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Review: Dark eyes by William Richter

Dark eyes by William Richter
Published by Razorbill


Get ready for the vigilante girl detective of the next generation.

Wally was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a child and grew up in a wealthy New York City family. At fifteen, her obsessive need to rebel led her to life on the streets.

Now the sixteen-year-old is beautiful and hardened, and shes just stumbled across the possibility of discovering who she really is. She’ll stop at nothing to find her birth mother before Klesko—her darkeyed father—finds her. Because Klesko will stop at nothing to reclaim the fortune Wally’s mother stole from him long ago. Even if that means murdering his own blood. But Wallys had her own killer training, and she's hungry for justice.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for teens, this debut thriller introduces our next big series heroine!


***

I really enjoyed dark eyes for a variety of reasons.

Firstly I loved Wally as a lead character. She is completely kick ass and a really awesome example of a headstrong protagonist. I loved how fiercely loyal she was, how independent she was and how she was able to handle herself in any situation. Quite honestly I cannot wait to see more of her in future books to see how she develops as a character as she starts to build on all the things she has experienced.

I loved the action and pace of this book. There are so many twists and turns that you never see coming along with so much action that you never get a second to be bored. The author builds up the action brilliantly and keeps you hooked on the roller coaster ride from the first to the last page. I loved being surprised by by the twists which I never saw coming and loved being stunned by the revelations as and when they came.

Quite honestly this book was a new breed of YA for me in that I can't think of anything else in the YA market quite like it as it is so gritty and rough and ready in places like an adult book of a similar genre but still has all those things I love about YA in how the main protagonist is presented and portrayed within the book.

A cracking read which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Comments

Jim said…
Great review - I was impressed by this one as well. I think it could be a real crossover hit, as you said it's a great YA read but the action and grittiness could help it appeal to adults as well.