Well, friends, this book made me do a little research on Haitian history and I can tell you I got really angry about it. Did you know a U.S. government-funded agency called the International Republican Institute contributed to the ousting of Haiti's democratically elected president in 2004? Just, ugh.

Anyway, this is a powerful book. It's dark, disturbing, and gripping. It has a mix of modern and historical characters. If you want to read a great review of it, try Patrick Ness' take in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/20/in-darkness-nick-lake-review

The audiobook was very good. Not recommended for the squeamish or highly sensitive. ( )

The "now" part of this novel follows a boy named Shorty who lies trapped in the rubble of a collapsed hospital, surrounded by the dead bodies and scavengers. Shorty has grown up in the slums of Port-au-Prince, often dubbed "the most dangerous place on earth." As he drifts in and out of consciousness, we learn how Shorty ended up in the hospital, and linked to a thug, patterned after Biggie. The "then" part follows the life of Toussaint l'Ouverture and his leadership in emancipation of the slaves in Haiti and battle with its French masters. While I liked the creative way in which Nick Lake linked the two stories, I did not really think they were sufficiently intertwined and therefore found the novel disjointed.
( )

In Darkness by Nick Lake packs a lot of story into it’s pages. As a young boy lies buried in the rubble of a hospital after the 2010 catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, his dreams, memories and thoughts form the dialogue that shapes this book. We learn of Haiti’s history as a nation that was born of a slave revolution to it’s position today as one of the world’s poorest countries. The main character is Shorty, who was in hospital recovering from a gunshot wound that occurred through gang warfare.

Now he is lying in darkness, suffering from extreme thirst and heat, surrounded by dead bodies and rats, waiting to either be rescued or to die. As time passes he swings between hallucinations of his hero, Toussaint L’Ouverture, the rebel leader of the 18th century slave revolution and his own memories of his violent life in the poorest of Haiti’s slums. The author relies on Haitian religion and mythology to justify the connection between the present and the past but this format didn’t always work for me. I found myself confused as the characters switched identities abruptly.

I think my annoyance with the dual narrative in this book was because I was totally captivated by Shorty’s own story. It’s dark, gritty and heartbreaking. Shorty has not always made the right choices in the past and he’s done some terrible things, but the story rang true. In Darkness is full of violence as it describes the bleak life of a slum kid, but this emotionally powerful story is full of complex and realistic characters that pull you into the story and the author was wise enough to end the book on a note of hope which was badly needed by the reader by the end of this disturbing story. ( )

Printz award 2014
read 5 chapters and gave it up.

In Darkness is a well written historical fiction that weaves recent Haitian history into the life of Toussaint Louverture. It was an insightful look into this unique culture. ( )