Review: Arclight by Josin L. McQuein

Arclight by Josin L. McQuein
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Pre order: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

No one crosses the wall of light . . . except for one girl who doesn’t remember who she is, where she came from, or how she survived. A harrowing, powerful debut thriller about finding yourself and protecting your future—no matter how short and uncertain it may be.

The Arclight is the last defense. The Fade can’t get in. Outside the Arclight’s border of high-powered beams is the Dark. And between the Light and the Dark is the Grey, a narrow, barren no-man’s-land. That’s where the rescue team finds Marina, a lone teenage girl with no memory of the horrors she faced or the family she lost. Marina is the only person who has ever survived an encounter with the Fade. She’s the first hope humanity has had in generations, but she could also be the catalyst for their final destruction. Because the Fade will stop at nothing to get her back. Marina knows it. Tobin, who’s determined to take his revenge on the Fade, knows it. Anne-Marie, who just wishes it were all over, knows it.

When one of the Fade infiltrates the Arclight and Marina recognizes it, she will begin to unlock secrets she didn’t even know she had. Who will Marina become? Who can she never be again?

My Thoughts:
Well this was different and I am not quite sure if that is a good thing or not.  What started out really strong ended up being extremely confusing and honestly I am still not sure if I understand it all.

Arclight starts off with a BANG!  And I mean heart pounding, adrenaline inducing bang.  The people who live in this Arc type community fear the dark.  They know that what lies beyond in the dark is bad and so they keep lights on at all times to keep the dark and the monsters called the Fade away.  Well when the story starts off there is a breach and everything gets thrown into chaos from the get go.  Things get very complicated and confusing from this point on and all I can say about the story is that you won't know everything until the last page.  I was floored by a few things and like I said very confused with others.  This world is very different from others that I have read and yet still very similar.  We have the girl who no one likes, the boy who wants to save her for reasons of his own, a scared human race, and a dark unknown that threatens the lives of the humans.

Marina, the main character, has a lot of problems.  She doesn't remember where she came from, all she remembers is waking up in a puddle of water in the dark and being rescued.  Her rescue came at the expense of several others and for that she is treated with disdain from the ones who lost their families.  They blame Marina even though she never asked to be rescued.  When a Fade is left undetected in the community Marina agrees to help this creature so that she can help save the ones she cares about and right the wrong that her life caused.  This is where the book takes a very weird turn and we find out that not everything is as it seems which I am sure you could guess.

This is probably one of the toughest books for me to summarize because I just don't really get it.  I mean I understand the overall storyline, but the specifics I just can't grasp.  What are nanites?  Why were the created?  What made the humans scared to begin with?  In the beginning we are shown one thing and in the end another and I don't get where the two meet up and make sense.  See I am confused as all get out.  The writing didn't really help either.  I had to reread certain scenes because I was completely lost and turned around.  In the beginning I loved the writing but it just took a turn and when things got complicated it made it even more complicated.

If you are looking for something very different, but still holds that YA formula than this might be the book for you and if you do read it please come back and explain things to me because I really want to understand.  I really liked the overall idea and I would love to know more about the background and the whys of it all.

3 snowflakes