Book Review: “Vigilante Nights” by Erin Richards

A good boy” will do anything for vengeance when a gang rite kills his twin sister. Will Lucas win, or follow his sister Silver into the darkness?

After a hideous car wreck, Lucas wakes from a coma to find that his world is gutted. Not only is his beloved twin sister, Silver, gone forever, but Lucas is broken in body and spirit. He will never be a college athlete, and is robbed of what he now realizes was the most important bond of his life. Although they weren’t identical twins, Lucas and Silver shared a bond so fierce it defied reason, and was nearly supernatural.

After her death, that bond seems to endure when Lucas sees Silver everywhere he turns. Either he’s crazy, or Silver is trying to tell him something about the California gang initiation they stumbled into that cost Silver her life. Lucas is bent on revenge, turning on Raymond, Silver’s former boyfriend; the one Lucas never wanted her to date. He forms a posse of vigilantes to take out the gangsters responsible for Silver’s death, but he risks not only his own life, but the love of the new girl on his block, who knows more about Lucas and Silver than can be accounted for by mere chance.

As much as this book was supposed to be about revenge and gang warfare, very little of it was portrayed throughout the novel. Instead, readers were shown the pain and grief a young boy ventures through as he tries to come to terms with losing one of the most important people he will ever have in his life.

Unfortunately, this meant reading through 294 pages ladened with depressive thoughts via the protagonist. I mean, I totally empathize with Lucas as he grieves for his twin sister, Silver, but I’d actually hoped that the book would feature more on Silver’s Ghosts (the vigilante group Lucas formed to exact revenge on Silver’s killers). Granted, there were snippets of action throughout the story that had me hooked to the pages at times.

I was also deeply intrigued by the “bond” Lucas and Silver shared even after Silver’s death. I’ve read a few YA and non-fiction books on the connection twins are supposedly to have and I still had my doubts about whether Lucas’ mind had jumped off the sanity bridge. However, reading about his and his sister’s strange twin connection continuing even after death was more than thrilling and a perfect twist to the story.

Also, as much as I enjoyed the different personalities of each and every character, I favored Silver (rather her ghost) the most. Although there isn’t much background info on her at the beginning, throughout the story she quickly gained my friendship with her quirky and sometimes sardonic personality.

The ending of the novel was perhaps one of my favorite parts; Lucas is back in the same life and death position but instead of being taken by surprise as in the beginning, he catapults himself into all the action and prevents what could have been another unfortunate incident. Regardless of how slow-paced and depressing this book was at times, the whit of action that there was, left me hanging on every word.

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Rating: 6.5/10

Book Info:

Publisher:  Merit Press (July 18, 2013)
Length: 304 pages (Hardcover)
Series: N/A
Source: ARC (Provided by Publisher)
Genre: Teens & YA
Completed: July 2013

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