Book Review: Dark Inside

Title: Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Release Date: Nov. 1, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Pages: 336 pages
Genre: Horror, Apocalyptic
Source: Publisher through GalleyGrab

Goodreads Summary: Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everyday people into hunters, killers, crazies. 

Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd.

Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.

I have seen Dark Inside described as a combination of 28 Days Later and The Road. I would agree with this description plus a bit of The Stand thrown in. While Dark Inside is a more appropriate read for a YA audience (or squeamish people like me), it does maintain the horror of those other stories but without the excessive gore. If you like your horror/zombie novel bloody, don’t worry, while this book may not be extremely gory, the body count is still very high. Personally, 28 Days Later gave me the worst nightmares and I have avoided zombie books and movies since then but Dark Inside may just bring me back. 

The story follows four teenagers who try to survive after the world is rocked by several extremely destructive earthquakes. The death toll after the disaster is high, but nothing compared to what happens to people afterwards. The quakes unleash an evil that posseses some people but does not affect others. The affected become zombielike, filled with rage and bent on brutally killing anyone in their path, especially those who are not infected. While the four teens, Mason, Aries, Clementine and Michael, don’t know each other initially, we read as they struggle to stay alive and see how their paths intersect.

The teens are all very different and struggle with different issues. The characters are very well written, some are filled with guilt and regret, some more streetwise that others and almost all finding it hard to come to terms with family and friends they have lost due to the disaster. The idea that anyone, friends and family, could be a monster waiting to strike makes Dark Inside even more suspenseful.

The horror element, however, may be the best thing about this book. The Baggers, people who are infected with the evil, are absolutely terrifying. The way they hunt the normal people and the traps they set really scared me. The way the teens have to hide and travel by night to avoid viscous hordes of Baggers had me on the edge of my seat.

Dark Inside is a fast paced, action packed nail biter all the way to the end and it does end with a cliffhanger. This is a really good horror novel and I am looking forward to the sequel.

Content: Kissing, heavy violence, mild profanity.

My Rating: Really Good!