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The Book of Storms Trilogy #2
The Colour of Darkness
A vibrant, powerful follow-up to the electrifying THE BOOK OF STORMS
Danny O'Neill hasn't had a single good night's sleep in the year since he discovered the book of storms. Exhausted and a social outcast, he wishes only to escape the shadowy figure of Sammael who controls his dreams and nightmares.
Cath Carrera, from the other side of town, dreams of escaping her brutish father and spiteful step-family. So when she meets Barshin, a talking hare who offers her protection from her dad's latest violent rage, she doesn't think twice about going with him. But she didn't expect to find a place like Chromos: a vibrant, addictive dreamland built from her imagination, in all its colours.
In return for his protection, Barshin wants Cath to deliver a message to Danny: he must rescue his cousin Tom from Sammael before it is too late.
Together, the three must find a way to stop Sammael before he destroys Tom. But even with the help of talking plants and creatures, and a friendly stag, the journey to Chromos and beyond is a dangerous, near-impossible mission, and Danny and Cath will have to muster every scrap of bravery and ingenuity to have a hope of succeeding.
Danny O'Neill hasn't had a single good night's sleep in the year since he discovered the book of storms. Exhausted and a social outcast, he wishes only to escape the shadowy figure of Sammael who controls his dreams and nightmares.
Cath Carrera, from the other side of town, dreams of escaping her brutish father and spiteful step-family. So when she meets Barshin, a talking hare who offers her protection from her dad's latest violent rage, she doesn't think twice about going with him. But she didn't expect to find a place like Chromos: a vibrant, addictive dreamland built from her imagination, in all its colours.
In return for his protection, Barshin wants Cath to deliver a message to Danny: he must rescue his cousin Tom from Sammael before it is too late.
Together, the three must find a way to stop Sammael before he destroys Tom. But even with the help of talking plants and creatures, and a friendly stag, the journey to Chromos and beyond is a dangerous, near-impossible mission, and Danny and Cath will have to muster every scrap of bravery and ingenuity to have a hope of succeeding.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2015
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345 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 5, 2017
https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/201...
Really enjoyed this continuation of The Book of Storms trilogy with this second in the series – The Colour of Darkness. This is a confidently written novel, with engaging characters, and a fluency in the writing which keeps the reader engaged throughout.
I particularly enjoyed the main protagonist Danny who we were introduced to in the first book. In this second in the series, we meet Cath, the brave young girl from the tough neighbourhood who unlike Danny doesn’t seem to be scared of anything.
The Colour of Darkness is an entertaining adventure to the land of Chromos, with a talking hare Barshin, and Zadoc, as their guide.
There is quite an olde-worlde feel to this novel. I particularly liked how Ruth Hatfield breathes life into animals, making them talk. Even the grasses get their say!
This is an enjoyable story aimed at the middle-grade audience.
Highly recommended.
My rating: 4 stars.
I am currently reading the final book in the trilogy, The Book of Shadows, and am intrigued to see how this conclusion to The Book of Storms develops. I have heard from the author herself, Ruth Hatfield that the final part is the darkest in the three novels.
I will be reviewing the final book in the series too.
I reviewed the first in the series here: https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/201...
Really enjoyed this continuation of The Book of Storms trilogy with this second in the series – The Colour of Darkness. This is a confidently written novel, with engaging characters, and a fluency in the writing which keeps the reader engaged throughout.
I particularly enjoyed the main protagonist Danny who we were introduced to in the first book. In this second in the series, we meet Cath, the brave young girl from the tough neighbourhood who unlike Danny doesn’t seem to be scared of anything.
The Colour of Darkness is an entertaining adventure to the land of Chromos, with a talking hare Barshin, and Zadoc, as their guide.
There is quite an olde-worlde feel to this novel. I particularly liked how Ruth Hatfield breathes life into animals, making them talk. Even the grasses get their say!
This is an enjoyable story aimed at the middle-grade audience.
Highly recommended.
My rating: 4 stars.
I am currently reading the final book in the trilogy, The Book of Shadows, and am intrigued to see how this conclusion to The Book of Storms develops. I have heard from the author herself, Ruth Hatfield that the final part is the darkest in the three novels.
I will be reviewing the final book in the series too.
I reviewed the first in the series here: https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/201...
May 12, 2017
This book had quite a compelling plot for a middle grade book and it had complex characters. Definitely suggest reading this if you're looking for a light but interesting read.
June 17, 2016
Following the journey of this boy Danny that closed the magic part of his life and went back to old one, has to return to world he left and save his cousin. A wonderful story that i enjoyed reading. A must read.
December 28, 2021
Its a good read.
November 8, 2015
I received a copy of this title from Five Mile Press for review.
Ten Second Synopsis:
Danny is left shocked and terrified after the events of The Book of Storms and when he is drawn into Chromos, the world of the imagination, with sassy bully Cath, all Danny's fears seem to become a reality.
As in The Book of Storms, Hatfield has written a highly descriptive adventure, with imagery that springs fully to life imagefrom the page. While this book had a very different feel to the first book, in my opinion, and took the story to a place I certainly didn’t expect, there were some excellent new elements here. Cath, the streetwise, sassy young lass from a violent home, is a fantastically engaging character, not least because Hatfield has written her in three dimensions. I immediately warmed to rough-around-the-edges Cath, as her difficult home life is brought to the frightening fore right from the off. The inclusion of Cath really lifted this book out of the predictable mould that it could easily have fallen into, due to the fact that she is completely unaware of the events that Danny has been involved in and therefore brings fresh eyes to the bizarre experiences that are unfolding around her.
