The Bright Side of Darkness

De: J. E. Pinto

Narrado por: Adam Syron

What is a family?

Rick Myers is a despondent 17-year-old who just lost his parents in a car wreck. His family is now the four teenage buddies he's grown up with in a run-down apartment building. Fast with their fists, flip with their mouths, and loyal to a fault, "the crew" is all he has. At least he thinks so until he meets Daisy, an intelligent, independent, self-assured blind girl. Her guts in a world where she's often painfully vulnerable intrigue Rick, and her hopeful outlook inspires him to begin believing in himself.

But when the dark side of Daisy's past catches up with her, tragedy scatters the crew and severely tests Rick's resolve to build his promising future. Fortunately, his life is changed by a couple with a pay-it-forward attitude, forged out of their personal struggle with grief and loss. Their support makes all the difference to Rick and eventually to the ones he holds most dear as they face their own challenges.

The Bright Side of Darkness is a story of redemption and the ultimate victory that comes from the determination of the human spirit.

©2015 J. E. Pinto (P)2015 J. E. Pinto

Sweet and heart-warming

I really enjoyed this story's positive portrayal of blindness and the author's detailed attention to character development. Each of the characters had their own arc and problems. The book was not as preachy as I expected it to be. I enjoyed getting to know Daisy, Rick, and the rest of the crew, who all made me laugh at unexpected moments.

a great book!

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoy stories about people from the wrong side of the tracks, or in this case the wrong side of the highway. The narrator did a great job as well.

What an excellent book!

I'm just sitting here having finished this book, and my question is. "Why isn't there more?" Also, what happens next?
As much as I hate to compare books, I see a lot of Outsiders influences in this book. When I was reading it, I just couldn't stop because I needed to know what was going to happen next.
There wasn't anything that I disliked about the story. Quite the opposite. I found all the characters to be realistic, and I enjoyed their stories. Especially Rick's. The author did an excellent job of coming up with backgrounds and situations for everyone to go through. So much so that I almost wondered if they were real. I also wonder if the author had brothers because a lot of the guy banter and dialogue made me laugh so hard, and I could hear guys talking the way they did in the novel.
I really liked Daisy's character and how she was represented. She was a no-nonsense blind character, and I felt all of her struggles when reading about her. Captain, her dog was super cute as well. If only he'd have been shown guiding Daisy a bit more. The fact that Rick didn't even care about Daisy's blindness was another positive aspect.
I thought the main point of the story was connections and brotherhood.
There was a good mixture of grieving in this book as well as humor. You can tell that the author thought out all of these characters and their situations. I think my favorite character to follow other than Rick was Tim.
I didn't feel that religion was pushed down my throat, and I like the way the author showed how God exists without preaching to the readers. I look forward to reading any other books she comes out with.

Heartwarming

This is a powerful coming-of-age story. I would recommend it to anyone. Especially those who feel as if they are down on their luck, whom have a disability, or other disadvantage.

I will read it more than once!

Do you want to trigger a realistic human experience and read a great book at the same time? Take a walk with Rick and his crew as the unexpected events in life push them to their limits and help them discover their potential for good and bad. If you're a fan of dogs and cats you'll love scenes with all of the fur faces in them I highly recommend this book to you.
The story is well paced and keeps you invested from the beginning till the end using fast action and heart touching events without over taxing your time. The lessons and trials of the crew are strong with emotion and experience but aren't spread out over a million pages. This was a powerful Saturday afternoon read and it tugged at all of my heart strings while strumming at my emotions. Fall for the bad boy or crush on the ladies you'll find someone to love and hate. If you're a dog or cat fan you'll have a fur face to follow as well.
Overall the book is a good investment in time, money and has a great story to share with friends and family.

Great book.

I really enjoyed the story and writing. Great book! The author has a great ability to captivate her reader!

Great contemporary coming-of-age story.

