Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Cloak of Light - by Chuck Black


Drew Carter's life has already been marked with tragedy and upheaval, when he befriends the school geek at his new school, an unlikely pairing for the standout football player.  However, as his life continues to be spun around, Ben becomes one of the few things he can count on, until the day something happens to Ben's physics experiment, and Drew is left blind.  Ben disappears shortly after, and Drew is left to figure out what happened to him, what happened to Ben, and what are all of these "invaders" he can suddenly see in the midst of humans' daily lives.

I don't read a lot of young adult fiction, so I found this writing to be on the simplistic side for my usual tastes.  However, I did find myself engrossed in the story at points, finding it to be very much like a scaled down This Present Darkness.  I liked the idea of the jock making friends with the geek, not just because he could get homework help (although he did), but because his dad and his dad-figure had taught him integrity and honesty, and doing the right thing.  There were several plot lines that bothered me, though; Drew goes through and awful lot for one person, even before he gets mixed up in the invader business.  Second, I find it hard to believe that it would take him so long to figure out what the invaders were, or that he wouldn't have confided in someone that would help him understand the dimension he was seeing into.  I also didn't realize that this was going to be the first book in a series, until I came to the very end of the book and nothing had resolved.  I dislike not knowing when books are part of a series.

For the action and content, and themes of integrity and honor, I give this book 3 stars.  I hope that the story continues to develop well and that the rest of the series might include some more depth and growth and understanding on the parts of the characters.

You can find Cloak of Light HERE.
You can connect with Chuck Black on Facebook HERE.

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I received a copy of this book from Multnomah Books, in exchange for my honest review.

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