The Scourge by A.G. Henley

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Title: The Scourge
Author: A.G. Henley
Series: Brilliant Darkness #1
Published by: Audible Studios
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 9 hours and 21 minutes
Genres: Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Quarantine Edition
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Groundling, Fennel, is Sightless. She's never been able to see her lush forest home, but she knows its secrets. She knows how the shadows shift when she passes under a canopy of trees. She knows how to hide in the cool, damp caves when the Scourge comes. She knows how devious and arrogant the Groundlings' tree-dwelling neighbors, the Lofties, can be.

And she's always known this day would come—the day she faces the Scourge alone.

The Sightless, like Fenn, are mysteriously protected from the Scourge, the gruesome creatures roaming the forests, reeking of festering flesh and consuming anything—and anyone—living. A Sightless Groundling must brave the Scourge and bring fresh water to the people of the forest. Today, that task becomes Fenn's.

Fenn will have a Lofty Keeper, Peree, as her companion. Everyone knows the Lofties wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an arrow through the back of an unsuspecting Groundling like Fenn, but Peree seems different. A boy with warm, rough hands who smells like summer, he is surprisingly kind and thoughtful. Although Fenn knows his people are treacherous, she finds herself wanting to trust him.

As their forest community teeters on the brink of war, Fenn and Peree must learn to work together to survive the Scourge and ensure their people’s survival. But when Fenn uncovers a secret that shatters her truths, she’s forced to decide who and what to protect—her people, her growing love for Peree, or the elusive dream of lasting peace in the forest.

My Review:

4.5 stars — I was sucked into this book almost immediately from the start.  The concept was so unique, the details were superb, and the attention paid to Fennel’s sightlessness made me feel sightless myself.  And I genuinely think that a great book was made even more spectacular by listening to it.

Emily Woo Zeller freaking NAILED the narration of this story.  She had so much emotion, I FELT everything that Fenn was going through.  And the range of voices Ms. Zeller has is truly remarkable — and they were always consistent!  I pretty much always knew who was talking before the narrative even gave it away.  Not only that, but her level of acting just made everything come alive — she followed the directions of the book to a tee.  I honestly don’t think I can do anything but listen to the rest of this series when I get around to it.

Fennel was just the kind of heroine I can immediately connect with.  She’s brave, strong, humble…but also sassy, bold and curious.  I LOVED “seeing” the world through her other senses — it really made it easy to get into her head, because she always described things by smell, sound, touch, and taste…or by the variable light she could faintly detect.  It was fascinating.  She definitely was not perfect — stubborn to a fault.  And oh how I ached with how hard she resisted her feelings for Peree, even though they were obvious.

And Peree himself was definitely not perfect!  He frustrated me to no end with his leaping to conclusions and jealousy…not that it wasn’t justified, but really.  At the same time he was so sweet, thoughtful, protective — and he matched Fenn on humour PERFECTLY!  He may not have been perfect, but I loved him.

I loved seeing their relationship develop and survive the prejudices of their peoples.  They really made me ship them so hard.

The twists and turns of the plot always kept me on my feet, and I rarely knew what was coming next.  The secrets that were revealed were just astounding.  My heart ached watching Fenn and Peree both struggle with everything.

Obviously there were a ton of fantastic secondary characters — and all fleshed out really well that they felt real.

I absolutely LOVED the storytelling sprinkled throughout — especially after hearing where they came from in the author’s afterword.

So yeah.  I am often wary of these early Indie books…I’ve had the ebook since 2012.  But this one pleasantly surprised me at every turn.  And even though the ending was super satisfying, and I could stop and not be left hanging — I know I’ll be checking out the rest to see what will happen next.