Review – Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: August 5, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1442483781
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got an ARC of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. I was intrigued by the dark premise and the idea of natural disasters being something…more. This was a very interesting and edgy paranormal young adult book that I enjoyed a lot.

A year ago Hurricane Josephine swept through Savannah, Georgia. During that tragic event Dovey’s best friend Carly was swept away during a flash flood and later found dead. Dovey has been heavily medicated since that event, after having some psychotic episodes during her friend Carly’s funeral. However, after seeing the supposedly dead Carly in her favorite coffee shop Dovey decides to quit her meds and track Carly down. The truth Dovey stumbles on is darker and creepier than she could have ever guessed.

There is a lot of mystery and creepiness in here. This is a very very dark story. I found it intriguing, different, and interesting. I had trouble putting the book down and was absolutely drawn into this crazy and creepy world.

Dovey is a fascinating character. She is absolutely determined to find her best friend and figure out what happened to her. The lengths she goes to to do this are amazing. She is driven and tough and more than a little bit crazy at times.

There is a bit of a love triangle here which is something I am normally not a huge fan of. ..however, here it really works. Dovey meets the mysterious, tortured, and beautiful Isaac and is drawn to him. However her long time best-friend is an adorable nice-guy named Brodie and has more than friendly feelings towards Dovey. Both support and respect Dovey in different ways. They are both interesting male leads too. Although Isaac definitely has more depth as a character than Brodie does.

This is a brutal book, just a warning for those with sensitive stomachs. There is dismemberment, torture, brainwashing, drug use, implied rape, and deviant sexual behavior. The rape and sex are not explicit, but the torture is pretty graphic. As I said it’s a very dark young adult book.

I really loved the idea of a darker force behind natural disasters, there is some neat world building here. However, I was a bit disappointed that this story wasn’t wrapped up a bit better. You get a good taste of the dark world here and the main story arc for this book was well resolved, however the broader story is not resolved and I felt like we were just starting to scratch the surface of this world. I do hope that there are more books in this series because I really want to know more about these characters and this dark alternate world!

Overall a very intriguing dark young adult paranormal books. This is a very dark and brutal book and very creepy. However, I really enjoyed it a lot. I love the ideas behind natural disasters and really enjoyed the crazy characters. I would recommend for older young adult audience. If you enjoy creepy paranormal reads that are a bit different I would definitely recommend picking this book up.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge