#FridayReads Review

And for my very last #FallfortheIndieBook - a new favorite author.

An Absence of Light sucked me in from the very beginning and only slightly lost my interest towards the end (the Shadows were not what I expected them to be, more after the jump), and everything was wrapped up quickly for all of the damage caused. But - even so, a solid output from an author whose voice I definitely loved.
We start with Leah, or rather, Leah's family, who has just been murdered. And if that weren't enough, Leah knows what did it - the Shadows.

She's seen these things since she was a little girl, and they terrify her. But no one believes her; including her now deceased parents. So she runs, sure that she'll probably be blamed for her parents' deaths.

It's never quite explained (or maybe I missed it) if Leah's parents were targeted specifically, or whether they got caught in the crossfire of the Shadows trying to kill Leah. She's Special, in that she can see the creatures (again, not explained why or how, but chalked up to her Special-ness). Through happenstance or Fate or some otherworldly influence, she ends up with the family of Manuel, a like-minded individual who can also see the Shadows.

There she meets hunky Adam (twitch) who has been working with Manuel to try and kill the sonsofbitches. His little sister Emily was driven crazy by them, and Manuel's family was also killed by them. Even his mother, Nana, can see them, but chooses not to. So they become a little crew of demon hunters, though it was different to see no one having answers and everyone fumbling their way through. No Giles in this motley crew.

Unfortunately, the big monster reveal turned out to be a little...meh for me, and I think it's more because I expected everything to be supernatural, that the fact they were (SPOILER ALERT) aliens kind of felt like a let-down? And when they started teaming up with the good aliens to defeat the bad aliens, it took it out of the breathless suspense and into the bright light. Kind of like in Signs, where you were freaking out the whole movie about these god-damned aliens, but when you saw them, they weren't so bad.

I think that's more a testament to Houston's incredible writing chops than anything. The first part of the book was just so on point that just a "well done" back half seemed missing that suspense. And the HEA that happened at the end needed more to it. There was so much damage in the wake of the final battle, and I felt like we needed more time to spend on it.

What I can't say enough about is Houston's voice. I just LOOOOOOOOOVED her voice, it resonated with me, it made me laugh and root for our protagonist. And - most importantly - it made me so super stoked that I have all of her other books on my to-read list. I may have to add her to my ABFF list of people I stalk am friends with.

Highly recommend An Absence of Light to all my YA science fiction fan. Four stars.

Buy An Absence of Light on Amazon