#ps im back

Star Rating: *** (3/5 stars)

Every now and then I read one of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ books, just to keep my hand in. Her earliest vampire stories were some of my favourites back in middle school, and I still have a huge amount of nostalgic fondness for them. As time goes on she’s become a better writer by far, but her subject matter has veered away from vampires.

I don’t like the shapechangers and psychics she writes about as much as I enjoyed Aubrey, Risika, Jaguar, and all the rest. That said, she really has improved, and the people she writes about are better rounded, fuller characters. Token of Darkness follows Cooper, a high school athlete who barely survived a terrible accident, and has been seeing a teenage ghost named Samantha ever since. His struggles with flashbacks, physical disability, and heavy anxiety will resonate with many who deal with the same problems every day.

I felt that the pacing of the book was a little off, with a slow start and new information revealed in weird places. Too many new elements intrude all at once at the very end, with the resolution tied up in a neat bow with no loose edges. I would have liked some more uncertainty. The book deals with grief, loss, and trauma after all, and these things do not just disappear. Overall an enjoyable read, but not my favourite of her stories.