The Dark Vault, VE Schwab, Jonathan Ball Publishers, ISBN: 9781789090857
DEATH. It is not a topic most people like to think about. However, Victoria Schwab has taken this morbid concept and turned it into a beautiful and heart wrenching novel with a unique twist to the idea of the afterlife.
In The Dark Vault we follow the story of teen, Mackenzie Bishop, whose little brother, Ben, has just died.
Her parents have abandoned their old home and moved to a dilapidated hotel in a new town where her mother hopes to open a coffee shop. It is supposed to be a fresh start for the whole family.
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Grief is still raw and real for the Bishops, and while they all struggle through this, Mackenzie must simultaneously keep a major secret – her double life as a Keeper. A responsibility she inherited from her beloved late grandfather.
Schwab has created this surreal world where the dead – called Histories – rest in a place called the Archive, much like books on a shelf.
The living have no idea that the Archive exists, and the Keepers have been tasked with returning restless, and sometimes violent, Histories who have woken up before they can break out into the world of the living.
In the first novel of the series, The Archived, Mackenzie’s life is thrown into further turmoil when she discovers a mystery that threatens the very existence of the Archive, and the further she delves, the more dangerous things become.
Not only is she risking her life, but also her prized position as a Keeper.
Despite her infuriating and stubborn insistence to solve the mystery on her own, she has earned a spot as one of my all-time favourite female characters, as she is not only smart, but funny, selfless and incredibly tough but also protective of the people she loves.
If you love heroines such as Katniss Everdeen, Hermione Granger or Beatrice Prior, you will fall in love with Mackenzie.
I appreciate that Schwab obliquely explores the concept of grief through the different ways in which her characters deal with it. These moments left me as an emotional, tearful wreck, but I just could not stop turning the pages.
Then steps in Wesley Ayers.
With a secret of his own, Wesley helps Mackenzie deal with her grief and the life of isolation that she has created for herself as a Keeper.
The brave, easy-going, confident, loyal and witty ‘goth boy with eyeliner’ perfectly complements Mackenzie’s character. Once he has stolen your heart, you will find yourself rooting the duo.
The ending caught me completely off guard and did not disappoint.
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The Unbound, which is the second and last book in the series, started out as a typical Young Adult novel. It is Mackenzie’s first day at her new school, and a love triangle quickly develops.
At first I thought that the sequel would be filled with nothing but cringe worthy moments of teen romance. However, Schwab intertwines the cheesy moments with just the right amount of ominous danger and mystery.
While Mackenzie battles sleepless nights and nightmares following her traumatic experiences in the prequel, her capabilities as a proficient Keeper starts to falter.
She becomes convinced that someone in the Archive is trying to have her dispelled. So, when innocent strangers she helps in the living world start to disappear, Mackenzie is determined to uncover the truth and prove her worth.
I had my suspicions about the sequel’s ending, but Schwab will still surprise you with the specifics.
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