Title: Gone Dark
Author: Amanda Panitch
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date: April 12, 2022
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Summary
After finally escaping her father’s survivalist compound, all Zara wants is to escape in the world of video games and electricity. Focusing on learning coding and playing video games with her neighbor distracts her from some of her bad memories from growing up. All she wants is to forget the tragedy of her past and focus on her future.
However, when a malware attack cuts the power to the entire country, Zara’s survival instincts might just be what save her. As the country crumbles around her, Zara pulls from her past in order to get her and her friends to her dad’s old survival compound. After all, it’s probably their only chance of surviving as everything falls down around them.
Review: Gone Dark
In general, this book has a lot of elements that hit all the right spots for me. Dystopian, survival, a band of teens getting together to survive the end of the world. The recipe for your classic YA dystopia! I’d classify it as a good mix of a classic dystopia and a survival-type story, like Hatchet. While I found the beginning promising, I do think the book loses a bit of its pacing about halfway through. The plot lags a bit towards the end.
Even though the book felt too long, I do think we get some good character development throughout. Zara is well fleshed out, as well as Gabe. I enjoyed the way their relationship evolved throughout the book, and this is mostly what made the book worth reading for me. Plus, the interactions they have with other characters as they move throughout the book helped to build a stronger picture of what was happening around them.
What I think would have helped the story is if it was maybe spread out between two books instead? It might have allowed the characters a little more room to breath and helped a bit with the overall pacing issues of the story.
All in all, if you’re looking for a new survival/dystopia book to read, this one might just be right up your alley!