In Darkness

Author Nick Lake provides an intertwined story based on two true events. The 2010 devastating earthquake in Haiti is dramatically fictionalized and the overthrowing of slavery hundreds of years earlier in Haiti is attempted to be told in as true a fashion as possible. "Shorty is a Haitian boy trapped in the rubble of a hospital when an earthquake shatters the world around him." From there the reader is taken on a mystical trip back through the history of Haiti as an enslaved island hundreds of years before. The true-life character Toussaint l' Ouverture who led the Haitian slaves to freedom, and current day "Shorty" have their life stories overlap and perhaps even become one and the same in the spiritual portals of time. Though the actual time spent describing the agony and fear of being trapped in a demolished building after a monstrous earthquake is small compared to the life stories of the two protagonists... the depiction of the absolute squalor and rampant everyday crime of modern Haiti is palpable.When you realize that dying big-headed babies discarded in trash cans are almost as natural as the sun rising in the morning... and the fact that people really do eat *MUD-PIES-MADE-OF-MUD*... then a potential reader can begin to comprehend that something as devastating as an almost totally destructive earthquake... needn't be the scariest or most depressing part of this book.The part of Haiti described in this book has frequently been named *THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH!* The modern day depictions show a society that is completely dominated by "Rap" culture characters and the "murder is cool" way of life. Drugs are everywhere and a means to an end. Voodoo is omnipresent and boundaries are like mapped off war zones. Through it all... the story is interspersed with poetic gasps that range from:"SUDDENLY, THE HOUNGAN STOPPED. THERE WAS SILENCE, BUT IT WAS LIKE THE SILENCE YOU GET BEFORE THUNDER, OR BEFORE A DOG BARKS. THEN HIS HEAD SNAPPED ROUND TO LOOK AT ME, AND HIS EYES WEREN'T HIS EYES ANYMORE, BUT WERE LIKE GATES THAT HAVE BEEN OPENED, AND THERE WAS EMPTINESS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THEM, AND IT MADE YOUR HEAD HURT, LIKE WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT HOW BIG INFINITY IS."To..."WE WEREN'T JUST CHILDREN. THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS CHILDREN IN SITE SOLEY, ONLY SMALLER STARVING PEOPLE, ONLY SMALLER DEAD PEOPLE."And... the beauty of a brother's love for his sister:"YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY CHOICE BUT TO FOLLOW MARGUERITE. I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN REALLY EXPLAIN THAT WITHOUT YOU SEEING HER. IT WAS LIKE... IT WAS LIKE HER PERSONALITY WENT IN FRONT OF HER, BRIGHT, LIKE A REVERSE SHADOW. YOU FELT THE FORCE OF HER FROM METERS AWAY."This is a very unique book... that though based in an earthquake... takes you many miles and years away from it.

This book could easily serve as a writing template. While it's not classic perfection of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (technically superior in so many ways), it holds up well. But the material may not be for everyone...hence the few negative reviews preceeding this one. (But what book is?)This book has; Vivid prose. Multiple plots. Believable characters. Intelligence. Lean story telling. A compelling narrative voice.... in both the NOW and THEN passages. Surprise. And it never stumbles along on wasted scenery or meaningless sub-characters. Every person in the story has a place and reason.I have only one complaint regarding a revelation at the very end. It garnered a,"What? That makes no sense! Why would they do that?" from me.But, barring that, i'm recommending it to my kids.

I read this book as an aspiring author for one reason- it won the 2013 Printz Award for teenage literature. I wanted to do some great gene reading, not NYT Bestseller stuff, because we all know most of that stuff is crap, it's just crap that sells books (which is great, don't get me wrong). I wanted to read some GREAT YA literature ... man did I ever! I have never read this author before, but I definitively work again. Truly amazing piece of hard work ... BRAVO Nick Lake!!!

My son lovers this book when he was young

I had to read this for my Young Adult literature class. I found it to be hard to get through, since I was only interested in reading about what happened to the young boy who was stuck in darkness. However, I really did love the way that things came together at the end.

I mean I liked that the book arrived on time, and that the product appeared in real life as it was advertised online. But for the content itself, eh..I couldn't get very into the story. But that's a personal preference. To someone else, it might be an amazing read.

A well written look into the culture and history of Haiti through the eyes of the main character in his current and previous lives.

Didn't like receiving a library book.

This wonderful book which skilfully interweaves the lives of the two leading characters, is set partly during the 2010 Haitian earthquake and partly during the formation of an independent Haiti, the only country to be born from a slave rebellion.The book is narrated by a teenage boy trapped in the wreckage of a collapsed building as he relives his life. This is a short life that has been marred by violence, and the loss of his father and twin sister. The story is skilfully interweaved with tales from the life of Toussaint L'Ouverture, a real life person, who led the slave rebellion that led to independence. It becomes clear that the two characters share a bond - and if you believe in such things, a soul.The author vividly recreates the two Haiti's, both past and present, exploring the birth of this nation and its somewhat violent and troubled present. The Voodoo religion is always present and the book explores many of the myths surrounding this - what Voodoo is and how it works.This was a somewhat dark and disturbing book, and perhaps not for the faint hearted, but this is what I love about books like this - the opportunity to explore these themes and learn so much about the world and its history. I suspect that this is book that will stay with me for a while.

A 15yr old boy is trapped under the rubble after the Haitian earthquake, a boy brought into the violent world of gangsters and voodoo, he shot his first man when he was 12yrs old. This is the tale of two Haitis one modern and one from the past, during his ordeal he lives the life of Toussaint l'Ouverture an ancestor who led the rebellion to free the black slaves of Haiti to the point he is not sure who he is, all he knows is that if help doesn't come soon he will die.I read the first couple of chapters of this book and nearly stopped reading it altogether, I just couldn't get into it, but after continued reading found it great reading and actually couldn't put it down, well worth a read.

This was a very good book, which taught me about Haitian history, which I wasn't expecting and the despicable treatment of black slaves right up to more recent times. At first I couldn't understand the link back to the past, but it all came together in the end. Compelling and once into it I couldn't put it down.

I had never read one of Nick Lane's books before reading In Darkness, which I read as it was one of the Carnegie shortlisters. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it./AL

Wish the street language hadn't been included.Apart from that - boy trapped beneath earthquake rubbleKeeps his sanity by reliving heroic story of liberation and we the reader learn about colonialism & liberation.Mmmm brave book