A Neon Darkness (The Bright Sessions Book 2)

Product Information

The introduction of Isaiah and the mysterious organization is interesting and eerie at the same time, leaving the reader and the characters to wonder who are they, what do they want, where are they, a shadow on their lives.

It explores topics deep enough to really mess up and yet - Lauren Shippen doesn't. She's one hell of a writer, I have to admit. However, even though the writing was excellent and the themes discussed were taken apart in a fascinating manner, I can't say I was in love with the rest of the book. If you are not familiar with Shippen’s work, pull up a chair. She created and wrote the popular audio drama The Bright Sessions, which had four seasons from 2015 to 2018. The podcast was carried on in The AM Archives, which she executive produced, and soon The College Tapes following Caleb and Adam. She co-produced the award-winning Passenger List and wrote the audio adaptation of the popular comic MARVELS. In 2019, she released her first YA novel, The Infinite Noise, and has a third book on the horizon, which will focus on a dream walker named Rose. Shippen is certainly busy! Damien: How do you not get it? Look, I know you’re curious about me, Mark, so let me do what you want and tell you- I’ve lived my whole life with people doing what I want and then instantly regretting it. Do you know what that’s like? People having buyer’s remorse about you? (Mini episode 8, “September 30th, 2016”)

Discussion

Indah Indrawati: A Muslim bartender and member of the Unusuals who Damien stays with his first night in the city. She has the ability to sense atypical abilities. Each of these artists uses the qualities of the night to add something special to their photos. Ekaterina Mishchenkova Los Angeles, 2006. Eighteen-year-old Robert Gorham arrives in L.A. amid the desert heat and the soft buzz of neon. He came alone with one goal: he wants to see the ocean. And Robert always gets what he wants. LA seemed as good a place as any to hit up next on my haphazard tour of the western United States. Anything’s better than goddamned Nebraska. But, in another boneheaded move, I haven’t looked at a calendar in weeks, which means I’ve somehow timed it so that I’m driving into Los Angeles on the night of Halloween. My shoulders relax and I nod in thanks as I move through the tiny front patio, filled with a few more solo smokers. Eyes swivel, following me as I open the door.

Like I said before, what really affected and touched me in this book was the characters. I will never get over how much of a grey character Damien is and how complex and multi-layered. For those who are not aware, Damien has the ability to make people around him want the same thing he does and manipulate them that way. That sounds pretty cool right? For the user itself that is. But you actually see how much it has actually ruined him, how it has affected him and his view of the world since he can’t control it (or doesn’t seem to be able to). You can’t help but sympathize with him. This book towards the end starts feeling much like a villain origin story only you are not even sure how to feel about Damien in the end. Throughout the story, there were so many times I understood how he felt, I thought that in his place I would had probably acted the same way. Subjects on morality are touched and it’s all so complicated that you don’t know how to feel in the end. As for the other characters, they are all so well written and it’s obvious that there has been a lot of thought put into them. Marley was definitely my favourite because I have a weak spot for tough looking guys that are actually big softies and basically the mom of the group. They were also diverse as hell and there were a few times when the issues of racism and sexism were touched. I don’t know,” I say again quietly, the irony of it all hitting home. The boy whose wants infect everyone else can’t even articulate what he wants, even though it’s as simple as wanting to be wrapped up in someone’s arms. To feel loved. To feel safe, for just one goddamned second. Which is, of course, exactly what happens and in the following scene he’s completely unsure again if he used his ability at all even when Neon tells him that he very much obviously did. It’s easily my favourite scene in the book because it shows how many layers of messed-up Damien is and how few things he’s able to admit to himself. Like the deep desire to be understood, held, feel safe and part of a group that cares about you is deeply human and nothing to be ashamed of. Though when the therapist he sees briefly points that out, Damien only sneers that he’s not human. Mark surely didn’t buy it when Damien admitted this as his motivation to him. Which leads me into my next issue: nothing really happens in this book, besides that same argument. The villain is very bland, and there isn’t really any resolution or point to his story (though I am not sure if this is another element that would be solved by having prior exposure to the Dark Sessions). Even the final confrontation with him in the book seems inconsequential. I was left going wait, that was it? That’s what the entire story was building to?I’m contemplating my next move when the bartender says, “Here you go,” and I spin around again to see her placing a drink in front of me. Shippen's prose acts as not only the second best facet of this novel, but also the primary conduit through which she gets the reader to understand if not sympathize with Damien. The strongest quality of her writing is undoubtedly her ability to express emotion with a type of poetic clarity I've rarely seen before. I'd describe the way Damien's emotions are described in this novel as akin to the sensation of drinking sparkling wine: liquid gold on the outside, but with a bitter aftertaste. Her writing strikes the perfect balance between showing his thoughts and the insidiousness undercurrent that underlies even the brightest of them. It is because of the way Shippen uses her prose in this narrative to tie Damien and his often conflicting emotions to the reader that she is able to somehow get the reader to both empathize and hate Damien, in equal measure. A Neon Darkness could, in fact, have been a home run, but for one of its villains, Isiah, who is present here only as a plot device, shoehorned in here and there to move the plot in a desired direction. It’s clunky, sometimes almost preposterous, how this (admittedly frightening) mystery man appears, twirls his mustache, vanishes, and then, in the end, serves his real purpose - as the final line that must not be crossed. In such a carefully written, thoughtful work, Isiah is an real oddity, both in how shallow and predictable he’s presented to us, and in the square-peg ways he’s deployed. BUT tengo algo triste que decir: este libro es un plomo. No me convence que no haya capítulos porque la historia se vuelve eterna y es una lástima porque la escritura mejoró un montón de TIN a AND, pero la estructura la tiró para atrás.

You read this story knowing where Damien is going to end up, knowing you don't really like him in the end, but it keeps you interested because you want to know HOW he is going to get there. No physical description of him is given in The Bright Sessions, however Lauren Shippen mentions in a blog post that he is the fifth tallest of the show's main cast. [4] But things will be different in L.A. He meets a group of strange friends who could help him. Friends who can do things like produce flames without flint, conduct electricity with their hands, and see visions of the past. They call themselves Unusuals and finally, finally, Robert belongs. The allusion comes into play in the beginning, as the narrator has a revelation, a vision, that awakes him from this superficial, merely shadowed world. He rises, walks alone as the man in Plato's story did, and he sees the light. He tries to tempt others out of the cave of ignorance and look beyond teh surface of things, but his "words like silent raindrops" fall. His attempts are futile. Final notes: fans of the podcast will find Easter eggs in this book for The AM Archives and The College Tapes. I suggest reading this one after the original series, but you should DEFINITELY read it before The College Tapes. Whether you do it before, during, or after The AM Archives is up to you, but it gives some really important context for TCT.

Storyteller, director, writer, and fantastic playlist maker Lauren Shippen’s second YA novel release is just around the corner. A Neon Darkness is a character-driven story that will focus on Damien, one of the more troubled characters. Nerds and Beyond was fortunate enough to get an advanced reader copy through NetGalley to review.