I just couldn't get into the story or invest in the characters. I don't want to give a review on a book that I did not read word for word. I did skim it and believe it will appeal to a number of people but right now it is not a book I want to read. If, in the future, I am in the mood I might try again. If so, I will post my review.

Comes the Dark – P.A. Turner
*SPOILERS*
Apologies to Netgalley, which kindly gave me an ARC of this to read, but after numerous attempts, I just couldn’t get through this book. I admit, after reading early reviews, my expectations were sky high, but I was soon disappointed and indifferent to the plight of the characters.

Dark starts out promising. A tragic story of boys caught in a sick cycle of child sex trafficking from which there is no escape. Until Sean and Kyle manage to escape, live on the streets for a while, and eventually end up in hospital due to illness. And that’s where the story went from promising to What the Hell is this Mess?

Kyle, who has kept evidence against the sex trafficking ring-leader Bill on a thumb drive, which he turns over to the police, is supposed to be a star witness in the case against Bill. However, instead of being under police protection, he goes off to live first with Aaron, who is a nurse/therapist, but, of course, Bill’s thugs find him there. After being saved by Dave, the boyfriend of nurse Stuart, Kyle goes off to live with Dave, who then sends Kyle off to some island to be with a PTSD counselor, where Bill’s thugs once again find him, and this was my quitting point because it was absolutely ridiculous.

First of all, Kyle is a young man who has been sexually abused for years by men, yet he somehow trusts all these random men who are suddenly in his life??? Aaron and Stuart I could understand because Kyle met them in the hospital and felt safe with them. But Dave? He barely knows the guy, and then he agrees to go to an island with some counselor he’s never met before? Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s take the sexual abuse victim and send him to an island from which escape would be very difficult, to spend time with a strange man. Why would Kyle agree to that? Why would the police agree to let their star witness run amuck when they know damn well that Bill’s thugs are going to be after him like lions after a gazelle?

Secondly, how incompetent are these thugs? They have umpteen opportunities to snuff Kyle like a flame, but they fail each time. Hard to believe that these failures have somehow managed to keep their boss’s dirty little secrets covered up for years. They can’t nab one sick teenager, but they can run an entire sex trafficking ring? Excuse while I throw any kind of logic out of the window. I can only suspend my belief so far.

Thirdly, I don’t think the author knew what she wanted this book to be about. The viewpoint jumps all over the place. First, we have Kyle, then Aaron, then Dave, and Spike, Bill’s top thug. I didn’t see how his viewpoint added anything to the story. And I can’t begin to explain why there’s a subplot involving Aaron and his nightmare of a wife, who, aside from being a total bitch, is also cheating on him and pregnant, most likely with someone else’s twin babies. The wife is written in a one-dimensional, clichéd fashion, which ensures that the reader will feel no sympathy or compassion for her, not matter what happens. I don’t know why this subplot was even included unless it’s a way for Aaron to leave her and start dating Kyle, which is also unlikely because Kyle has no idea if he’s gay or not. Which leads to the next weird scene that just made me shake my head in total WTFdom.

One of Dave’s employees, Nick, makes a move on Kyle. Um, wouldn’t someone working for Dave know a little bit of Kyle’s background and why he was there? That was my assumption, which makes Nick a complete jackass for making a move on a victim of sexual abuse, who clearly isn’t ready for that. Nick was another character whose presence added nothing to the story.

And this was about the time that I completely gave up. When Dave gets the call that Kyle is once again under attack, it was like the entire book dissolved into a gay Steven Seagal 80’s action flick, and I remembered that life is too short to read ridiculous books that fail to make any kind of sense, so I am done with this one.

My recommendation is run, don’t walk, away from this absurd book.

A random one on Netgalley. I was intrigued from the moment I seen the cover.


The story follows Kyle who escapes a life of abuse and goes on the run. Is he able to escape the realities of Glasgow's homeless underworld? Will he forget his dark past? Freedom always has a price though.


OoooOOOOooo poor Kyle. He is so young and no one should go through the terrible things he had to go through. So sad. What makes it sad is that this goes on for real and many people do not get a chance to escape and try to have a normal life. So tragic.


