The Darkest Path by Jeff Hirsch
My rating: 3/5 cats
this book does many unexpected things, and it does them well.
i’m not sure if this is the first part of something, the way so many YA books are, but i really hope it is a standalone. the way the character is left at the end, with so many unresolved issues, but with a firm purpose in mind, is excellent, and i kind of don’t want to see those issues resolved. those scenes would only diminish the strengths of the book, the elements that make it stand out from so many of its kind.
and if you’re just tuning in to “karen’s star cat ratings,” you should know that three stars cats, for a book like this, is not at all a low rating. i am just rating it against all the other books i have read in the teen-dysto pantheon, and a three-star cat in that genre is pretty much the norm. this one brings several new twists to the game, and i really appreciated that. i like that i can still be surprised in a genre in which i have read so extensively. so it is the highest three a three can be while still remaining a three.
okay, book.
the united states is in the middle of a civil war. a highly militarized religious cult called the glorious path has gained control over much of the country, and what remains of the old world order, the fed, is struggling to defeat them. cal is fifteen and six years before the events in this book, he and his younger brother james were taken by the path to california and essentially made prisoners, forced to follow the tenants of the faith and also contribute to the manual labor and military aspects of the movement. combining the rigorous obedience of both a religion and a military organization results in some pretty extreme situations; the path’s mo is to roll up on a town and offer its inhabitants “the choice,” basically “join or die,” which has made them very successful, but it is a terrible regime under which to live. cal has been planning his escape for years, wanting only to protect his brother and get back to their parents in ithaca. he gets his chance, or rather his choice is made for him, when, protecting a miniature pinscher from a sadistic path officer, he accidentally kills the man and is forced on the run. he tries to make james come with him, but james has been thoroughly indoctrinated in the path, and refuses. so cal and the dog, wearing a collar that says “bear,” escape alone, pursued by the path army.
adventure follows.
along the way he will meet people who help him, but cal isn’t some sweet innocent little kid escaping the big baddies. he has become hard in his years of imprisonment, he has learned how to be calculating, selfish, and manipulative, and despite you-as-reader wanting to see him succeed because you naturally want your protag in these books to succeed, he does get an awful lot of people killed and he makes some rash decisions that when they do work out, seem to only work out by chance.
and poor bear!! being dragged through dangerous situations as such a tiny little dog!! BBBBEEEAAAARRR!!! i loved him. and about halfway through the book, i was reading outside, and i literally yelped out “no!! bear!!,” so you can see where my loyalties were.
there are some good secondary characters: natalie is reasonably well-drawn, if a bit inconsistent, and why she cares about cal is beyond me, View Spoiler »
the interlude with kate and the the others was a welcome break in the relentless violent action—these laconic, protected one percenters with no idea what is happening beyond their protected walls. i appreciated the novelty of this perspective after so much of the front-line narrative.
definitely a book worth reading, and proof that there’s still something “new” to be done with these kinds of storylines.
one quick note, though, and it is more me being bewildered by a genre-norm than a criticism of this book, although it definitely applies. i understand the pull of “home,” but characters in these kinds of books are always trying to get back to someplace and someone, sometimes years after the country has gone kablooie. what on earth makes people think there will still be someone there waiting for them? penelope aside, who’s gonna stick around in some bombed-out building on the off-chance that johnny’s gonna come marching home?
this is just a bugbear of mine, and i completely understand it from a storytelling aspect, but it is maddening. also maddening: when characters in these kinds of stories encounter each other again after being separated by time and distance with no means of contact. the country is huuuuge. i can’t guarantee that if i were separated from someone here in queens that i would ever run into them again, without knowing where they were likely to be found, let alone 3,000 miles away. sorry, that’s just an eyeroll of mine. of course i understand why it’s done, but it never fails to make me twitch a little.
but—yes—good book! enjoy!
read my book reviews on goodreads
