James, Hadena: Dark Illumination (Dark Legacies) (2012)

I’m glad the editing issues in Dark Cotillion have been resolved in Dark Illumination.

Dark Illumination comes with one warning. There is quite a bit of zombieish-like goryness – without the zombies (those were in Dark Cotillion).

My fascination with this strange world James has presented us with has not left me. Lucifer is catholic and married to a human. All of their children have been baptised into the Catholic church. Lucifer is not the only mythological character that gets treated this way. In fact, Lucifer and the angel Gabriel are best-friends along with Baal, Anubis and Fenrir. Mammon is Brenna’s god-father and uncle and was present at her baptism.

Who is good and bad is no longer clear-cut, but the least clear-cut is the baddie of Dark Illumination. He/She seems set on destroying Brenna after her maturing. Because of the nature of the attacks the person might be someone close to her or one of her relatives.

Add to the mystery of the baddie all of the action and I guess we have an action-mystery novel. All of the action is the reason for the above-mentioned gore. There is plenty of fighting, both magical and demonic. Poor regular humans who get in the way.

Add to this cabal dead uncle Sonnellion and we have in fact a ghost-mystery-action story for young adults.

I believe it is safe to say that Brenna Strachan has a strange family and some strange friends. Add in her own unpredictability and we have a story that is bound to interest both young and old.

Reviews:

Janey’s review