Comes the Night by Isobelle Carmody

Title: Comes the Night

Author: Isobelle Carmody

Genre: Fantasy YA

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 29^th October 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 480

Price: $24.99

Synopsis: A superb YA fantasy set in the near future, full of secrets, high stakes, peril, deceptions and dreamwalkers, from the internationally acclaimed and bestselling author of the Obernewtyn Chronicles and The Gathering.

Will slipped on the left glove and twitched a finger to establish a link to the kite tronics. A shiver of electric energy ran through his hands as they synched to his nerves through the gloves.

Will lives with his father in a future domed Canberra where citizens are safe from extreme weather events, dangerous solar radiation and civil unrest. He does not question his carefully controlled existence until the recurrence of an old nightmare propels him on a dangerous quest.

Gradually Will discovers his dreams hold cryptic clues that lead him into a shadowy alternate dimension. Here he must grapple with dark forces that operate in both worlds, with the help of his best friend Ender, her brilliant but difficult twin sister Magda, and a mysterious gift from his uncle.

Comes the Night is a thrilling new novel from the internationally bestselling author of the Obernewtyn Chronicles.

~*~

In a near-future, almost dystopic world, Australia has cut itself off from the rest of the world and domed many of its cities in an effort to protect people, and keep them safe from climate change, and any catastrophic or extreme weather events, solar radiation and any chance of civil unrest. Will lives with his father, Padraig in the Fyshwick dome near his best friend Ender. Will has never questioned his domed and carefully controlled existence, with daily government bulletins, educational control and set-out parameters for careers and career tracks. Everyone appears to be happy. Will appears to be happy. That is, until a recurring nightmare about his uncle, one that has returned, makes him set out on a dangerous quest to uncover the truth. The truth about an alternate dream dimension, and the dark forces of both worlds that have changed the world, and made things feel safe, but in reality, are just power-hungry people trying to control what shouldn’t be controlled in such a way. Will has help on his quest – his best friend, Ender and her twin sister Magda, and a strangely unique gift from his uncle.

Yet, there is something sinister going that goes further than a determination for the government to protect its people. Something that as Will drifts in and out of the dream world and discovers more about his Uncle Adam and people in his world that is unsettling. This unsettling feeling continues throughout the novel, heightening the tension and ensuring that readers always feel as though they are being watched. Colour the Night is set in a near-future Canberra specifically, and touches on how the government has remained the same, but somewhat changed in the years since Australia has domed its cities and cut itself off from the world. This is a world ruled by secrets and control, where people can determine your education track and job, where your worth appears to be determined by how healthy you are, and how your health or any conditions can be controlled.

That said, there wasn’t much about the medical part of the society, other than its role or at least, presence, in the strange death of Adam. Things unravel slowly in the first half as Will drifts in and out of the dream world and the waking world, and he’s very unsure of what is going on. This brings in an element of mystery and dystopia when he starts to be treated by Dr Bacchus, who Will sees as having ulterior motives. These sinister motives form the eerie world of the future that felt as though it had echoes of some of the things that have been happening in politics today, and was a haunting reminder of what the world can and might become.

This tense novel reverberates within an imagined future, filled with science fiction elements of technological advances that seem more suffocating than freeing, perhaps a commentary on the control that technology has on our lives. In this novel, it permeates things on a deeper level, demanding that it be used for everything. As I read on, there always seemed to be a threat lingering, though I was never quite sure what it was. At first, it was like an oppressive shadow, and the language that the deputy prime minister used in the nighty government bulletins reflected this. The deeper the novel goes, the more you get the feeling that something isn’t quite right. As it explores a future deeply affected by weather changes, rebellion and governmental control, and who gets to tell us what to believe versus what is actually true, it alludes to the idea that those in power will always work on maintaining that control, even if it means good people are going to be sacrificed or taken away to help maintain a dystopic status quo. It’s a novel that reminds us heading into political extremes and environmental extremes is very possible as it reflects issues that are permeating our current world today.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, though reading it during a time of political tension made me take my time, having to set it aside when things got tense. This allowed me to think through how possible this type of world can be, and what could lead to it. It’s a thought-provoking novel that asks us how we would respond if we found out everything we were being told was a lie, or at least very carefully curated to ensure a supposedly peaceful world.