A Review for The Gathering Dark by Christine Johnson

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: February 13th, 2013
Finished Date: January 17th, 2014

Publishers: Simon & Schuster UK
Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance
Source: For Review

Format: Paperback
Pages: 512

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

A mysterious teen boy knows the secrets of Keira’s dangerous hallucinations in this gripping romantic fantasy from the author of Claire de Lune.

Keira’s hallucinating. First it’s a door hovering above the road; then it’s a tree in her living room. But with her parents fighting and her best friend not speaking to her, Keira can’t tell anyone about her breakdown.

Until she meets Walker. They have an electric connection, and somehow he can see the same shadowy images plaguing Keira.

But trusting Walker may be more dangerous than Keira could have ever imagined. The more she confides in him, the more intense—and frightening—her visions become. Because Walker is not what he appears to be. And neither are her visions.

The Review: Gathering Dark tells us the story of a young girl – Keira – who has dedicated her life to music forsaking everything a young girl usually goes through, yeah she has friends but that never gets in the way of practice but boys are a definite no-no, she will concentrate on her career and the first step is gaining acceptance to Julliard. It is her quest for the perfect piece of music that brings Keira to the attention of Walker, she has never regretted her decision to not date as much as she does now. She feels drawn to him, they have chemistry but is it enough to give her piano practice less than 100%? NO! and it’s with a heavy heart that she decides to ignore the connection….. but sometimes, life has other plans. Things are bad at home, her parents are always arguing making it a stressful environment and she only finds comfort in her piano but lately, she’s been seeing things that aren’t there… a door, a person, a tree… is she losing it? Is she just stressed with all of her problems? It’s freaking her out to say the least but they all coincide with something, or should that be someone? And when she goes in search of answers, she’ll wish she was crazy because at least crazy doesn’t want to kill you.

I enjoyed Gathering Dark, it was a very mysterious read and I think that curiosity factor helped me plough through the story. I found Keira a refreshing change as a character in the beginning, she is very driven and focussed on her career, where she wants it to go, how she will get there etc. I thought it was a very admirable quality about her especially because teens that age aren’t really willing to give up their social lives or free time like that. But that did change with the appearance of Walker and whilst she did try to hold him off, by the last quarter of the book she had fell hook, line & sinker. It was a good connection though, they had good chemistry and by the end of the book we understand why because their relationship is very much tied to the story.
I liked the storyline, the big reveal is quite unique & original (for me anyway). As I mentioned, the mystery & curiosity where a huge part of the appeal to keep reading.. when you have a normal young girl, driven and in complete control of her life, suddenly starting to come undone, hallucinating, going back on her own rules and it all revolves around the appearance of a young man…. It’s going to get those curiosity cogs grinding and it stays that way for at least half of the book. When the reveals start to emerge, I liked what happens & when she finds out what’s going on, the book took on a darker feel and then the threat to her was really felt, injecting some action and bringing eeriness to the story. It also changes her and she has to let go of her control in a lot of ways but it made us see that she was actually living for once and being spontaneous but for how long because suddenly her life is at risk. Then we get another couple of threads coming in from the side lines, weaving together to hit us with more surprises and it was soo good, I really appreciated those little extras towards the end. I know my review sounds vague but it’s hard to explain when so much of the book revolves around one reveal that changes things and to even hint at that would spoil it for others so just be prepared for huge amounts of curiosity until the reveal and then the action kicks in and the answers that will leave you stretching your own imagination and hoping for a happy ending.