Title: Between Light and Dark
Author: Rian McMurtry
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-7960-4176-7
Genre: YA Fiction, Science Fiction
Pages: 143
Reviewed by: Jason Lulos
Pacific Book Review
This is a charming story that immerses the reader in a mix of high school realism with haunting supernatural events urge the reader to keep turning the pages. Between Light and Dark, by Rian McMurtry, is a fast-paced, fun, urban fantasy. It’s thoughtfully allusion-filled, giving it substantive underlying themes of ancient mythologies, folklore, and legendary archetypes. Above all, this is a story of uncovering secrets. As the main character, Angela, navigates typical high school trials, she slowly uncovers a more fantastic, dangerous world around her.
Angela is a winsome student at Lucas Valley High School in central California and a star on the boys JV football team. After a school bus crash involving her good friend Alex and his ultra-goth friend Seth, her life permanently changes. She awakens to find Seth with his hand on her heart. She always found him creepy and interpreted this as assault. He is sent to juvenile hall and Angela is glad to have him out of her life. She goes about her life, going to dances, playing football, and being a normal teen. But the crash is followed by darkness: horrific crimes, accidents, a cult-like rival high school, and unexplainable supernatural events. Angela realizes that she’s become a target. Simultaneously, she notices Alex and her other friends speaking in codes filled with ancient names like Thantoris and Toranos. Nine of her fellow students begin to reveal preternatural wisdom and abilities, only to her. As Angela implores them to shed light on the darkness, they reveal only bits at a time to protect her. However, as Angela’s role grows in significance, her friends become like mystical tutors.
This tangled, teasing interplay between the heroine and supporting cast is a great strength of the book. The author’s narrative captivates the reader with plot twists and gradual revelations of the compelling supporting characters. The reader lives vicariously through Angela in this way. She gradually learns the truth about the threats on her life and the supernatural world she never knew existed. She eventually learns the truth of the bus crash and her intriguing connection with Seth that is bizarrely marked by repulsion and attraction.
Adults play virtually no role in this novel, adopting the romanticized notion that teenagers are wiser, the real guardians of the world. I’ve always liked this trope – that only younger minds are intuitive, open-minded, and curious enough to see what adults are too mundane to see. Angela and the surrounding characters capture this notion perfectly. Her supernatural friends humbly admit they are also learning as they go. They reluctantly take her under their wings, giving them this aura of being ancient magical sages yet still children trying to figure it all out. This was another endearing angle, giving the story a kind of realism amidst the fantasy.
Between Light and Dark is particularly geared toward young adult fiction, but it is a great read for anyone into science fiction, mythology, horror, and folklore. It is an intriguing story that makes me want to follow up with the other books in the series such as: Love in the Darkness, Light from Darkness, A Light in the Darkness.
