Eternal Night by Carina Adly MacKenzie

Eternal Night by Carina Adly MacKenzie

Release Date - August 26, 2014

Publisher Website - Paper Lantern Lit - The Studio
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 319 pages
My Rating - 4/5
Where To Buy - Amazon // iBook // Barnes and Noble //  Kobo
**received in exchange for an honest review**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

There are gods among us...

Six young gods are hiding in plain sight among mortals, living secretly in cities across the world. From lavish penthouse soirees to pulsing underground clubs, for them, the party literally never ends. Until now.

On a hot June morning, the body of a beautiful girl is found floating in the rooftop pool of the Jefferson Hotel, her white-ink tattoos revealing the story of a life much longer than seems possible. Only the immortals know the truth: Nadia was the goddess of hope. Now she’s gone, and the world as they know it is ending. The Hudson River has turned blood red. Storms rage overhead. Mania is rapidly spreading across the globe.

It is up to the remaining gods—Lola, Dean, Weston, Mark, Nike and Peitha—to put aside centuries of betrayal and heartbreak, and stop the mysterious source of darkness that is taking over… before the sun sets forever.

Carina Adly MacKenzie, writer for The CW's hit series "The Originals," has penned a steamy, romantic, and ultimately redemptive story of forgotten gods, the persistence of hope, and the power of love to save us.

Modernizing the gods has been done before, but never quite like this. Eternal Night takes the classic mythology and makes not only the story, but the characters themselves feel current and relevant.

The relatively large cast of characters ensured the author needed to juggle multiple story lines for the duration of the novel. This is smoothly done with each of them standing on their own, and coming together when needed. The characters all stand out, and each one feels uniquely themselves which sometimes does not happen with this amount of characters. I, personally, enjoyed quite a few of the characters and couldn't help but instantly cared about them. It was Lola, and her storyline, that was probably my favourite but each of them seemed vital to the plot.

Romance is certainly woven into the story, but it is the family bonds between these characters that stood out for me. Sibling like relationships are not often the focus in young adult novels, so it was refreshing to read. The complex relationships that they have and all the love, anger, hurt, and forgiveness that come with it is beautifully captured. With characters who are immortal it is a tough balance between making them live in the present, and showing the toll centuries of life have already taken on them, and Carina does this effortlessly. You believe the connections between the characters, messiness and all.

Losing and finding hope is such a powerful message woven throughout the novel. From the splashy opening where hope is metaphorically extinguished in the death of the goddess of hope, right until the novel's captivating ending, it's a theme that drives the story forward. Each of these characters grapple with regaining that hope that Nadia's death ripped way from not just them, but the world. It helped progress the character's growth, and offers some connection for the reader.

Carina's day job of writing for The Originals has clearly influenced her writing. This world and these characters would certainly feel at home on the CW network. The tone, and style reads as ready made for television, and it's all too easy to picture a cast of hot twenty somethings in these roles. Descriptive passages allowed for a clear image of both the characters, and the world they inhabit, and is certainly the author's writing strength.

Eternal Night offers up a fresh, young, and sexy take on the classic gods/goddesses mythology. Those looking for a little something different from the paranormal genre will certainly find that here.

I also have two questions that Carina answered specifically for this tour......

Tell us your dream casting for the movie/TV show of ETERNAL NIGHT.

When I read this question I got really excited, because I work in TV and I thought this would be easy. But it was not. I didn’t actually picture any actors in my head as I wrote, so I was really just thinking about which actors from my favorite TV shows meet the physical descriptions of the characters, and I don’t want to take away from a reader’s imagination by saying “Here’s what you should picture when you think of Lola.” Also – it was really, really hard for me to find someone who looks like Peitha, because I imagined her as a beautiful young Middle Eastern woman, with boobs and a butt and thighs that touch, and it’s unfortunately really hard to find an actress who meets that physical description. In my wildest dreams, this book does become a movie or TV show, and we can find the perfect unknown actress who doesn’t look like anyone that’s currently on our screens.

What is your guilty pleasure TV show?

My real guilty pleasure TV is on my DVD shelf. There are so many shows I haven’t seen that I really should watch. To like… enrich my life, and my writing, and enable me to impress my bosses... I’ve never seen The Wire or Game of Thrones or House of Cards. However, when there’s a rainy day and I have nothing to do but sit inside and watch my television, you can bet that instead of getting started on my television education, I’m breaking out shows I’ve seen 100 times. My Dawson’s Creek DVDs are literally worn out. I watch Gilmore Girls so often that I keep them on a separate shelf that’s easy to access. So that’s my real guilt – neglecting the genius of The Wire in order to watch Pacey buy Joey a wall for the four thousandth time.

That said: Never feel guilty about watching a TV show! Even the dumbest show ever employs like, hundreds of people. Watch it. Love it. Embrace it.

A big thank you to Carina for taking the time to answer these questions, and to Paper Lantern Lit for organizing the tour.

Carina Adly MacKenzie grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she boldly defied the no-reading-at-the-dinner-table rule time and time again. After studying English at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Carina moved to Los Angeles to pursue a writing career. Carina was a television critic and entertainment reporter for Zap2it.com, the Los Angeles Times, and Teen Vogue, among other publications. Currently, she spends her days obsessing over vampire sibling rivalry as a writer for The CW's new drama, "The Originals." She loves coffee, Twitter, and her little dog Pacey. Eternal Night is her first novel. 

If you'd like to learn more about this book, and visit the other tour stops details are available at the Eternal Night page on the Paper Lantern Lit website.