Book Review: "Breaking the Dark" by Lisa Jewell

I’ll admit I was a bit dubious when I heard that a book series featuring the grittier side of Marvel superheroes was being launched. But being a Marvel fan, I couldn’t resist the idea of a thriller featuring Jessica Jones written by Lisa Jewell. And I thought it was great!

Jessica Jones is still reeling from some serious psychological trauma, which she’s nursing with alcohol. By day, she’s a private investigator; by night, she’s drinking herself into a stupor.

She is visited by a distraught mother, who claims that her 16-year-old twins returned visiting their father in England and are now acting strangely. Their skin is flawless, they’re strangely serene and don’t look at their phones at all, and they claim that everything is “perfect.” When Jessica spies on Fox and Lark, she does observe that something isn’t right.

Jessica travels to the UK to try and figure out what might have happened to the twins while they were visiting. She can’t shake a strange feeling she’s having, and when she visits an old farmhouse to find the girl Fox was smitten with, she realizes that this girl, Belle, is being kept captive. Can she get Belle out of her captor’s clutches?

What Jessica finds is far more disturbing than she imagined. And she must solve the mystery at the core of what is happening before it’s too late. But Jessica is battling her own demons as well as the feelings that this mystery has evoked in her.

I thought this was a bit creepy but I was hooked completely. Jewell is in great form once again, and she really fleshed out Jessica’s character well. I’ll be looking forward to the next book in the series, which will feature Luke Cage, written by S.A. Cosby.