On Starships and Dragonwings

Dark Star by Bethany Frenette is somewhere between a superhero and a demon-hunter book with a teenage protagonist whose mom is the one with the superpowers. For some reason I thought Dark Star was going to have aliens, I don’t know why, maybe the star part? Anyway, more demons than aliens, though it’s debatable. While I did read Dark Star in one day, I found myself pretty meh about it the whole time. Also that cover angers me.

Note: I borrowed Dark Star from my library of awesomeness.

Dark Star by Bethany Frenette (Dark Star #1)
Published by Disney Hyperion on Oct. 23rd, 2012
Genres: Urban Fantasy, YA 
Length: 368 pages
How I got my copy: Borrowed
IndieBound - Book Depository - Goodreads
Purchases made support this blog 

Audrey Whitticomb has nothing to fear. Her mother is the superhero Morning Star, the most deadly crime-fighter in the Twin Cities, so it's hard for Audrey not to feel safe. That is, until she's lured into the sweet night air by something human and not human--something with talons and teeth, and a wide, scarlet smile.

Now Audrey knows the truth: her mom doesn't fight crime at night. She fights Harrowers--livid, merciless beings who were trapped Beneath eons ago. Yet some have managed to escape. And they want Audrey dead, just because of who she is: one of the Kin.

To survive, Audrey will need to sharpen the powers she has always had. When she gets close to someone, dark corners of the person's memories become her own, and she sometimes even glimpses the future. If Audrey could only get close to Patrick Tigue, a powerful Harrower masquerading as human, she could use her Knowing to discover the Harrowers' next move. But Leon, her mother's bossy, infuriatingly attractive sidekick, has other ideas. Lately, he won't let Audrey out of his sight.

When an unthinkable betrayal puts Minneapolis in terrible danger, Audrey discovers a wild, untamed power within herself. It may be the key to saving her herself, her family, and her city. Or it may be the force that destroys everything--and everyone--she loves. 

Strengths:

• The aliens/demons thing is because the bad critters are a race from before the existence of the universe. Totally could have been aliens right?? Anyway, the origin story about the Harrowers and the super-powered Kin was fun to read :).
• I was a fan of Audrey’s friends and I love it when secondary characters win my heart.
• Audrey has psychic powers and I thought that they were done well. She has limits, she is still developing her ability to control and understand her power, and the way Knowings come to her worked well for me.
• When a couple of the reveals happened, they made a lot of sense in retrospect. I wasn’t all OMG, but more along the lines of “Oooohhhh, yeah that makes sense” ;-).
• Dark Star takes place in Minneapolis/The Twin Cities, a place where I lived for a while, and it’s fairly accurate! There is a quote about snow that amused me, hehe.

Weaknesses:

•  The cover makes no sense. Am I missing something?? The black sweat-shirt with the star is Audrey’s mother’s superhero outfit and she has blonde hair if I recall correctly. Audrey never wears her mom’s sweatshirt! This doesn’t make sense and I’ve spent way too many braincells trying to figure it out D:
• I’m honestly getting sick of the demons thing. They are just such an easy villain you know, they are evil by default, we need to kill them by default. I would have liked if the Harrowers weren’t equated to demons and instead just stayed the Harrowers.
• I was so hopeful that there wouldn’t be a romance. Then at the VERY end two people are suddenly in love with each other. Am I the only one who didn’t see that coming AT ALL??
• I hate when characters, even teenagers, make stupid decisions like not calling 911 or their superhero mom and doing things on their own that are obviously not going to go well.
• Audrey of course becomes special and important at the end and it felt quite forced to me. I was a fan of her just being the daughter and curious and wanting to help. Why did she need to suddenly be special??

Summary:

Dark Star is kind of your typical good vs. evil set in the modern day type of story. If you’re just really excited to read something straight forward of that variety, go for it, but it’s really nothing special. I’ll be reading the sequel Burn Bright because I already have a review copy, so we’ll see if things change!