Review: Smoke by Dan Vyleta

Published: April 2017

Pages: 448

Synopsis: “Imagine a world in which every bad thought you had was made visible. Where anger, hatred and envy appeared as thick smoke pouring from your body and soot on your skin. With society controlled by an elite who have learned to tame their darkest desires. Thomas and Charlie are friends at a boarding school near Oxford, where the children of the rich and powerful are trained to be future leaders. Charlie is naturally good, but Thomas's father was accused of murder and Thomas fears that the same evil lies coiled inside him. Then, on a trip to London - a forbidden city shrouded in darkness - they learn that all is not as it appears. So begins a quest to find the truth, and to learn what lies beneath this world of smoke, soot and ash...”

Rating: **

I spent the first 70 pages unable to decide whether this was one of the best books I have ever read, or one of the most boring. It’s a seemingly fine line. Smoke follows Thomas and Charlie at a boy’s private school and the reader gradually learns that every bad thought or lie had a physical manifestation, in the form of smoke or soot depending on severity. The boys go on a school trip to London, where the students witness an execution and Thomas spots something which makes him think about the world they live in. That’s about as much as I can explain without giving too much away (plus that’s about all I could make out).

Part two became much clearer when Thomas and Charlie visit Thomas’s relatives for Christmas and the plot starts to progress thanks to the introduction of new characters and reintroduction of old ones.

Smoke was a very good idea, in the vein of ‘what if the words you spoke became visible on your skin, would you take more care with them?’ but there was some very patchy world building. The reader probably spotted these holes before the characters but was then left to fill them as and when the characters did, which was a little frustrating and it made you wonder why the characters couldn’t see what was so blatantly obvious.

Smoke was a frustratingly slow read. No matter how long I read for, it didn’t feel like I was any closer to the end. Sometimes this is a good feeling, but not so much for Smoke. The plot was slow moving and felt like it spent most of the book procrastinating rather than progressing.

However, Smoke was one of those books that I kept thinking about once I had finished and the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated how well written it was. And how what seemed like insignificant details at the time (like a boy’s tooth being knocked out in a fight) come back later with different ramifications. This shows the level of detail and just how immersed the author was in the world he had created.

On reflection, I think I would read other books by Dan Vyleta to see if his writing style are the same throughout, but I would not read any further books in this series if there are to be any.