Everyone dies sooner or later.

Darker by Four by June CL Tan

My Review

Yiran turned from the road. “Why is it that when something bad happens, it’s always the three of us?”

“The hell would I know,” Zizi muttered.

So I found Darker by Four to be… Pretty good. It wasn’t my favorite book of the year by any means, but it wasn’t even close to the worst one. I actually enjoyed most aspects of it. Since it was on my second quarter of anticipated books of 2024, I’m especially happy. Particularly after how The Lost Story and The Girl With No Reflection went for me.

Anyway, the things I primarily liked were (some of) the characters, parts of the plot, some of the world building and the writing. But I also disliked parts of these same aspects of the novel. It’s a little complicated, I guess.

I ended up really liking Rui, which surprised me since I thought I wouldn’t. I’m very picky about the female lead characters that I read about, because most of the time I find that people don’t write them well (regardless of what gender the author is). But I actually really enjoyed her story and character arc, and found her to be decently written.

My least favorite character – and one of the other leads – was Yiran. There were just some things about him that I couldn’t stand, and aspects of his personality and decisions he made annoyed me often. But it seems like most of his stuff was merely building up his character arc for the sequel, so maybe he’ll be more tolerable then.

Nikai is a character that I don’t really have any feelings for. He appeared fairly infrequently and usually only when the plot needed to happen, so he felt more like a plot device sometimes rather than a character. So yeah, I don’t really know what to think about him.

Honestly, Zizi felt more like a main character than Nikai did. He was also one of my favorites and I enjoyed his personality and sass. The eccentric , sassy genius with a secret heart of gold is a character archetype I never get tired of following. His relationship with Rui was also something I loved following.

“You’re not wearing pajamas,” Rui burst out.

“How good of you to notice,” Zizi said.

The romance here was hit or miss for me. As I mentioned above, I really enjoyed what Rui and Zizi had going on. Their banter was great, and everything about their friendship and evolving romance felt very natural. I thought they were a good couple. And there was no love triangle BS going on here, which was something I was concerned about for a time while reading.

I didn’t like the romance between Yiran and Yuki though. Like, it literally came out of nowhere, and was one of the least natural things I’ve read in a while. I’m sure it was put here to set up the other half of the duology, but it still felt like it didn’t really belong here.

Zizi was cradling her face in his hands, gently wiping her tears. “That’s the difference between you and me, Rui,” he said, voice rough. “You want to save the world and the innumerable fools in it, whether they deserve a chance or not. But I— I would give up this entire world for a single breath to leave your lips again. And I don’t need you to feel the same way about me to do it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The plot was pretty okay and I enjoyed it well enough. Tan clearly wore her inspirations on her sleeve – like certain anime, xianxia, and other eastern influences – but I didn’t find it to be a bad thing. I liked getting the references, haha. I always enjoy reading how an author turns a story with a lot of common and well used tropes to their own. I also predicted most of the twists waayyy ahead of time (like within the first ten chapters early), which was a bit disappointing, but I ultimately didn’t mind too much.

My favorite thing about Darker by Four, however, was definitely the writing itself. There are enough descriptions where you can imagine everything well enough, but there aren’t so many that they’re cluttering up the novel and making it drag. The dialogue also felt very natural and snappy. I liked reading how the characters interacted.

I did find some of the descriptions themselves to be a little lacking, though. I didn’t like how the author described a couple of things, particularly faces. Just… the words used just didn’t feel like they worked too well. Other than that though, everything else was pretty alright.

“She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”

“She means everything.” Zizi had spoken so bluntly it could only be the truth.

So yeah, all in all, I thought that Darker by Four was pretty okay. And the ending was interesting enough that I’m actually interested in reading the sequel to see how everything ends. Against all odds, I’m a little invested in these characters and how their stories will end.

I recommend this to people who enjoy Asian fantasy, YA, and anime. I think it works as a good read for anytime of the year – no particular seasonal vibes stuck out to me.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, and I hope that everybody has an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

---

MY LINKS:

---