Dark Eyes by William Richter

Dark Eyes by William Richter
383 Pages (Hardcover)
Razorbill 
March 15, 2012
Source: Librarything
Format: ARC

Get ready for the vigilante girl detective of the next generation.

Wally was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a child and grew up in a wealthy New York City family. At fifteen, her obsessive need to rebel led her to life on the streets.

Now the sixteen-year-old is beautiful and hardened, and shes just stumbled across the possibility of discovering who she really is. She’ll stop at nothing to find her birth mother before Klesko—her darkeyed father—finds her. Because Klesko will stop at nothing to reclaim the fortune Wally’s mother stole from him long ago. Even if that means murdering his own blood. But Wallys had her own killer training, and she's hungry for justice.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for teens, this debut thriller introduces our next big series heroine!

    I am very confused by why this book has not gotten more attention, because it definitely deserves it. The action never lets up for a second, the plot spreads its tendrils until points overlap and intersect and become this huge mess of chaos that somehow the characters are able to untangle. Some people tell me that is what one would call a "mystery/thriller" plot, and I can't speak for adult, but for YA, Dark Eyes really is something different.

    I don't even know where to begin with plot, so  I will just say there is a ton of action, twists, mystery and suspense.  I know that is vague, but there is no other YA I can compare it to, at least not that I've read. It really did kind of blow my mind.

    The author of the novel is a Hollywood screenwriter, and that definitely comes off in his style. The description is well detailed and specific so that I really was seeing the action in my head as a movie. It is a third person narrative and skips around to feature different characters. There is a definite main character and story line, but it shows other things happening at the same time, much like some movies do. I don't know if it was because of that, or what, but I seriously could not put this book down once I got to the real meat of the plot.

    Just read it, please, so I can stop struggling to explain how I feel about it. I loved it! I've done my best to be descriptive, but I am falling short when it comes to describing how much or why. I am excited for a sequel, but I don't think it is needed. I will definitely read it though, and I hope it lives up to Dark Eyes.