Danny’s state of mind is quite chaotic during this book, which I also didn’t expect, and again, Hatfield has done an amazing job of really getting into Danny’s mind and conveying his fear and despair to the reader. Danny is almost paralysed by fear for most of this book and the all-encompassing terror and indecision that plagues all his actions will be familiar to anyone who has suffered from any kind of anxiety. Tom, Danny’s cousin and unwitting ally to Sammael, is also more deeply explored in this novel, yet retains his disbelief of Danny’s “special” abilities despite the evidence staring him in the face and slowly draining his life force.
I am very impressed with the authentic way that the characters have been portrayed in this novel. Their emotions and motivations seem to be explored and rendered in a much more genuine fashion than one normally sees in fiction for this age group.
There were two things that I felt dragged this book down a tad. The first was the world building and the concept ofimage Chromos – the magical world that Cath discovers, and which plays a key role in the children engaging with Sammael. Chromos seems to be a world in parallel with the world we know, but one in which it is impossible for a human to actually stand upon. Much of the adventure involves Cath and eventually Danny dipping into and out of Chromos with the help of the talking hare Barshin, and the Chromos guide steed Zadoc. Even though Chromos is meant to be somewhat intangible to humans, I felt that I couldn’t really get a handle on the place as I was reading. It seemed to me that for a lot of the book Danny and Cath are trying to get to Chromos or away from Chromos, while spending hardly any actual time there and these parts really slowed the pace of the whole story.
The second thing I felt was lacking, compared to the first book, was the menacing and unsettling presence that Sammael brought to the story. While Sammael is certainly present here – mostly involved with Tom – he didn’t bring the feeling of dread to my bones that he managed to do quite easily in the first tome. He seemed to be a bit of side character for most of the book and I was a bit disappointed by this because he really is an original and very scary villain.
I will certainly be interested to see how this series finishes up and what new surprises will be awaiting me in book three. If you haven’t come across this series before, I definitely recommend starting with book one rather than jumping ahead
Ten Second Synopsis:
Danny is left shocked and terrified after the events of The Book of Storms and when he is drawn into Chromos, the world of the imagination, with sassy bully Cath, all Danny's fears seem to become a reality.
As in The Book of Storms, Hatfield has written a highly descriptive adventure, with imagery that springs fully to life imagefrom the page. While this book had a very different feel to the first book, in my opinion, and took the story to a place I certainly didn’t expect, there were some excellent new elements here. Cath, the streetwise, sassy young lass from a violent home, is a fantastically engaging character, not least because Hatfield has written her in three dimensions. I immediately warmed to rough-around-the-edges Cath, as her difficult home life is brought to the frightening fore right from the off. The inclusion of Cath really lifted this book out of the predictable mould that it could easily have fallen into, due to the fact that she is completely unaware of the events that Danny has been involved in and therefore brings fresh eyes to the bizarre experiences that are unfolding around her.
Danny’s state of mind is quite chaotic during this book, which I also didn’t expect, and again, Hatfield has done an amazing job of really getting into Danny’s mind and conveying his fear and despair to the reader. Danny is almost paralysed by fear for most of this book and the all-encompassing terror and indecision that plagues all his actions will be familiar to anyone who has suffered from any kind of anxiety. Tom, Danny’s cousin and unwitting ally to Sammael, is also more deeply explored in this novel, yet retains his disbelief of Danny’s “special” abilities despite the evidence staring him in the face and slowly draining his life force.
I am very impressed with the authentic way that the characters have been portrayed in this novel. Their emotions and motivations seem to be explored and rendered in a much more genuine fashion than one normally sees in fiction for this age group.
There were two things that I felt dragged this book down a tad. The first was the world building and the concept ofimage Chromos – the magical world that Cath discovers, and which plays a key role in the children engaging with Sammael. Chromos seems to be a world in parallel with the world we know, but one in which it is impossible for a human to actually stand upon. Much of the adventure involves Cath and eventually Danny dipping into and out of Chromos with the help of the talking hare Barshin, and the Chromos guide steed Zadoc. Even though Chromos is meant to be somewhat intangible to humans, I felt that I couldn’t really get a handle on the place as I was reading. It seemed to me that for a lot of the book Danny and Cath are trying to get to Chromos or away from Chromos, while spending hardly any actual time there and these parts really slowed the pace of the whole story.
The second thing I felt was lacking, compared to the first book, was the menacing and unsettling presence that Sammael brought to the story. While Sammael is certainly present here – mostly involved with Tom – he didn’t bring the feeling of dread to my bones that he managed to do quite easily in the first tome. He seemed to be a bit of side character for most of the book and I was a bit disappointed by this because he really is an original and very scary villain.
I will certainly be interested to see how this series finishes up and what new surprises will be awaiting me in book three. If you haven’t come across this series before, I definitely recommend starting with book one rather than jumping ahead
July 8, 2016
I'll start by saying this was a goodreads.com free book .. that said it was a well written and thought out book .. great for mid grade fantasy readers .. After rescuing his parents, Danny returns to his old life, burying the taro that allowed him to speak to animals, trees, and the very storms that led to his adventure. Danny thinks he's left magic and mystery behind, but Sammael, a creature of terrible imagination, refuses to let him go.
February 1, 2016
Can't wait for the next one.
April 19, 2016
Loved this book. A young Girl 'Lydia' is forced into Bedlam by a jealous love rival, she is tortured and starved all through no fault of her own.
Great story, well written.
Great story, well written.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews