ARC Review: A Magic Dark and Bright by Jenny Adams Perinovic

A Magic Dark and Bright

Asylum #1 Jenny Adams Perinovic Publication Date: April 28, 2015 Genre: YA Paranormal

She meant to help a ghost...not unleash a curse.

Amelia Dupree hasn’t seen the Woman in White since the night her brother died.

The ghost seems to have disappeared from the woods surrounding Asylum, Pennsylvania—that is, until Charlie Blue moves into the creepy old MacAllister House next door. Amelia can’t help liking him, even though she spent her childhood thinking his grandmother was a witch. And she definitely can’t ignore the connection between his arrival and the Woman in White’s return.

Then Amelia learns that the Woman in White is a prisoner, trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead. Devastated by the idea that her brother could be suffering a similar fate, Amelia decides to do whatever it takes to help the Woman in White find peace--and Charlie agrees to help her.

But when Amelia’s classmates start to drown in the Susquehanna River, one right after another, rumors swirl as people begin to connect the timing of Charlie’s arrival with the unexplained deaths. As Charlie and Amelia uncover the dark history of Asylum, they realize they may have unleashed an unspeakable evil. One they have to stop before everything they love is destroyed.

Review copy provided by NetGalley.
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~!!!!!!” It was heard throughout the house followed by an inhuman noise that sounded like a cross between a whine and a groan. My dog, Fenris, looked up from the floor and regarded me with a confused stare. If I could elicit that sort of reaction from my dog, what would the neighbors have thought.

I turned back to the book that I was reading, disbelief and frustration still coursing through me. Why would the author do this to me? Why? Another weird noise spouted from me.

A Magic Dark and Bright sounded safe in the beginning. It was a little sleepy and a little boring, just like how the town of Asylum, Pennsylvania was described. A girl lived in it, saddled with issues and haven’t gotten over it despite the year the passed since the accident. But how could you ever get over the death of your brother when you felt that it was your fault he was dead in the first place? Other than that, there was a ghost of a lady haunting the woods behind your house.

Then, the new boy arrived. Things happened and suddenly there was another death in town. Only, this time, it wasn’t accidental. At least, the girl didn’t feel it was accidental. The girl felt that things would never be the same again.

I haven’t appreciated the mystery surrounding the town and haunting the people living in it, not until the very last page, the last sentence, the last word. 

Anticipating one more chapter, I turned another page and stared at the words, To My Readers… And cue the inhuman noise.

Way to go, way to go at stopping at the very tippity-tip of the climax. Shit.