I was recently given the opportunity to read Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis. I received it through Penguin’s First to Read program. It was a good book, although I can’t say that it was my favorite.
Nedra is a 17 year old girl who grew up in a poor village. She doesn’t have many prospects in life… until she gets a scholarship to a prestigious school, where she plans to train to become a medical alchemist. While she doesn’t feel quite like she fits in, she develops a friendship with another student there, Grey, that seems to be developing into more than friendship.
There’s a plague crossing the land, and Nedra wants to stop it, or even try to find a cure. As the story progresses, she ends up discovering that there may be necromancy involved. Necromancy is illegal. Grey is not too excited about this. At the end, there are some twists and turns, and Nedra seems to be sliding into the dark side. Will she be a villain in book 2? I hope to find out.
The Good
There are a lot of good things about Give the Dark My Love. I liked the characters and the family relationships that Nedra had. There’s some political intrigue, and it speaks a little bit about class and privilege. The magical system is well thought out (except in this world, it’s not magic, it’s science). I liked the plot twist at the end of the story as well.
The Not as Good
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I would have liked to have seen more of the relationship between Nedra and Grey, and there was a lot that went on between Nedra and her professor that wasn’t shown either. The writing style didn’t draw me in as much as some of the other books that I’ve read recently have, but it was still quite good.
Conclusion
Give the Dark My Love has at least two books to it, and I would like to continue with the series (although I’ll probably try to obtain an ARC or check it out from the library). For me, I don’t think that this book has endless rereadability, but it I did like it.
This book is expected to go on sale on September 25th, but you can pre-order it now.