A Neon Darkness (The Bright Sessions Book 2)

Product Information

I’m thinking about just calling it a night, starting the process of finding a place to crash, when I glance across the street to see a bright red neon sign proclaiming BAR LUBITSCH. There’s a bored guy out front, smoking a cigarette, but otherwise the place looks a hell of a lot emptier than the street. Emptier and easier. Eventually I’ll have to sleep, but right now I just want to sit in something other than the driver’s seat. I take a deep breath and saunter across the street, plastering on my most innocuous “nothing to see here” face. Damien was always my favorite character in The Bright Sessions (I love a good, humanized villain), so when I saw he was going to be the subject of one of Ms. Shippen's books, I was super excited. And overall, especially with Damien's character, this book really delivers. He walks this wonderful balance of relatable and hateable, and I found myself wanting him to do the right thing over and over, while knowing what the ultimate outcome had to be. He's a very well realized version of what would happen to someone who never had to do a lot of the tough work of growing up, but at the same time had some serious trauma to contend with.

Robert Gorham has a superpower we'd all probably die to have - people do what he wants. Literally. This story is marketed like a typical superhero novel - a guy with special abilities comes to town, meets other guys with special abilities, and they fight evil together. Well, that's not at all what A Neon Darkness is. Keywords: science fiction, slice of life, superpower, found family, morally grey, young adult, LGBT+, muslim representative, POC representative; trigger warning: mental health and slight mention of suicidal thoughts Well…,” she begins, smiling. She smiles so easily. I’m so envious of that. The vodka turns in my stomach and suddenly the last thing I want is to watch her smile around another adorable quip. I wish she would stop smiling, rubbing her happiness in my face.I close my eyes for a moment, focus on letting go of the envy, the bitterness. I don’t want her to not smile. I want her face to do whatever it wants to do. I do my best to drop the strings. Let’s take a look at the work of these fantastic night photographers that have inspired us recently.

Watching Damien try to navigate interpersonal relationships was horrible. He’s desperately, achingly lonely and has massive abandonment issues; he latched onto the first people to show some interest in him. He wants to be trusted but not at the cost of sharing information about him because he doesn’t really trust anyone. He doesn’t understand boundaries of any kind even when he directly gets called out on that ca. 500 times during this book. When we start out, we see that Rob is basically a bad person - or, at least, a very selfish one with a heavily damaged moral compass. Who or what is to blame is up to discussion, but that doesn't change the facts. He is a crappy person. With the fact that this book is character-driven for the most part, you'd expect something of a redemption arc, right? I definitely did. And you guessed, right, there was no redemption arc. Sure, there was development - but the place we ended up at is basically the same as when we started. A Neon Darkness is Shippen’s second novel based on The Bright Sessions podcast world. Where The Infinite Noise focused on Caleb Michaels and Adam Hayes’ story, this time, it goes to a more complicated and darker route. We get a glimpse and origin story into the complex character of Robert Gorham and how he becomes and embraces the name Damien. She introduces us to LGBTQ+ characters and diverse characters that defy typical stereotypes. They have conversations about sexuality, religion, emotions, trauma, and life in general. If you have not listened to The Bright Sessions podcast, no worries, you will not be lost. These books are meant to be standalone stories. The beautiful cover art of the book was once again done by talented artist Victo Ngai.

I read The Infinite Noise before I discovered the Bright Sessions podcast, and right out the gate, Damien was my favorite. Charlie Ian's drawling sneer had me in four words. I had to fight not to buy this book right away. To anyone like me, coming in already hooked, be aware that this is a prequel. The Damien of the Bright Sessions is ten years away. Instead, we are introduced to Robert, an eighteen-year-old boy who has spent most of his life using a gift for persuasion to get what he wants. But getting what you want all the time, by force, has an undeniable cost... Like I said before, what really affected and touched me in this book was the characters. I will never get over how much of a grey character Damien is and how complex and multi-layered. For those who are not aware, Damien has the ability to make people around him want the same thing he does and manipulate them that way. That sounds pretty cool right? For the user itself that is. But you actually see how much it has actually ruined him, how it has affected him and his view of the world since he can’t control it (or doesn’t seem to be able to). You can’t help but sympathize with him. This book towards the end starts feeling much like a villain origin story only you are not even sure how to feel about Damien in the end. Throughout the story, there were so many times I understood how he felt, I thought that in his place I would had probably acted the same way. Subjects on morality are touched and it’s all so complicated that you don’t know how to feel in the end. As for the other characters, they are all so well written and it’s obvious that there has been a lot of thought put into them. Marley was definitely my favourite because I have a weak spot for tough looking guys that are actually big softies and basically the mom of the group. They were also diverse as hell and there were a few times when the issues of racism and sexism were touched. I feel it is an allusion to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." While the ideas of commercialism (the people bow and pray to a neon god they made, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, etc) run throughout the poem, it also has to do with a frustration the narrator feels with humans in general. They are content to "hear without listening," not willing or interested in focusing on anyone or anything too intently. They are not willing to go beyond the superficial, but merely to accept the world around them, as no one "dares disturb the sounds of silence." I have to say I feel bad for anyone who actually saw the teaser. Why on Earth did Shippen, or perhaps the publisher, forecast the whole plot and it’s so-compelling transformation right there on the cover? I say this from the perspective of knowing absolutely nothing about these novels other than having read the first in the series, so perhaps my naïveté was rare. Shippen's prose acts as not only the second best facet of this novel, but also the primary conduit through which she gets the reader to understand if not sympathize with Damien. The strongest quality of her writing is undoubtedly her ability to express emotion with a type of poetic clarity I've rarely seen before. I'd describe the way Damien's emotions are described in this novel as akin to the sensation of drinking sparkling wine: liquid gold on the outside, but with a bitter aftertaste. Her writing strikes the perfect balance between showing his thoughts and the insidiousness undercurrent that underlies even the brightest of them. It is because of the way Shippen uses her prose in this narrative to tie Damien and his often conflicting emotions to the reader that she is able to somehow get the reader to both empathize and hate Damien, in equal measure.

You read this story knowing where Damien is going to end up, knowing you don't really like him in the end, but it keeps you interested because you want to know HOW he is going to get there. Sorry, I—” She shakes her head like she’s clearing cobwebs from her hair. “I must have lost my train of thought.”

Review

What Alex didn’t realize, what he didn’t see in his pacing, was that the tall figure was already in the shadows. He loomed there, waiting. Waiting for Alex to pace past him. Waiting for his moment. Waiting to set off an explosion. and then I went to, uh, Denver,” I say. “And then … um, Salt Lake City, I think? I don’t know, somewhere in Utah. Then I spent some time in Vegas, made some money, and now I’m here.” I finish with a flourish, gesturing loosely around the bar.