Review: Dark Eyes by William Richter

Title: Dark Eyes
Author: William Richter
Pages: 383
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: March 15, 2012

Wally was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a child and grew up in a wealthy New York City family. At fifteen, her obsessive need to rebel led her to life on the streets.

Now the sixteen-year-old is beautiful and hardened, and she's just stumbled across the possibility of discovering who she really is. She'll stop at nothing to find her birth mother before Klesko - her darkeyed father - finds her. Because Klesko will stop at nothing to reclaim the fortune Wally's mother stole from him long ago. Even if that means murdering his own blood. But Wally's had her own killer training, and she's hungry for justice.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for teens, this debut thriller introduces our next big series heroine.

My Thoughts: Dark Eyes had some pretty shocking moments. Things I did not see coming, especially in the last couple of chapters. But that doesn't mean I was happy with those surprises. In fact, I can't wrap my head around why some secrets were secrets in the first place. It made no sense. I felt like most of the death and sorrow in this book could have been avoided if a certain character was truthful YEARS ago about the identity of Wally's biological mother.

And the way every single event played out was completely unbelievable! See, some of the characters planned ahead for the future and seemed to know EXACTLY what would happen in the future. Like how other characters would react and what those characters' actions would be in the situations they were set up in. What are the odds of everything working out like that? Yeah... Unless those characters are actually psychics, very unlikely.

I also can't say I was a fan of the main character Wally. You would think, since Wally lives on the streets, that she must have come from a rough home. But...no. She was just a rebellious RICH kid with loving parents who decided to live on the streets. I don't care if her being adopted led to her acting out like that. She was still annoyingly selfish. I don't think she was the only character like that either. And after the big reveal near the end, I'm not sure who to blame for her behavior.

Although it managed to keep my interest, I was disappointed with the characters and the consequences of all the secrets. I do think Dark Eyes will appeal to some readers, so I would recommend it to those who enjoy thrillers minus a happily ever after.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to LibraryThing & Penguin for the ARC!