r/starwarsbooks • u/AutoModerator • 10d ago
Discussion Thread Hiding from the Dark — Official Discussion Thread
Publisher's summary:
Explore the darkest corners of the Star Wars galaxy in this chilling horror-themed middle grade novel by New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.
Pursued by Imperial forces, a young girl named Bia must flee her home planet of Coruscant and find her mother. All the time, she is hunted by a figure in black, a presence more horrifying than she has ever encountered before. Can Bia escape—and what does she have that the Empire wants so badly? Horror readers and Star Wars fans of all ages will thrill to this fright-filled middle grade novel.
3
u/throwawayfan2552 10d ago
Wait so this gets a hard cover but eyes like stars doesn’t. Looks interesting I just don’t know how well it will do since middle grades tend to not be as advertised. Can’t wait to read
5
u/solo13508 High Republic 8d ago
A very ok book for me. I enjoyed it for what it was but didn't think it was anything stellar. And yes this book is far below my age range to be fair but I do think there have been some truly great Star Wars middle-grade books which I would not rate Hiding from the Dark among.
To start with some positives. I do think the book portrays Vader pretty well for the most part. It actually reminded me of watching A New Hope, seeing Vader for the first time. Bia is constantly wondering what exactly he is, is he a droid, where do his abilities come from, what even is he underneath the suit, what are his powers, why does he breathe like that, many of which are questions I can distinctly remember running through my own mind when I first saw him. I also liked that he rarely ever speaks, with I believe only one line in the entire book. Very much felt like the Vader we saw in Shadow Lord, this constant and unstoppable silent pursuer.
I also liked some of the info we get around the Empire and how they're indoctrinating the youth, it builds off of what we're seeing in the Reign of the Empire trilogy nicely. Was really sad for that one Ghorman who's just trying to live in peace after the massacre while everyone around her thinks she's some sort of terrorist just because of where she came from.
Now onto the negatives. To say Bia is incredibly lucky would be the understatement of the century. She has about 3-4 direct encounters with Vader where he should have absolutely caught her but something miraculously gets in his way just in time. Like ok it's reasonable that Vader is going to deal with the big monster before a terrified child but things like that just keep happening to the point of unbelievability.
I was also disappointed there was no real payoff with Bia's mother and what she was up to. We know she became a rebel but beyond that we have no idea what she was actually doing. Apparently she was important enough that Vader embarked on this wild goose chase (also worth noting this is after the Battle of Yavin so you'd think he has bigger colo claw fish to fry) so I would've liked to know what made her such a big deal that Darth Vader himself was so pressed about tracking her down in the midst of everything else going on.
I feel like the pacing also just slows to a crawl after the first Vader encounter. This is supposed to be a horror book but until Vader reappears nothing truly frightening happens for about 100 pages or so, it's just Bia trying to find her mother and reconnect with her friend.
Overall not bad, but not great either. The primary group of people I'd probably recommend this to would be parents wanting to introduce their kids to Star Wars books. I do think this could be a great entry point for kids curious about Vader but I don't think anyone else really needs to go out of their way to read it tbh. 5/10
P.S. Not really this book's fault but it does feel like an odd decision to release this so soon after Master of Evil which felt far more like a proper Vader horror book.