Review: Chat rooms will never feel safe again
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2013
Dark Hearts is a story told in two parts, one told from a suicidal 15 year-old girl's point of view and one from a twisted vigilante's point of view. Kara's story reads much like a YA romance, easy to read, both witty and disturbing. It brought forth memories of the film Thirteen (2003). Even so, I wondered when the horror aspect would present itself. Enter Adam. His story is even darker than Kara's.Much of Dark Hearts is told in a chat room. The characters are well rounded with solid back stories that are shared little by little through chats with each other and their thoughts on the world. Reading their IMs and watching through their webcams felt invasive and added to the dark atmosphere of this novel. I formed some predictions as I read and was glad to see that my predictions were wrong, twice. My favorite part of Dark Hearts was the midpoint. Everything comes crashing down in a brilliantly described scene that concludes part one. My only complaint is the end of part two because some of the writing felt rushed. And although this may seem contradictory, less would have been more frightening at the very end.This book only took me two days to read; I simply didn't want to put it down until I knew how Kara's and Adam's stories would play out. Kudos to Stoddard for telling a gripping and horrific story.