“Darkly” by Marisha Pessl I started reading as a change of pace after taking in manga after manga. As the cover suggests, it’s a darker YA novel revolving around a young female protagonist and a secretive internship that she gains for two weeks in London. It’s dark, it’s mysterious and it does keep you thinking about the story afterwards.

Arcadia “Dia” Gannon is our main protagonist, portrayed as a young woman out of her time, dressing differently to other young women her age and practically running her mother’s antique shop along with the store’s only other two employees who live in the local assisted living centre. Dia is relied on by everyone involved, her life taken over by her mother’s shop full of all sorts of things from the victorian age, her mother’s overwhleming desire to be in a relationship and spending money on more antiques that they cannot afford. Dia is presented with the opportunity to apply for an internship with a foundation in London who focuses on preserving the memory of legendary Game Board Creator Louisiana Vede, whose games known as “Darkly’s” are well sought after due to their eccentric and dark natures that at times led to psychological damage of the players and on occasion their deaths. Dia’s application is submitted by one of the store’s various cats and much to her surprise she is one of seven interns from around the world accepted into the internship as long as they signed a dense contract that spanned hundreds of pages which would result in their silence at the end of the internship.

Dia goes on the internship much to the shock and hysteria of her mother, and quickly realises that the internship is not what she and the other interns were told it would be. They get isolated at the very island where the Darkley’s were created by Louisiana Vede herself, and have been tasked to locate, play and win the missing Darkly “Valkyrie” , the theft of which led to the untimely death of Louisiana Vede. Dia is faced with a mystery decades old, a Darkly boardgame that has somehow been brought to life and led to the disappearance of it’s first winner. She is faced with lies told by the foundation itself, her fellow interns and even Louisiana herself, as well as the possibility that this internship could very well result in her death.

This novel had it all in the story: theft, death, the mysterious childhood of a mysterious gamemaker, playing to win and a missing child (more than one). While I enjoyed the story, I admittedly felt that the characters of the interns could of have been explored more, as well as the potential love interests – there was so much more I wanted to know about them! Also, despite the adrenaline pumping resolution to the Darkly Game “Valkyrie” (which was very well written by the way), I also felt the overall ending of the novel was a little anti-climatic, but then perhaps that was the point? I am still thinking about the ending now, and how it had to have been referred to throughout the story. Were there some easter eggs that I had missed? Surely there’s more to it than that? It can’t just end there! Thinking about it, I can see why I would think so things considering the “gag-order” put on the interns by the foundation, that is perhaps why I feel the way I do about the end of the novel.

All in all, a good read and change of pace.

Green Mage