This was pretty dark. Sometimes it was even a wee dark for me. I just wanted to cry. These kids are so young. I felt so horrible! I wanted all of them to escape and live an amazing life. SOBS! This had a lot of feels and again...really dark especially at the beginning. There was a point I did have to walk away from reading for a little bit. It was just so sad.


I really did enjoy this story and I wanted to know what was going to happen. This is a must-read for those that like fiction stories. We see a glimpse of the dark side of the world, but there is so much hope for Kyle and the others. I loved the ending. Made some of the darkness worth it. But again...freedom isn't free.


All-in-all, this was a good read even with the darker bits of the story. It shows us the dark side of the world, but it reminds us there is hope. I highly recommend it, but be warned...you will feel feelings like I did. I'll stamp this with 4 stars.

I TOTALLY recommend reading this book and I couldn't stop reading it. I finished it in like 2 days, 'cause I needed to know what would happen.
It's told in the third person, from the main characters POV, Kyle and Aaron.
This book tells of a boy who was able to escape and overcome many horrible things that were done to him by the same people who were meant to take care of him. It's based on a true story, but I would have prefered to know this once the book was over, 'cause I kept asking myself which part was "real" and which one wasn't.

There are many characters in Comes the Dark, but I will never forget about is Kyle. He's such a strong character and he went through so many horrible things ... but then for every moment of darkness, there’s always a moment of light. The ending was so beautiful and I will reread this book for sure!

This is a poignant story about abuse of power and sex trafficking. Kyle is living an abusive life when he’s finally able to scrabble his way to a bit of relief via a nurse he meets in the hospital. Aaron is a huge support to Kyle when they meet, perhaps for the first time in his life, Kyle might have an ally. Before Kyle can begin to heal though, he finds that his past is still trying to drag him under.

The amazing thing about this novel is the depth to which the reader gets to know a rather large cast of characters. There are nurses, retired military/police, active professional, people with substance abuse challenges. All the characters read as very real because they’re well rounded and well-thought-out.

Throughout the course of this novel … and despite the continued violence and trauma, the characters deal with … comradery and found family is what emerges. Although this novel explores the darker side of society and the depths of human depravity, it also reads as hopeful. For every moment of darkness in this novel, there’s a moment of hope or light. I don’t mean that to sound trite, but it’s true. There’s a realistic balance in this story between the stark reality of some of the worst things that can happen to a person and the joy of small alliances and found family.

This novel won’t be for everyone as it contains some seriously violent and dark occurrences.

This book was hard to read at times but I couldn’t put it down. What Kyle went through was heartbreaking but his strength and resilience were amazing. All of the characters were complex and real. They’re all dealing with their own situations and challenges, but they still came together to support him and each other. The subject matter was brutal and horrifying, especially since it’s so commonplace yet unseen, but it was handled with sensitivity and compassion. This was a great story and I would highly recommend it.

4.5 stars

This story held me captive from start to finish.

It's told in the third person and mostly from the main characters' point-of-view Kyle and Aaron. (Not a couple) At times, the reader's privy to a couple of side character's POV and it worked well.

There are no cardboard cutouts to be found here. The characters are all fully fleshed out. Bill is despicable, but the one person I wanted to throat punch was Sandi, least of all for her bisexual slur. (For the record, Sandi, bisexuals are capable of keeping it in their pants.) She was a bitch to Aaron and my heart broke for him when tragedy struck.

The story did leave me with one question, though. Who was made accountable for the death/manslaughter of Cathy? If it was explained, I missed it.

Perhaps I'll read this again one day, and that's saying something, as I rarely reread a book. There are too many new ones to devour.

The ending is wonderful, I fell in love with Navin almost as soon as he was introduced.

MUSINGS - This story has a foreword informing readers it's based on a young boys life whom the author met. Personally, I would've preferred it as an afterword as it tainted my reading experience. The entire time I was reading, I kept wondering which parts were 'real' and which were fictional. I choose to believe a great deal of the plot was embellished, otherwise I would've questioned too many things.