Title:  Dark Parties
Author: Sara Grant [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre:  Dystopian, Thriller, Mystery
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Provided by publisher’ representative
Parental Advisory: governmental oppression, criminal activity, sex, emotional & physical abuse
Teachable Moments: freedom of choice, loyalty, perseverance

“Later I dig out my journal.  I sit on my bed and print Effie’s name after Nicoline’s at the bottom of my quickly growing List of The Missing.  It feels as if everyone has surrendered and I’m the only one still fighting.  Our secret rebellion was the only thing that gave me hope.  I let their words of discouragement fuel my resolve.  I won’t let Sanna give up on us either.  I read each name on my list.  Ruth Laverne Adams.  I say her name out loud.  She is the first on my list and the reason I’m still fighting.  I promise Grandma that I won’t give up.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Sixteen-year-old Neva keeps a list of The Missing.  She secretly records each one in a tattered journal hidden in her mattress.  Written records are forbidden, but Neva wants to remember each person, each face.  And she will never forget her first entry — her grandmother.  But where do they go?  There’s no way out of the Protectosphere, the shield that separates Homeland from the rest of the world, and the government insists that everything beyond is an unlivable wasteland.  But as Homeland;s population and resources dwindle, Neva suspects that the government is lying: about the outside world, about The Missing, about everything.

Neva and her best friend, Sanna, take action and stage a “dark party” to recruit members for their underground rebellion.  They begin to uncover horrifying truths, but can they succeed in opening the Protectosphere?  Or will they, too become part of The Missing?

Opinion:
Dark Parties is a character based story.  Neva is the primary focus of the plot which centralizes on a small group of teens who come together to resist their oppressive government.  As it stands, over time, people (mostly women) are taken away with no warning or explanation thus making them The Missing.  No one is sure what happens to The Missing after they are gone but Neva is desperate to find out as her grandmother is one that has gone.   Thus, the resistance is born and a dark party arranged.

As Neva learns more about the place in which she lives, as well as the role her family and friends play in it, her desire to be free of the oppression grows more intense.  After holding the dark party and experiencing an unexpected moment of romance she embraces the idea of rebellion.  This results in a transformation from a girl who has basically accepted her government assigned lot in life to a girl who is an advocate and leader of change.  A leader who, many times, makes choices that are to her own detriment.

This made the most enjoyable aspect of the book Neva.  She leads a somewhat heartbreaking life and despite the fact that she has a tight knit group of friends and family she’s consistently portrayed as lonely.  She is strong, though, and unwilling to give up on what she believes is important.  She values loyalty but she’s not immune to making mistakes that test the boundaries of her relationships.  She is not perfect but she continually strives to be a better person.  She strives to make the right choices and to help the people she loves.

On the other hand, there are a number of weakness in Dark Parties.  The first is the lack of world building.  I envisioned the Protectosphere as a kind of dome that surrounds the entirety of some land mass but wasn’t sure if it was the entire US or a certain section.  I definitely wasn’t sure of anything and didn’t get a feel for what the Protectosphere was really like and where Neva lived in particular.  It seemed as though it was just a version of some large US city like any other we’d encounter today only it was far more controlled, heck almost Communist in nature.  But there wasn’t much in the way of giving me a look or feel for the environment.

I’ll also admit that I was hopeful that there would be more to the dark party aspect of the story.  There was a lot to explore there and it was bypassed in order to focus more completely on Neva’s journey.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I liked how Neva’s story progressed but it seemed to me that there should have been a bit more emphasis on that aspect of the story to help build the focus on resistance.  I found myself struggling to find how it was really useful and effective for the story overall.  When a participant arrives it’s light, at the end the lights are again on, so if the goal is anonymity that element is lost no matter what.  It’s inclusion here felt more like a plot point to spark the romantic focus.  As a concept I liked the idea of the dark party very much but in execution I felt there was more that could have made it a significant and more believable component overall.

I also felt the main conflict Neva was having (ie: her desire to rebel against the Protectoshpere and find out what happened to her grandmother) was somewhat diminished by the accompanying romantic entanglement.  I did like the interaction between she and Braydon but it felt uncharacteristic that she would so suddenly fall in love with her best friend’s boyfriend.  She and Sana had a deep connection and the fact that it was somewhat forsaken for romps with a boy fell a bit flat for me.  I do get that she wanted the excitement and wanted to be able to choose her partner instead of ending up with her previous (more suitable and socially acceptable) long term boyfriend but again at the expense of a seemingly strong sisterly relationship it just felt out of place.  As a result the resolution of the betrayal felt rushed and forced.

The overall plot had some interesting twists and turns, but I was able to see what was coming on many occasions.  I don’t want to spoil the largest revelations that occur towards the end of the book but there are answers to where The Missing go, what role certain people actually play in the plot, and the government’s true origin and nature are exposed to Neva and her friends.

Dark Parties was action packed, of that you can be sure.  It had interesting characters and a fast simple plot.  Definitely a book that is appropriate for upper middle graders and teens alike.  I do think this latter audience will latch on to the story more than I did because of the mix of romance and mystery.