I'm just finishing up In Darkness by Nick Lake, which was the 2012 Michael L. Printz Award recipient. Like many of the books that win the Printz Award, this one unfortunately went relatively unnoticed until the award picks were announced. I was familiar with Nick Lake's name through his totally campy-but-awesome sounding Blood Ninja saga, which is currently at book III. To quote the School Library Journal review, "Taro wants to be a samurai, but as this story opens, ninjas attack his house and decapitate his father, and he is run through with a ninja sword. All is not lost—he is saved by a good ninja who had to bite him and turn him vampire." With In Darkness, Lake uses his linguistics background and studies of Haitian history to take on a more serious subject - the immediate aftermath of the devastating 2010 Haitian earthquake as told by Shorty, a young Haitian thug trapped in a ruined building without food or water. Part of the novel is Shorty's own story - the significant events in his impoverished life in Haiti leading up to the disaster. These are interspersed with chapters about Touissant Louverture, who led Haiti's famous 1791 revolution of slaves against French colonialists.
I appreciated the way that Lake added the historical chapters on the revolutionary history; instead of just switching back and forth, they are told from Shorty's perspective because he embodies the spirit of Louverture himself. There are multiple references to American hip-hop icon Biggie Smalls (AKA the Notorious B.I.G.) that will resonate with music fans. In Darkness does not glorify street violence; Haiti's gangs do what they must to survive in a country where basic necessities of life are scarce, and they also help distribute provisions to people in the neighborhoods. It's a powerful, well-written and researched book that, along with Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, sets an extremely high bar for historical fiction written for teens.
