Review: Truth in the Dark by Amy Lane
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 12, 2010
***REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***Truth in the Dark is the second Amy Lane book I've had the pleasure of reading and again, she blew me away!Naef, also called Knife, is a impoverished young man in a fishing village, despised and ridiculed by everyone, but his mother and sister, Gwen. He has pock mark scares on his face, a warped spine and mangled leg. Aerie-Smith, is a man cursed with a lion face and body for a sin undeserving of such a harsh punishment. Although, he stands upright and can walk and talk as a human, he can also change, becoming a lion completely.Aerie-Smith takes Naef away from his little fishing village, for what is only supposed to be a year, allowing Gwen and his mother some freedom, so that Gwen may be married to Aerie-Smith's cousin. On the ship journeying to Aerie-Smith's island, Naef learns that Aerie-Smith's curse does not just befall him, but also his people. Men, standing aboard the ship suddenly become animals as they near their home.Unlike the...more Truth in the Dark is the second Amy Lane book I've had the pleasure of reading and again, she blew me away!Naef, also called Knife, is a impoverished young man in a fishing village, despised and ridiculed by everyone, but his mother and sister, Gwen. He has pock mark scares on his face, a warped spine and mangled leg. Aerie-Smith, is a man cursed with a lion face and body for a sin undeserving of such a harsh punishment. Although, he stands upright and can walk and talk as a human, he can also change, becoming a lion completely.Aerie-Smith takes Naef away from his little fishing village, for what is only supposed to be a year, allowing Gwen and his mother some freedom, so that Gwen may be married to Aerie-Smith's cousin. On the ship journeying to Aerie-Smith's island, Naef learns that Aerie-Smith's curse does not just befall him, but also his people. Men, standing aboard the ship suddenly become animals as they near their home.Unlike the others, the island effects Naef differently, making him not an animal, but a beautiful man. His leg is made whole, his back straight and his face smooth and tan. His outside appearance is made to match the man he is on the inside. Although, emotionally he still suffers from years of mistreatment from the people of his village. He believes he is worth very little, that Aerie-Smith will only want him in his current form, that they are mistaken and he is dark and twisted on the inside, not beautiful and clean and he craves touch, any touch really. Being a deformed young man, he grew up only being touched by his mother and sister.As the days pass, Naef discovers that if he closes his eyes, with his hands on Aerie-Smith, he can feel the man underneath the lion. Fur and claws fade away, becoming smooth skin and hands. With his eyes open, Aerie-Smith is a beautiful man beast, but closed, with nothing but touch to depict his features, he is only man. A man who is nothing but kind to Naef, who was always nothing but kind to Naef, even when he could see all of his physical imperfections.The year goes by and the two men slowly fall in love with one another. Spending their nights together, with Naef blindfolded, feeling only what the other is beneath the visage the curse displays. At the end of the year, Naef is to complete a task that will free Aerie-Smith and his people from the curse that was cast upon them. Once this unfortunate task is complete, with the spilling of blood by Naef and tears by Aerie-Smith, those that cursed the great lion man, step in to save Naef's life. However, with the curse broken and the villagers and Aerie-Smith restored to their human forms, so is Naef. No longer beautiful, with scars, his deformed leg and twisted back, he is again the man he was when he first arrived on the island. The thing about physical imperfections though, is that sometimes, even in real life, those flaws are more vivid to those that actually possess them, then they are to others.This book was rather like a fairy tale, sort of a beast meets beast love story, only neither man was really a beast. Aerie-Smith was made a beast by a simple mistake and a curse that changed his appearance and Naef was made one in his mind, by those around him that saw his imperfections and made his own form hideous in his eyes.I find that I loved this book, not only for the eloquent writing and passionate portrayal of the characters, but also because I believe all of us, in one way or another can relate to simply being imperfect