“The Hollywood High Chronicles: Dark Water” by Melissa Velasco

• 08/02/2023
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The Hollywood High Chronicles: Dark Water

Melissa Velasco
Independently Published (2023)
ISBN: 978-1960378057
Reviewed by Kathy Stickles for Reader Views (07/2023)

“The Hollywood High Chronicles: Dark Water” is the new book by Melissa Velasco, and it is an excellent addition to this series about a group of friends who are definitely an odd collection of students at Hollywood High for the Performing Arts.

In “Dark Water,” we continue to follow along in the journey of the main character Melanie as she tries to understand, accept, and control the new side of her personality. As her dark water side begins to emerge Melanie finds herself becoming a much more intense and strong person and it makes her feel very unbalanced and scared of herself and for those around her. Add to this, she has two gorgeous energy workers in love with and fighting over her in the characters of Adam and Trey. While Trey balances her new side with his own calmness and his care for her, Adam is even stronger and fiercer in his personality than Melanie, which leads to the question… which one is better for our heroine in the long run? Definitely not an easy decision for Melanie to make.

In addition to all of these changes and confusion, there is also the fact that Joel, the villain from the first novel who tried to rape and kill Melanie, is awaiting his trial in jail but still has his own contacts on the outside who want nothing more than to get rid of Melanie permanently, as well as all of those around her who will be testifying at the trial.

“Dark Water” is definitely not your average young adult novel and I honestly did not expect to become so engrossed in the story but the writing was very good and I was completely pulled into it. That is something that honestly surprised me and I was very happy about it. I think that this is an excellent story not only for young adults but for adults who want something different and have the desire to relive the days when they were in high school trying to have friends and relationships and to just simply fit in. I was impressed with the author’s writing style and her ability to keep me so involved in the story and the lives of these teenagers.

The characters, every one of them, in “Dark Water” are very well-written and the reader comes to feel that they understand them and have really come to know each of them by the end of the story. Ms. Velasco has a talent for writing about teenagers and all they go through, in both the normal and, in this case, the metaphysical world, and still making them act and feel like actual teenagers rather than adults. This made the story more fun to read and definitely more realistic.

“Dark Water” is a story that is filled with love, disloyalty, treachery, and a lot of fear, mixed with a great deal of soul-searching for the main characters as they try to handle life, relationships, and the confusion of dealing with the intuition that makes them so very different from other “normal” teenagers. I really enjoyed the book and I think that so many others will as well.  I can’t wait to see what comes next for Melanie, Trey, and everyone else.