Review: Link (The Shadow of Light #1) by Summer Wier

Title: Link

Author: Summer Wier

Series: The Shadow of Light

Publication: September 29th, 2015

Goodreads / Amazon

Summary: For seventeen-year-old Kira, there’s no better way to celebrate a birthday than being surrounded by friends and huddled beside a campfire deep in the woods. And with a birthday in the peak of summer, that includes late night swims under the stars.

Or at least, it used to.

Kira’s relaxing contemplation of the universe is interrupted when a piece of it falls, colliding with her and starting a chain of events that could unexpectedly lead to the one thing in her life that's missing—her father.

Tossed into a pieced-together world of carnivals and gypsies, an old-fashioned farmhouse, and the alluring presence of a boy from another planet, Kira discovers she’s been transported to the center of a black hole, and there’s more to the story than science can explain. She’s now linked by starlight to the world inside the darkness. And her star is dying.

If she doesn’t return home before the star’s light disappears and her link breaks, she’ll be trapped forever. But she’s not the only one ensnared, and with time running out, she’ll have to find a way to save a part of her past and a part of her future, or risk losing everything she loves...

The beginning is odd and runs at a slow pace. Things started to get interesting when it becomes clear that Kira (the main character) shifts from one world to the other when she falls asleep.

I’ll quickly summarize the book without spoilers. Kira is celebrating her birthday at a lake and suddenly something hits the lake and she falls unconscious. She falls unconscious in her world, but she becomes conscious in another. So whenever she falls asleep in her original world, she awakens in the other. She is connected to a star and is linked from her planet, Thaer, to another, Asulon. If her star dies, she remains in whichever planet she was conscious in at the time. So she’s got quite a problem on her hands, which eventually leads to bigger problems.

Both worlds fascinated me so much. I was worried in the beginning when the story brought in more scientific information; I worried it would become complex and too crazy to keep up with. The worlds were made easy to understand thanks to the author’s writing. There wasn’t too much description of the worlds, especially for Thaer, but nonetheless, they were interesting enough to have me keep reading.

Some of my concerns regarding the book were the relationships between the characters. Between Kira and Zane (her best friend), I understood how that relationship came about; how the romantic feelings were founded. But between Kira and Evan (a boy trapped on Asulon because his star died at the time), their relationship felt forced to me. I don’t think Kira spent enough time with Evan to really feel crushed about the possibility of never seeing him again. I feel like more should have been built up between them before any romantic inclinations were introduced. With Evan’s character, I feel like he wasn’t entirely constructed yet as a person. I feel like if there was more time allocated to his characterization, then I would be able to connect more to him.

Towards the middle of the novel, the writing became quite plain; the dialogue was super cheesy, especially between Kira and her mom and Faye (her other best friend). There was just a wealth of information that was given, and it did not feel any special as it was supposed to be. I think the story at that point tried too hard to create a touching moment between Kira and her mom. Conversations felt too forced, and it fell flat.

Another aspect of the novel confused me. It is Kira and her reactions to the events that happen to her and the things that other characters do. I cannot give away too much. When something terrible happens to Kira, her reaction is so brief and momentary—it is like she really didn’t care that it happened at all. She forgets so easily the events that happened to her, picks herself up, and moves on. There were many people affected by these events, and it is like Kira did not really care about any of them. Towards the end, I did not like her as a person because her lack of connection between the events that happened and the characters those events affected. I was so confused by that her lack of caring because she is constructed to be this good person who tries to protect those she cares about. In the end, I didn’t see any of that goodness. All of those people affected by the events were forgotten by Kira.

I do have mixed feelings about the book. However, the world building was cool, but towards the end, Kira and her actions and decisions didn’t make much sense to me. I do recommend this book, based on the world-building. Lots of sci-fi!

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

#YA #scifi #link #25crowns