The Darkness Takes Control

The Darkness Takes Control

By: Jeff Vega

“Dark,” by Kenji Jasper is about young adult Thai Williams who seems to have his life all planned out. He has his college picked out and ready to start his path into success, he has his beautiful girlfriend by his side no matter what, and his friends are all still in close connection with him with a strong bond. But all that changes as soon as he walks in on his girlfriend having sex with another man, Nick. Before he has time to react, Nick jumps out the window. Thai breaks up with his girl, but cannot stop thinking about Nick in his bedroom with his girlfriend. It begins to eat him up from the inside, and he feels he needs a form of justice. His boys are all violent members of a street gang, and they want him to take Nick’s life. Unlike his friends, Thai has never killed a man and has never really planned on it. He sees Nick at a party, and he just snaps. Thai chases Nick out of the party and tackles him, without hesitation, he shoots Nick in the head, killing him instantly. Thai is now on the run, ducking police and anyone who might know about his crime. He leaves the city to live on his own, where he now starts to refer to it as “the darkness.”  It his way of saying how he has entered the world of a criminal, a murderer, a loner who has to disappear as if he never existed. As he begins to feel lonely,  he realizes that “after 19 years and 3 months, [my boys] had finally brought me into the dark.” (pg.13)

I have yet to finish the book, but I can admit that i could not drop the book once i begin reading it. Kenji Jasper does an excellent job with making the book relatable to my life as a highschool student. Now, I don't mean that because i have killed a man, but by the language he uses in the characters dialogue.  Thai and his boy curse like nothing, which is how my friends and I speak with each other. On page 79, Thai and his best friend E have a discussion about how E’s mom had left him and came back 12 years later. Thai asks “ Your ass wasn't mad that she left you for 12 years?  She got up and walked out ya house wit’ your ass on the floor playing video games?” this quote reminds me of arguments my boys and i will have with each other, serious or not, this is a great example of the word we use with each other. I would recommend this book because it is never just full on narrative, which many like myself find extremely boring. It keeps the reader engaged with dialogue that i find myself laughing at out loud every now and then. It is an easy read, yet suspenseful whereas you never know what is going to happen next.