Lisa Jewell is one of my favourite authors – I’ve enjoyed almost every one of her thrillers that I’ve read. So when she kindly reached out and asked if I’d like a copy of her new Marvel novel, Breaking the Dark, I jumped at the opportunity. Lisa Jewell plus Marvel must result in a book I’d really enjoy, right?!
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Breaking the Dark is a story about Jessica Jones – one of the lesser-known Marvel heroes, probably most famous for her tv series in Netflix riding off the back of the hype of the Daredevil show. Jessica Jones is one of your more subtle superheroes – no costume, often not showing off her abilities and focusing more on taking on jobs that result in her being a detective of some sorts.
When a woman asks Jones to look into the changing of her children (they’ve gone from “regular” children to referring to everything as “perfect” and never being bothered about being on their phone) Jones is transported to London to investigate.
Breaking the Dark plot – 3.5/5
Breaking the Dark feels like a book that never really gets going and when it does, it doesn’t really feel like it has any true direction. The whole plot feels a little bit like Jewell had some ideas as to where she wanted to go with this book but never really got going with it.
The overall idea is that there’s a tandem story of an “influencer” who over the years is building up a reputation and who has a grander plan which is all revealed later on and is partly linked to the case Jessica Jones herself is involved in, but, as I said, it never really felt like it got going.
Now, as for this being a traditional Lisa Jewell book, I’d said it’s far from that. Jewell isn’t necessarily in her comfort zone writing about traditional British families or individuals that have had a drama happen to them and that’s a little evident in the pacing whereas usually Jewell’s books have regular cliff-hanger chapters and the pace of the last 30% or so of the book is very quick – this never truly felt like it was racing along right until the very final few chapters.
Breaking the Dark characters – 3.75/5
Thriller don’t often feature the greatest of characters, but Jewell has got better over the years of embedding real heart and soul into her characters. Unfortunately, with Breaking the Dark Jewell isn’t writing about an original character, she’s writing about one that’s already got a massive history in a plethora if different media mediums and so she’s tied into a similar feel.
There’s an ongoing story of Jessica Jones being pregnant with Luke Cage baby and the struggles this brings her, both with having to tell Cage and also what it means for her work both as a detective but also as a super hero. It also asks questions of whether the child will have their powers or her issues etc.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anybody really in Breaking the Dark who I was that interested in, but Jewell does do just enough to make me appreciate Jessica Jones as a human being and gets across her more down-to-earth side outside of being a superhero.
Breaking the Dark final rating – 3.5/5
I hate giving poor ratings to authors I’m a proper fan of but I just didn’t enjoy Breaking the Dark. I was hoping Marvel plus Lisa Jewell was going to be a winning combination for me, but it just didn’t hit like I was hoping it would. A muddled plot, underwhelming characters and pacing that felt nothing like Lisa Jewell’s usually great stories left me wanting a lot more but also not really wanting to read anymore at all. Read Breaking the Dark if you’re a fan of Jessica Jones only, but I’d suggest going into it with hesitancy if you’re a fan of Lisa Jewell or the wider Marvel universe.
Buy a copy of Breaking the Dark from Amazon
