The Holy Dark (The Black Parade)

The Holy Dark jumps right back into Jordan Amador’s world as a Seer. While coping with the raw absence of her husband and best friend, Jordan and her fellow Seer Mayra battle through a new journey. A powerful demon named Moloch wishes to possess a set of coins that can kill archangels in order to enact a nefarious attack against humanity. Team Amador must find the set of coins before it’s too late. But before the war, Jordan must survive many battles.
Jordan and her comrades are no strangers to saving humanity and fighting hell’s army. Stopping Moloch might be an easier job if the leader of heaven’s army wasn’t missing and if Jordan wasn’t the top of said army’s s*** list. And although Belial is no longer in charge of his fellow demons, he still manages to be a very seductive pain in Jordan’s ass.
Full of loss, heartache, and terror, The Holy Dark tells of Jordan’s final journey. A journey that might not lead to the pearly gates above.
I can firmly say that The Holy Dark is my favorite installment of The Black Parade. The characters in this book are well written and their plot lines are neatly tied. I was also drawn to the complexities and details of each character.
In The Black Parade series, the fantastic characters are not one dimensional or one sided like one might imagine when thinking of angels and demons. In The Holy Dark Michael is stripped of his title as the leader of heaven’s army in more than one way. He stoops to holding on to a failed marriage by keeping Jordan’s ring. He risks his mission to stop Moloch by seeking revenge when one of his brothers in arms is killed. Michael was almost just a human male too caught up in grief and betrayal to decipher right from wrong and honor his sworn duties to his lord.
In the book, “the holy dark” is used to describe humanity’s tendency to thrive in grey areas. All humans are capable or being evil and good. Kyoko did a beautiful job at accentuating this theme by keeping many of the major players in “the holy dark”. Readers got to see Belial grow and regress in previous books but The Holy Dark really blurs Belial’s path and his position in Jordan’s life. Belial, like Michael, is stripped of his role as commander of an army. For both character’s it seems their roles as leaders were shields. When Belial lost his shield, the reader was able to see that he was capable of true love, compassion, and longing for the life he had before he went to hell. When characters like Belial are supposed to be evil, it is difficult, it is easier to understand “the holy dark”. Belial’s complexities will be missed. Who doesn’t love a bad boy with a heart of gold that is buried deep, deep, deep down? Especially when said bad boy continues to try to wedge himself into a threesome with Jordan and Michael. Two more teams Belial bats for?
I am sad to see this series end but The Holy Dark is definitely an ending worth reading. Thank you, Kyoko for Chapter 29. I am in your debt. #teammilial

Review by: Andi C

The Holy Dark is the exciting conclusion of Kyoko M.’s Black Parade series, and Holy action scenes Batman, is this exciting! This book is almost like one action scene after another with emotion and fire thrown in for good measure. Plus, the author’s normal funny sense of humor is thrown in here in there in the form of her main character, Jordan Amador’s, spunky personality.

Jordan is seriously one kick ass chick. She has taken a beating, literally and repeatedly, and just keeps coming back for more! She refuses to give up and I admire that. Her interactions with her costars are strained at times, but they are so completely developed, I have trouble forgetting they aren’t real! The relationships shown in this series are easily relatable despite the fact that, in this situation, they involve angels and demons.

This book has me so wrapped up in the story it’s not even funny. I feel so emotionally invested in these characters that I want them to pull through all the trials and tribulations in one piece. These characters are all scarred in some form or another; I don’t want them to make any more scars! There were a few times where my eyes may have leaked a little bit, but let’s keep that between us!

My only complaint would be the length. I felt like it took me FOREVER to read it even though I was very into it. I would have liked it broken up into two parts, as there is easily enough content and action scenes to have done just that, though the specific place I’m thinking I would have ended the first part would have left most readers kind of pissed off.

The Holy Dark is a great book, as The Black Parade is a great series. You should definitely add it to your TBR pile if you haven’t already. I’m still having a hard time believing their story is finished! Excellent read!