Blog Tour: Romancing the Dark in the City of Light



Title: Romancing the Dark in the City of Light
Author: Ann Jacobus
Series: N/A, Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher:  Thomas Dunne
Publication Date: October 6th 2015  
Pages: 288
My Rating: 4 Stars
A troubled teen, living in Paris, is torn between two boys, one of whom encourages her to embrace life, while the other—dark, dangerous, and attractive—urges her to embrace her fatal flaws.

Haunting and beautifully written, with a sharp and distinctive voice that could belong only to this character, Romancing the Dark in the City of Light is an unforgettable young adult novel.

Summer Barnes just moved to Paris to repeat her senior year of high school. After being kicked out of four boarding schools, she has to get on track or she risks losing her hefty inheritance. Summer is convinced that meeting the right guy will solve everything. She meets two. Moony, a classmate, is recovering against all odds from a serious car accident, and he encourages Summer to embrace life despite how hard it can be to make it through even one day. But when Summer meets Kurt, a hot, mysterious older man who she just can't shake, he leads her through the creepy underbelly of the city-and way out of her depth.

When Summer's behavior manages to alienate everyone, even Moony, she's forced to decide if a life so difficult is worth living. With an ending that'll surprise even the most seasoned reader, Romancing the Dark in the City of Light is an unputdownable and utterly compelling novel.

Romancing the Dark in the City of Light is a very unique read. Set in Paris, it follows a depressed alcoholic teen who carries a huge weight. It felt very impersonal for me that the author used the third person point of view when depression relies so much on what the person, in this case Summer, is thinking or feeling at the moment. This is why it took me a while to get into this book; but once I got into it I can only say that's it's a really, really amazing book.

The way I see the book is that both Kurt and Moony represent the inner struggle that a depressed person goes through when having suicidal thoughts. On one hand, there's Kurt, affirming all of Summer's negative feelings and egging her on to push through with suicide. As a depressed person, the feeling of sadness and darkness overweigh the feeling of happiness, thus Kurt always seems to be everywhere. On the other hand, Moony is that part of our brain which thinks of other people and convinces Summer not to push through. That she is strong and she can still improve. Being the few bits of happiness, Summer only seldom saw Moony. The imagery of this is having an angel and a devil on each side of Summer's shoulders.

Once I started viewing the book with this perspective, I started to appreciate the book more. I feel like that this is not probably the author's intention, but that's how I chose to view it. It made me appreciate the book more, and it definitely made me understand depression more despite the many YA novels that I've already read which were also about depression.

This definitely is one of my favorite depression books, and it's definitely a more unique take on it, at least for me.


4 stars

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