Alexandra is crumbling under the pressure of having to save the world from a space-roaming anomaly called the Invading Darkness. The pressure worsens when Alexandra's father gives his life to protect her from an attack by a doomsday cult. As an investigation is launched to find the cult and its origins, Alexandra hunts them herself as the masked vigilante called "the Light."
Alexandra is crumbling under the pressure of having to save the world from a space-roaming anomaly called the Invading Darkness. The pressure worsens when Alexandra's father gives his life to protect her from an attack by a doomsday cult. As an investigation is launched to find the cult and its origins, Alexandra hunts them herself as the masked vigilante called "the Light."
Stephen Linley was going to ground his daughter for a lifetime, once he caught up to her. He circled around to the back of the auditorium in time to see Lexi enter a door, causing a dumpster to roll in front of it with a wave of her hand. He ran to the dumpster and pushed it aside, careful not to throw it against the wall. He’d need that restraint to keep from screaming at Lexi.
Stooping to get his seven-foot-tall frame through the door, Stephen entered a hallway and barrelled past half-armored soldiers and fairies just slipping their wings on, until he emerged into the theater proper. A stream of people ambled to their seats, staring at their phones while Lexi bobbed and wove between them in a race to the exit. At just a couple inches under six feet, it wasn’t hard to pick her, or her blonde hair out from the crowd. Stephen hurried off the stage and down the center aisle, squeezing himself between people and nodding in thanks when they parted to let him pass.
He reached the lobby just as Lexi pushed through the front doors. He sprinted after her, sparing a thought of gratitude for the group of theatregoers who had blocked her escape on their way in. She gasped when Stephen grabbed her arm, her expression darkening as she accepted defeat. Ignoring the despair in his chest, Stephen took the lead. They had taken just a few steps outside when Lexi made a motion with her hand. Stephen felt a force push his fingers off of her arm, and she ran again, making a pushing gesture towards Stephen that sent him tumbling to the ground like a linebacker had crashed into him. He sat up in time to see Lexi round the corner of the auditorium.
“I’ll ground her for two lifetimes.” He sprang to his feet and resumed his pursuit, weaving through the people heading inside. He came to a stop when he rounded the building. Only the campus of the New Port Falls Academy for Extra-Biological Students sat before him. He turned upon hearing someone approach.
Claire Mason adjusted her glasses and straightened her suit. Proper apparel for a psychologist, but not for chasing down a teenager. “Did you find her?” she asked.
“I had her for a second,” Stephen said between breaths. He pointed ahead. “She went that way.”
They rounded the next corner, returning to the auditorium’s rear entrance. The dumpster once again sat in front of the door.
Stephen looked incredulous. “There’s no way she’s trying that again.”
“Agreed,” Claire said. “She wants to put us off her scent.”
“Can you ping her?”
Claire shut her eyes and concentrated. “I see the minds of the people in the theater, some staff working in the admin building. I don’t sense her, though. She must be suppressing her mental signature again.”
A noise from nearby caught their attention. Stephen and Claire rounded the next corner and saw Lexi a few buildings away, attempting to pull the doors open.
“These stunts she’s pulling are going to be the end of me,” Claire said, the sudden prominence of her English accent denoting her stress.
“Not before I ground her for three lifetimes.” Stephen began to run.
Lexi saw them approach and pinned herself against the door. She made a twisting motion with her hand.
Claire picked up her pace. “She’s unlocking the door!”
Stephen gave it his all, but even with strides as wide as his, Lexi managed to slip inside and lock the door behind her. “I’ll ground her until the end of time.”
Claire looked the door up and down, hands on her hips. “John might be able to get the key.” She backed away from the door and went silent for a moment as she focused. A few seconds later, Stephen heard the sound of keys jingling behind him. He turned in time to see someone running towards them, covering tens of feet in the span of a second.
John Grimes came to a stop and held up a key ring as sweat soaked into his tank top. “Good thing you found her. I was clear across campus when you got hold of me. Did she have time to escape?”
Claire shook her head. “The only other door is a fire exit. She’d have alerted the entire campus.”
John barely had the door open before Stephen charged inside. Lexi had taken cover in the cafeteria. Other than chairs stacked on the tables, the place sat empty. The silence made Stephen’s ears ring.
“John, you secure the entrance,” he said. “Claire, keep pinging for her and check the bathrooms.”
Claire and John got to work as Stephen hurried into the kitchen. He flung cupboards and cabinets open, careful to not pull them off their hinges, finding only measuring cups and seasonings.
The door to the women’s bathroom exploded open as Lexi darted across the cafeteria. Claire emerged a moment later. “Alex, get back here!”
Lexi had already reached the emergency exit by the time Stephen emerged from the kitchen. She threw herself against the release.
John became a blur that smeared itself across the air, reaching Lexi in a fraction of a second. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her from the door.
Stephen jogged across the cafeteria to them. Lexi gave up struggling once he grabbed her arm again. “You are in so much trouble, Alexandra Linley.”
You have to admire Daniel Big Plume's vision in this book. I felt like it could have been more than one really, such was the content of it and the scope of the action. That said, this is cohesively written with a clear purpose and was really enjoyable with tension and tragedy throughout and the narrative moves at the right pace towards a satisfactory conclusion.
We follow a number of key characters, the main one being Alexandra who is a 15 year old girl in New Port Falls who is being trained by a group of professionals (who are also like firm friends and family members) to be prepared for the day that the "Invading Darkness" of the title arrives. Why Alex? Well, she has already shown that she is extra special in a world of Extra-Biologicals previously and as a result, she is the individual on which all on Earth are pinning their hopes. If she can't repel the darkness, then Earth and all its inhabitants are doomed.
But the galactic cloud is not the only thing that Alex has to fight. She is beset by problems from many areas and it's probably not difficult to guess what some of these are. There are those which come with the role she's been designated: self-doubt; fatigue (she's been training for a long time). But there is also a lot of the normal problems facing teens like friendship issues and bullying as well as strained family relationships. Big Plume does a good job of showing the tensions that plague Alex and the weight that has been placed on such a young girl's shoulders.
The cloud is looming, relationships are strained, pressure is rising but the Darkness has earthly acolytes too, intent on thwarting Alex and so, Alex is well and truly a troubled teen.
This is a book which is strong on showing relationships between people and the dialogue reads true. I liked the dynamics created between Alex and all of the people in her life, especially with her father, Stephen. Pace is good and we know from the start where the action is leading.
I think for teens this would be a great read with many moments throughout where teen readers would be able to identify with Alex's situation and the tensions she is navigating which sit well alongside the enjoyment of the heroine saving the world aspect too.