already so t would have made for an extremely dull novel. An elemental made solid through sorcery, sorrow, and death is much more unique and definitely gave the characters who were trying to figure out who she was a run for their money.

This novel doesn't seem to exist in the same realm as Atwater-Rhodes' other books, as there is no Single Earth (an early staple) and the super powerful witch family, the le Coires, has never been mentioned before even though many of her other novels incorporate various witch families/organizations. The witchcraft/sorcery seems different as well, and I'm curious to see whether this "world" continues on in future novels independantly or whether it will be merged with the other storylines in some form. ( )

Though an interesting story, the characters weren't particularly compelling or relatable (to myself at least). I felt like there could have been a subplot here, but it was only touched upon instead of actually being in the book--there were hints of a lot of unaddressed stories, but few of them were actually expanded upon. ( )

Apparently I'd already read this book. As I started reading I kept having that I've read this before feeling, but I couldn't remember what happened in the end so I decided to just finish it again. To me that's the sign of a not very good book, if a book is good I'll remember having read it and how it ended. It wasn't terrible just lackluster, Amelia's other books are much better. ( )

If I have to give Amelia Atwater-Rhodes credit for anything, it’s that her writing’s really improved since In the Forests of the Night. She could always plot fairly well (although she rushes her conclusions with too little build-up; more on that later), but in the Den of Shadows books, the prose really bordered on the purplish side. In both this book and Persistence of Memory, her prose style feels a lot more natural and flows a lot better.

The main thing that drew me to this book is the characters. First of all, I liked that they’re different from her normal “human” main characters; while Cooper and Brent definitely have some darkness in their past and push people away, they don’t really fall into the trap of “I HATE ALL OF YOU NORMAL PEOPLE” that her earlier books tended to have. This is especially present with Cooper. You can really tell how much he just wants to be physically fine and normal again, but he also doesn’t want to abandon Samantha to reach that goal. His interactions and occurrences in his day-to-day life really underscored this—the scene in the library, he basically blue-screens at the thought of having to take the stairs, and knowing that he just can’t do it, despite that he looks well enough to climb a staircase. Loved that moment.

Brent gets a little closer to the typical human protagonist of her earlier books, but he’s still a very different character then what’d you expect. As I said above, he’s someone with a lot of darkness and hasn’t had an easy life like Cooper and Delilah have. But there’s still that striving for normalcy and wanting to be a part of a group (and not just “Why can’t I be one of the popular people woe is I”, Brent just wants friends who like him for him).

There’s really not much to Samantha or Delilah, unfortunately. I like Samantha a bit better, but that’s only because we see more of her throughout the book. Her frustration over not knowing her past and wanting to be alive again runs a little on the cliché side, but I liked her early relationship with Cooper and their genuine friendship. Delilah, on the other hand, comes off as a one-note character with a slightly more intriguing backstory, but she’s really only to serve the purpose of figuring out what Samantha is, and doesn’t do much else.

My one problem with the book as whole is my same problem with a lot of Atwater-Rhodes’s books that I’ve read: she throws in a resolution and explanation for everything that happens way too quickly, and the conclusion feels jarring. I liked the revelation of what Samantha really is, but how she came to be and how it ties back into Cooper’s accident comes out of left-field with no prior set-up. There’s several places where the revelation could have been worked in earlier, but it never comes and the pay-off doesn’t work for me. I liked this book a lot, but the if she had expanded the ending a little further and put in a explanation earlier, so that it would make more sense, I would have liked it a lot more.
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One of the best parts of reading any Amelia Atwater-Rhodes story is this: she writes a tight story. Whether you've been following her work for a while or are taking your first step in with a book, you don't feel like you are missing out a huge chunk of backstory and miss a lot of what happens in the book before you.
Token of Darkness introduces another dimension to her already rich supernatural world. This is our first glimpse into the sorcerers, those who are not born to the magic but learn and develop it while alive. We also see our first ghosts, in the form of Samantha, a young woman haunting our protagonist Cooper. The book takes place in early September, when school has first started, and Cooper is still recovering from a severe accident early in the summer. After almost dying, he finds himself with Samantha and some other dark spirits lingering in the wings. As he tries to make more sense of what happened to him, Cooper's path crosses with two people who may or may not be able to offer him help: Delilah, the captain of the cheerleading squad, and Brent, Delilah's former beau. Together, the three find the threads to unwind in this curious situation. ( )