This Darkness Mine
This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis
Published: October 10th, 2017 by Harper Collins
Genre: YA Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Sasha Stone’s life is running smoothly. She is valedictorian with a boyfriend fit for Oxford. Her ducks are in a row—that is, until Isaac Harver catches her eye.
Suddenly, her plan for a secured future is turned upside down as she fights her longing to be with Isaac and discovers she was supposed to have a twin sister. Amidst the chaos, a great flaw in her heart comes to light.
Sasha is faced with decisions; decisions that may hurt others including herself. Will she be able to get her life back on track before it’s too late?
Beware of spoilers! Read at your own risk!
This book taught me something: do my research before just picking up a book a reading it. I did not even know the genre, which would’ve helped me place it from the get-go.
There were quite a few things I struggled with, to be honest. To begin with, I felt like McGinnis delved too deeply into certain conversations that happened to include language too vulgar for my taste. I don’t doubt that teenagers speak about such topics in such ways, yet I found it tacky to return to these comments as often as she did. People swear, that’s a fact. Yet sometimes there are ways an author can express such obscure language more elegantly.
Sasha’s relationship with Isaac Harver escalated far too quickly. Granted, she had time gaps, but it was still too soon for a guy like Isaac to fall madly in love with her. As a reader, I was never told why Sasha was so special to him. He mentioned how he had never taken a girl’s virginity before, but that still seems a poor excuse for him to be willing to do anything for her and believe anything she said.
Also on Isaac, it irked me how he implied that man decides what is right and what is wrong. He compared it to a dog being trained by the master. The master teaches the dog what is good and what is bad. I just hope McGinnis doesn’t believe this to be the same truth. If she indeed does not, does she realize she could possibly be spreading this erroneous thought to young minds?
McGinnis did a wonderful job with her writing technique. The voice was strong, even if it took nearly half the book for the story to pick up. Had it not been for the great writing, I probably would have given up before I came across the interesting parts.
I can confidently say I would have enjoyed the story more had there been less swearing and less graphic discussions between the teens.
After some time, I successfully guessed the plot twist at the very end, but what happened to Isaac remained a shock.
This is yet another book not suited for the faint of heart. I can tell you this: it will live on in your mind for a good few days after you’ve finished it.
As for reading more of Mindy McGinnis’ books, I think I will pass. All in all, the plot line was sturdy, but the previously noted details were enough to drive me away from reading more of her work.
