Book Review: Blackbrooke

                   Today's review is on Blackbrook by Emma Silver

When I first read the description of Blackbrooke I thought it was going to be a knock off of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series. Once I began reading however, I found that it was very different. In fact, there are absolutely no vampires to speak of. There are Crits though, and they are much much worse.

Seventeen year old Liberty Connor saw her first Crit when she was just seven. She was playing hide and seek with her best friend Cassius and ventured to close to the border between the humans and the Crits. Scared out of her wits, Liberty (Lib) runs to safety.

Life in Blackbrooke isn't very enjoyable. Humans can only be out during the day because the Crits come out at night. The Crits are horrible creatures. Some are Watchers, some are Hunters, some are Lurkers, and then there are the Queens, the very worst of them all. If any humans are wandering around when the sun goes down and the Crits come out searching for food, they become fair game. Especially those that "walk out."

Liberty is virtually devastated when her boyfriend Gabriel "walks out." And when her now best friend Gemma is found dead on Noah's doorstep, she can barely go on. But there is something going on besides the Crits in Blackbrooke. Something that even Liberty's own parents are aware of, and she is determined to find out exactly what it is.

With the help of Noah, who is, or rather was Gemma's boyfriend, and her own childhood best friend Cassius, Liberty sets out to strike a deal with the Queens of the Crits. A deal that will cost her dearly.

I couldn't stop reading Blackbrooke. I fell in love with Cassius almost instantly and needed to find out what was going to happen to him in the next chapter. And Liberty? Who couldn't love her determination and tenacity?

I cannot begin to describe how touched I was by this book. I even found myself crying during many of the chapters because the pain of my beloved characters was so strong. And though I rather enjoyed the English vocabulary, there were some times when I questioned the sentence structure. If you are from the US and read Blackbrooke you'll understand. In the end however, you'll simply love it.

4 of 5 stars
Available at Amazon



Book Description: via Amazon

“I live in Blackbrooke and you would have had to be living under a rock to never have heard of it before now. This town is different to most others…Humans aren’t the only residents…”

The residents of Blackbrooke share their town with the Creatures, or Crits as they are known. Grotesque, roaming the streets at night looking for food, their presence means humans have to live by the Rules, keeping them indoors and forbidding them of basic desires.

The most important Rule?

Don’t be a ‘walk out’!

Straight-A student, Liberty Connor, hates the Crits and the endless Rules she and her tight knit group of friends have to live by.

Planning her new life on the Outside with her boyfriend, Gabriel, Liberty whiles away her days waiting to turn 18, so they can leave and be free. That is, until the world she thinks she knows begins to unravel…

Her friends start to walk out. So she’s told. However, something’s not right. Things don’t add up.

Liberty faces a race against time to discover what’s going on with the Creatures of Blackbrooke.

Is it them she has to fear, or something much closer to home?