I'm glad I read this book. Inspirational fiction isn't normally my cup of tea, for a lot of reasons, but this story explodes off the page, full of action and emotion, and the journey to Christian faith our main character, Rick, takes is just one part of a big picture.
Our main set of characters is a group of young men living in a public housing apartment building in gritty, urban Dallas Texas. Each guy has specific personality traits, likes and dislikes, and habits and behaviours, and we get to know pretty quick which one is the jokester, which the would-be "tough guy," and so on. All the guys have prickly personalities in one way or other, but Ms. Pinto shows us, almost right away, what is likable about each of them, and keeps reminding us, even as they do some pretty unlikeable things.


So, this is a book about male friendship - awesome, messy, loving, devoted male friendship. This aspect is, quite seriously, the best part of this story. I've never read a book that depicted such close connections between young male friends. I mean...these guys touch and hug each other!!! :-) More than that, though, they have each other's backs in huge ways, and even when some of the friendships break apart, they do the hard work and say the difficult words they need to to not only heal the rifts in the friendships, but to heal the rifts in themselves. If you want a depiction of masculinity that's toughness hiding softness, savviness warring with brashness, sassiness shaking hands with smartness...you've found it in this book.

If you love coming-of-age stories, and religious elements are your thing (or you can respect some religious content for the sake of a good story), get this book.

A word about the narration: It's good, but not fantastic...but it works. If anything, the rough edges make the story feel a lot more real.

Amazing Book!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes because it was great!

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the humor!

What about Adam Syron’s performance did you like?

I loved his reading style.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I loved this book! it made me laugh and cry.

Any additional comments?

This is a great book! I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long long time.

I was surprised by this book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn a bit about blindness or who just likes a good uplifting story. ;

What did you like best about this story?

the growth of the characters through the story, and the fact that it isn't part of a series. It's nice to read a novel with a beginning and a middle and an end, all in one book.

Which scene was your favorite?

Oh there were so many. I loved the scenes with Tim and Jake, and the ones with Rick and Walter, especially the first one.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

people can surprise you? Maybe? I really don't want to be cliché, but stupid things like don't judge a book by it's cover comes to mind. lol

Any additional comments?

I put this book on my wish list and had intentions of reading it because my friend had written it and I wanted to support her work. but honestly I really really didn't want to read a book about some blind chick with a guide dog being enspiring and blah blah blah, we've all been there and hated it. But I figured it's only 8 hours of my life and the narrator was great so here we go. So for the first little bit I was all like, yeah well this is nauseatingly familiar. He's amazed she can breathe and walk and dress herself and talk and all...okay it wasn't *quite* that bad but he was annoying with his "even though she was blind she could do fill in the blank" all the time. But then, and I am not spoiling it for anybody, but then something big happens which caused me to forget I had a life outside my book for the next 5 hours or so. I was kinda wishing I could put my kids in stasis so I wouldn't have to put it down. I loved the story, and the narrator was awesome as well. He did different voices which were very well done. The only thing is that he sometimes moved his head when he read so the sound moved or was muffled sometimes. That's the only reason for my lower rating on performance. The story and everything else was fabulous. The characters were believable and who doesn't love babies and dogs?

An amazing must read for Tweens and up

Realistic, Heartwarming, down to earth. Those are only three of the many words that come to mind when I think of describing this amazing book.
The author shows her understanding of what life is like for the types of persons their characters are based on.
By using her own personal background thus writing what she knows, Jo E. Pinto paints a colorful picture of the Crew and their lives.
No predictable outcomes, or contrived plots are to be found in this fast-moving, suspenseful, heartwarming, and sometimes humorous book.
I read this book on Audible, and found the narration gave each character a life of its very own, which only increased my reading pleasure.
I recommend this book for anyone Tween-aged and up. Furthermore, I feel families would do well to turn off the TV gather together read and discuss this book.
If you’re a high-school teacher or work with children in some way this book is a must.
I’d love to see the author do a follow-up book of some type. Maybe write about Rick and has newly opened café, sprinkling it throughout with a combo of reality-based adventures and recipes.
This book is most definitely going on my favorite reads of 2019.
Not read this book. What are you waiting for?