“Dara couldn’t keep screaming the truth again and again, and never being heard.”
The Electric Heir is the harrowing and thrilling sequel to The Fever King (my review here). This is a story of survival and finding hope in the darkest times and places.
In this sequel to the series, Noam and Dara play dangerous games in their fight for freedom from tyranny. Noam becomes entangled deeper and deeper into the rebellion, while at the same time, he is one of the closest to Lehrer. Finding a way to survive and create a better future will mean that both Noam and Dara have to confront the darkness they’ve come to know at the hands of Lehrer.
“For the first time in years, Dara wanted to live.”
I have to admit this book took me a long time to read. But not for the reason you’re thinking. Similarly to The Fever King, The Electric Heir explores the complexities for trauma and surviving trauma and abuse. While intrigued by the story itself, I found reading it to be something I had to take gently with myself. This is because there were parts where I wasn’t sure that the MC understood the traumas that were happening to him.
For me, there are many parts of The Electric Heir that are hard to read. I think that was kind of the point. Surviving is never going to leave you whole. To survive means you come out with scars. But, surviving is also about hope. Hope for a better future than the one today. That was one of the key messages I took from the book.
“I want to choose you,” Noam said softly. “Every day, again and again.”
Ultimately this book was about hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for love and hope in the face of loss. As I progressed to the ending pages, I really started to feel the brightness of that message and spurred me on to the end.
By the end of this series, I was quite sad to say goodbye to Noam and Dara. I longed for more, but things ended just as they needed to. This duology was an ordeal that dealt with difficult themes and topics. Ultimately, it was an enjoyable series and perhaps one day, one that I’ll read again.
This book is amazing to read and a testament to survival of abuse, but that doesn’t make it for light reading. Please tread gently with this series if you have triggers and read the trigger warnings first. The trigger warnings can be found on Victoria Lee’s website, here.
I was given an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
