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A review by msteasam
The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
4.0
Lots of thoughts about this! I loved the mystery aspect and thought it was done very well. Wanting to understand what the hell was going on in the town, with our characters, who was attacking people, and what was buried in the past drove me through the book. It was definitely horror-lite, but the dark tone was engaging and the writing was really solid for a debut novel. This also avoided falling to most of the YA tropes that bother me and draw me out of a story.
I thought the pacing was a bit rushed towards the end but the book built up enough with foreshadowing that it still worked. I would love to have spent a little bit more time with the characters, who were interesting but didn't have very strong characterisation at times. The romance also developed very quickly but not very deeply. The author should write a prequel book about Alejo, who was by far the best character and was very loveable!
I thought the pacing was a bit rushed towards the end but the book built up enough with foreshadowing that it still worked. I would love to have spent a little bit more time with the characters, who were interesting but didn't have very strong characterisation at times. The romance also developed very quickly but not very deeply. The author should write a prequel book about Alejo, who was by far the best character and was very loveable!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Hate crime, and Homophobia