SuitabookThe Dark Within Us
Jess Popplewell
- Reading
- Check in before reading if homelessness, family breakdown or supernatural depictions may feel close to home. Afterwards, discuss trust and support without assuming the book resolves every difficulty positively.
- Themes
- Trust and dangerous bargains: Jenny makes a pact with Luc, a demon who says he can return her stolen soul, while the story asks whether he can be trusted. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Youth homelessness and insecure housing: Jenny begins homeless or sofa-surfing after conflict with her mother, and the author connects the story with teenagers surviving insecure housing. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Hell, mythology and afterlife beliefs: The novel presents a modern version of Hell influenced by Dante’s Inferno and by changing cultural ideas about death and the afterlife. The setting appears to engage imaginatively with inherited religious and mythological concepts, rather than presenting a factual account of them.
- Worth knowing
- Some readers may want preparation for homelessness, insecure accommodation, conflict with family and friends, a relationship ending, demons, Hell and darkness. The available details do not establish how graphically or intensely these are portrayed.