GONE DARK by Amanda Panitch – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Gone Dark by Amanda Panitch
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on April 12 2022
Genres: Dystopian, Suspense, Young adult
Pages: 448
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A fast-paced survival story with engaging characters, Gone Dark was a lot of fun and a solid YA thriller.

“Don’t cry, Zara. Crying is a waste of water.”

I don’t read YA very often these days, but I wanted to take a chance on Gone Dark because it sounded like a pretty good thriller. And it was! Despite a few negatives, I enjoyed this a lot. If you’re looking for a fast-paced story with great characters and lots of tension—and if you happen to like survival stories—this might work for you too.

Zara Ross grew up in a compound in the middle of the wilderness, without any electricity or creature comforts. From a young age, her father taught her everything she needed to know to survive: how to hunt and forage for food, how to protect the compound from intruders, and how to navigate the land with only a compass. But after a tragic accident, Zara’s mother decided it was time to leave the compound behind and live a normal life, so she took Zara to live in California, leaving her husband behind. 

Zara has adapted to a life with luxuries like electricity and fast food, but she’s never forgotten her father’s lessons. Now she’s a high school senior interested in pursuing a career in computer science, and with her best friend Estella, who’s also into computers, and Estella’s brother Gabe, Zara’s online computer gaming buddy, she feels as if she’s finally put her odd childhood behind her. But one day, the power goes out, and everything changes. And when it doesn’t come back on, Zara fears that her father’s warnings have come true. When panic sets in and people start looting for survival, Zara knows the only place that might be safe is the compound where she grew up. 

Zara and Gabe decide to team up and make their way to the compound, hoping to find Estella along the way, but someone is after Zara, a strange man with vine tattoos who seems to know who she is. Trying to stay one step ahead of him is just one challenge they face—-Zara and Gabe are also struggling to find enough food and water to survive. In a world turned suddenly dark, with no cell phones or GPS, as well as a real threat of dying from thirst and starvation, the two teens make their way across a suddenly dangerous country, full of increasingly desperate people. 

Gone Dark is one of those books that’s hard to put down once you start reading. The pacing was so good, and I was so worried about the characters, that it only took me a couple of days to read it. Panitch does tension really well, and her story is infused with moments of sheer terror—like the scene at the Rose Bowl when someone with a gun opens fire into the crowd—to the chase scenes where Zara is trying to dodge the man with the tattoos. And underlying all these exciting moments is the fact that the electrical grids across the entire country are down, which is causing mass hysteria and panic. This isn’t the first story I’ve read where the country is plunged into a world without electricity, but I thought the author did a great job of showing what might happen if such an event were to happen.

I also thought the characters were very well done, Zara in particular. We get to see flashbacks to Zara’s childhood with her father and his rather harsh methods of teaching her survival skills, and I love how these lessons come back to her just when she needs them the most. The fact that she’s willing to go back to her father says something about their relationship, even though she and her mother left on bad terms. I also enjoyed the growing friendship between Zara and Gabe, as they’re forced into close quarters during the trip to the compound. They pick up a few stragglers along the way, kids their age who agree to join them on the journey. There are some poignant moments as well. At one point the group meets a woman named Donna who ends up helping them in an unexpected way, and the scene where they stay in her house was one of my favorites.

I did struggle with some elements, though. I realize the biggest issue I had is a personal pet peeve of mine, and not all readers are going to react the same way. Still, I have to mention that I had a lot of trouble with the logistics of the story and trying to picture all the locations the author talked about. The story starts out in Los Angeles and later becomes a cross-country road trip as Zara and her friends try to reach her father’s secret compound. The author mentions specific locations, like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, but glosses over other details, like the city where Zara and her mother live, for example. It’s “close to L.A.” but why not tell us the name of the city? Zara’s mother works in the “Mayor’s office,” but that wasn’t specific enough for me. I wanted to know which city she was mayor of. I always have this problem when I read books that are set in my neck of the woods, and it bothers me when authors don’t add convincing details about the setting of their story.

Even more perplexing was the location of Zara’s father’s compound. Apparently it’s somewhere on the East Coast, but the state is never revealed (unless I missed it). Zara and Gabe go through multiple states to get there, including Nevada, Colorado, and Nebraska, but there’s never a satisfying answer about where the heck it is. Also, since Zara left the compound when she was ten, how would she even know how to find it? Maybe younger readers don’t care about these kinds of details, but it’s my opinion that YA writers need to appeal to all ages, because guess what? Adults read YA too.

Some of Zara’s struggles were way too easily resolved. For example, her father trained her how to hunt with a crossbow, and guess what she just happens to find at one point? A building full of weapons, including a crossbow that is sized perfectly for her. There are also a couple of way-too-convenient moments, like Zara and Gabe finding an abandoned car just when they need it most.

But aside from these glitches, I really had a lot of fun with Gone Dark. Zara is a character worth rooting for, and I’ll definitely be interested to see what Amanda Panitch does next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.