The Lucky One

Darkening Song by Delphine Seddon

Goodreads Giveaway Win

Pages: 351 Genre: YA (older) literary fiction

Rating: 3.5 Star

Eva is an 18-year-old intern at a recording label when she stumbles across a video from Alora, a 16-year-old with a voice like no one's ever heard before. Eva knows she'll be something huge, so she takes matters into her own hands to get her discovered, cementing the two as a team. And Eva was right: Alora blows up, thrusting both of them into the chaos of fame. But Alora is being pulled to the extreme. Eventually, she is forced to consider what it is she really wants.

I got this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway, and when I received the book, the top of it wasn't cut properly. Like, I had to go in and individually cut the pages apart. This isn't the author's fault, and I'm not writing this to complain (ultimately, who cares, it's more funny than anything), but it was my first impression of the book and really didn't make it desirable. Again: I'm not going to, like, demote the book a star for it, but it was a real bummer to start with and that might've clouded my initial feelings.

Overall, though, I did like the book. The writing in particular really stood out to me. I liked how atmospheric it was; the style did a good job to encompass the tone and messages that the author was trying to portray. It wasn't a perfect book, and I thought it took a moment to find its groove, but I enjoyed reading it.

I'm reading it about six months before it comes out, so I don't know how much — if at all — it will change, but there were a lot of moments where a lack of editing came out. There were many run-on sentences that were in desperate need of a comma or two. Also, sweet and sweat were mixed up at least once each.

While I was overall impressed by the writing, I did find the reliance on reveals to be a bit cheap. From the beginning, the book is dangling the idea of hidden information in front of the reader, and I don't know if that was really necessary. I'd say there are three main reveals, and two of them were only reveals because the author was outright holding back information, which I think is a lazy way to write. It's a shame, because the third of the Big Reveals was actually well done within the context of the story, so I know it could've been possible. None of the reveals were particularly earned, either; the characters didn't change or grow to justify why they were now telling me this information they had previously kept from me. I think the story would've been benefitted by not relying on these moments to surprise the reader and just trusting in the strength of the story itself.

The writing would also get a little corny sometimes. Right at the start, during an otherwise very emotional moment that opens the book, the author clarifies that the main social media platform is Gramzee, owned by Leon Tusk, which is just silly. The book immediately embraces its melancholy and serious tone, so naming the evil social media owner Leon Musk is about as off-putting as it would've been if we'd just gone with Elongated Muskrat. (It was also unnecessary since someone later uses the word "Instagrammable," but that's besides the point.) Also, for a book that otherwise did a good job of maintaining a writing voice that felt real and genuine, a lot of the dialogue near the end really lost it. It's not that it was bad or wrong in any way, but it became a lot more overt and aware, as if the author wanted to be certain that this point wasn't missed. While these moments did take me out of the story a little bit, it didn't happen too often.

The girls have alternating chapters from their own POVs, which I found distinct enough. My biggest issue was that they were so independent from one another. Alora's chapters would be The Plot, with Eva's chapters coloring in the context. After their initial meeting, they barely interacted. This wasn't actually much of a problem for me as far as the story goes, but it's not a book about friendship. In fact, had the author opted to explore the impact friendship more, it could've been interesting, but that just didn't happen.

The story follows Eva and Alora equally, but while the description makes it seem as though Eva is the main driving force, this is undeniably Alora's story. She is the favorite child. I felt like her perspective had a tendency to lull at the beginning, getting into a monotonous series of unfortunate events, but once it settled, her story was really engaging. At the end, though, the story as a whole totally lost its steam. It was like someone told the author, after she had written 300 pages, that she only had 50 more. The buildup took so long, and the payoff at the end was not worth it. The final revelations that each girl had was unearned, and Alora in particular did not have a satisfying ending (even though that's what the author was clearly going for).

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I liked Eva a lot. Sure, her character development took her to some dark places, but the author did a good job crafting an unlikable protagonist. But, at a certain point, she got entirely abandoned. That's when it became clear to me that this was Alora's story, not Eva's, which is a shame given the way it was written. I was disappointed that, instead of finding a way to write a solid conclusion for both characters, Eva was just forgotten about it in the background. The stuff she was dealing with (or at least her perspective on it) was a big deal, but the lack of proper ending for her made the impact feel inconsequential.

While I did like these two, the story was build by the plot, not by the characters. Whether or not this is a problem comes down to reader preference, though.

The only other thing I want to point out is really nitpicky, and it's important to me that I make it clear that I know it's not a big deal. But I'm very curious on if the author has ever actually been to Texas. Eventually we end up in Austin on a very isolated ranch, which you're just not going to find in actual Austin. This is a city with a big music scene, not a expansive country town. Also, you're not going to find people with vases of bluebonnets. But whatever, it's fine.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I was expecting to, even if it wasn't perfect. The author did a good job of tackling a tough story, and I found it to be very well-told.