Daynight Blog Tour Review: Daynight by Megan Thomason

Daynight by Megan Thomason 

Published: November 26, 2012 

Paperback, 324 pages

“Sure to win over YA readers looking for a dangerous, dystopian adventure story” —Kirkus Reviews

“Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.”—BlueInk Review (starred review)

Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance™. Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving—forced lifetime union between two people who have sex.

Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.

Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother’s death, Blake’s been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner—Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.

Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan’s forced to do his SCI elite family’s bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs.

Full of competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, daynight is Megan Thomason’s debut young adult dystopian novel and first in the daynight series. --Goodreads

3 Stars

Review

When I first started daynight, I had no idea where it was leading to. The plot and writing was going all over the place, with the confusing alternating points of views, the tension between the characters that didn't seem to have a reason, my inability to comprehend the actions of any character, basically nearly everything. I wasn't even sure that this was the right book that I picked up. For a second, I thought that I was confusing this book with another. daynight seemed to be going in the horrid direction of a book who has no idea where it planned to go.

Luckily for the readers, but maybe not for 75% of the characters, they all die! The giant bomb that kills off Kira's friends sort of leads us to a point where we can all nod and have somewhat lukewarm understanding of what's going on. Then again, nothing really happens for the remainder of the book. It's a giant mess with Kira and Blake having a 'I am not interested in you, but then again....' kind of relationship. This book had the deepest love triangle I have ever been through. By deepest, I mean the most likely to have all of the characters commit suicide through sheer stupidity. Kira and Ethan have some telepathic love relationship where they love each other, despite only communicating for like 5 minutes before the bomb goes off (the bomb is very important). Basically, Kira and Ethan moon over each other throughout the entire book, making it hilariously awkward when it turns out that a love triangle comes around between Kira, Ethan, and Blake. Meanwhile, poor Blake has some secret mission to succeed in, but his "feelings" or nagging thought to touch Kira keeps bothering him.

If I could give these characters a word to follow by, it would be HORMONES. In other words, if you are not willing to follow your heart nor your brain, follow your hormones. Then again, the pathetic-ness of the love triangle makes this book even funnier than it already it. Kira has a cute narration that pokes fun of the seriousness of the new world she is staying in that has these confusing customs like "cleaving"", aka sex, and being stuck with your cleaver (?) for life. The humor of this book is truly the most memorable aspect that left the most positive impression for me. 

Writing wise, Megan Thomason is already wonderful at it. Her descriptions and dialogue are sweet and snappy, in other words, not choppy, but not too dragged out. At many points, I was able to feel the pain, anger, and happiness of all the characters. That is not to say that I thought they were realistic, but there were these heart-wrenching moments that could divert my attention from some of the nonsensical moments of the book.

Overall, daynight is the beginning of a exciting dystopian trilogy. There could definitely be some major improvements in the plot and pacing, but otherwise I enjoyed the guilty pleasure sort of feel it had. The ending of the book was a somewhat cliff-hanger, so I shall eagerly anticipate for the next book in this trilogy, while praying for a love triangle focused on either the heart, brain, or hormones.

Purchase daynight here: Amazon (Kindle)