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graceheartsbooks's review against another edition
4.75
This is my third book club read and I finally found something I enjoyed lol
I got a little lost on the details occasionally but I could see past that. I loved getting to know the characters and their friendship, both past and present. At first seeming exactly like their stereotypes, the layers of who they are and who they become start to become unveiled and you can quickly grow attached to them (at least to me you can). It’s especially heartbreaking as you go along knowing one of them had to die to bring them all together but the book ends of a nice note, reflecting on the character’s pasts and futures as well as the town’s. Also the take down of the major villain was super satisfying!
I’ll miss my time with Jia, Padma, Maddy, Casey, Kelly and James but also cherish the time I did have❤️
(Also the acknowledgements mentioning how the book was meant to be an homage to Stephen King’s ‘IT’ made feel vindicated as I had been telling someone it was reminding me of that story)
I got a little lost on the details occasionally but I could see past that. I loved getting to know the characters and their friendship, both past and present. At first seeming exactly like their stereotypes, the layers of who they are and who they become start to become unveiled and you can quickly grow attached to them (at least to me you can). It’s especially heartbreaking as you go along knowing one of them had to die to bring them all together but the book ends of a nice note, reflecting on the character’s pasts and futures as well as the town’s. Also the take down of the major villain was super satisfying!
I’ll miss my time with Jia, Padma, Maddy, Casey, Kelly and James but also cherish the time I did have❤️
(Also the acknowledgements mentioning how the book was meant to be an homage to Stephen King’s ‘IT’ made feel vindicated as I had been telling someone it was reminding me of that story)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Eating disorder, and Violence
Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Homophobia, and Murder
Minor: Cancer, Vomit, Child death, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness
gavroche's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
A group of students stumble upon the truth about the local Mega Church and its mysterious pastor. The book takes place over three decades, jumping back and forth between the 90s and 2010s.
I enjoyed the book a lot and it had plenty of twists and turns. I knew something was up with the pastor and partially guessed what it was, but it was much more complicated than I had thought. I did see the romance coming, it was super obvious.
I found a lot of the characters loveable but a few less so! All of the characters whose POVs you get were lovable or at least likable, but a lot of other characters, all from the church weren't likable.
Narrator Rating: 5 stars
Between the plot and the narrator, this book was easy to follow and kept me engaged so my mind was not wandering while I listened. I was glad for the chapters having the character name though since it was only one narrator for six POVs.
Elemental Levels: Fluff-NA Heartfelt-4/5 Horror-1/5 Love aka Romance-1.74/5 Mystery-3.75/5 Predictability-1.5/5 Spice-1/5 Suspense-5/5 Tear- 3/5 Thrill-5/5
I enjoyed the book a lot and it had plenty of twists and turns. I knew something was up with the pastor and partially guessed what it was, but it was much more complicated than I had thought. I did see the romance coming, it was super obvious.
I found a lot of the characters loveable but a few less so! All of the characters whose POVs you get were lovable or at least likable, but a lot of other characters, all from the church weren't likable.
Narrator Rating: 5 stars
Between the plot and the narrator, this book was easy to follow and kept me engaged so my mind was not wandering while I listened. I was glad for the chapters having the character name though since it was only one narrator for six POVs.
Elemental Levels: Fluff-NA Heartfelt-4/5 Horror-1/5 Love aka Romance-1.74/5 Mystery-3.75/5 Predictability-1.5/5 Spice-1/5 Suspense-5/5 Tear- 3/5 Thrill-5/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Blood, Bullying, Racism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Classism, Death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Child abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Child death, Police brutality, Confinement, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, and Murder
Minor: Infertility, Cancer, Car accident, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy
The child death was that of some teenagers, not any young children.yvo_about_books's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.0
Finished reading: February 11th 2024
"Everyone is going to be telling lies, just for different reasons."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Park Row in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
This author has been on my radar ever since I read Never Saw Me Coming back in 2021, so I was very excited to hear that she had a new book coming out in 2024. I loved the sound of the blurb of A Step Past Darkness, with the abandoned coal mine setting, the crime in 1995 and the murder that might be connected to the past in 2015. I've been looking forward to finally read it, as I fully expected to enjoy my time with it... But in the end it was a book of two halves for me. What do I mean with this? I'll try to explain below.
First of all I have to say that I still love the premise, and the Pennsylvania setting made for a great backdrop. It was fascinating to learn more about Wesley Falls, the coal mine and how the community was corrupted by Golden Praise, and I could really appreciate the way the supernatural/horror element was woven into the rest of the story. There was such an ominous vibe especially in the second half, and it really helped redeem this story for me. The supernatural is also not that overwhelming, so you should be fine even though it's not really your thing.
What made me struggle considerably for quite a long time had a lot to do with the pace and multiple POV structure. A Step Past Darkness read SO incredibly slow during the first half, and the fact that there are SIX different POVs doesn't really help either (actually even more than that, but I don't want to spoil certain events). Add the fact that there are two timelines (1995 and 2015), and the multiple POVs pop up in both, and this means a LOT of jumping back and forth between the different characters. Sure, it was interesting to get to know them better, but there were so many switches and it slowed down the pace way to much. It also made it harder to properly warm up to the cast, but I felt like I never got to spend enough time with any of them.
There was also way more focus on the high school drama than expected, which I'm never a fan of. I get that this drama is used to reinforce the fact that the capstone group are such an unlikely group to form a bond together, but still... With all the high school drama, I ended up much preferring the 2015 timeline over the 1995 one, but then again this is something that often happens with dual timelines for me. On top of this, A Step Past Darkness focuses a lot on another pet peeve of mine: religion. Golden Praise is of course extremely important to what happens in the plot, but I'm never a fan of more religion focused stories and especially Maddy's POV was quite a struggle.
Like I said before, A Step Past Darkness was a story of two halves for me. I struggled considerably with the first part, with its focus on the 1995 timeline and all that drama. It was so SO slow to read, and I even put it temporarily on hold because I wasn't enjoying it as much as expected and nothing much was happening in the first 20% or so. When I picked it up again and finally made it to the part where all five remaining capstone members were back in Wesley Falls, things did improve drastically. Once the focus is more on the 2015 timeline and them trying to figure out what happened to Maddy, I started looking forward to my time with this story again. This had a lot to do with the added tension and supernatural/horror element... Basically the first part was a 2.25 star rating for me, and the final part more of a 3.75 star rating; which is why I ended up with the 3 stars.
I've seen mentioned that the author used the popular It as her inspiration, and this is where it might just have gone wrong for me personally. I wasn't really a fan of that book either, and both stories seem to suffer from being overlong and too much drawing out. I probably would have enjoyed A Step Past Darkness so much better if it had 100-150 pages less and more focus on the present timeline instead of all that high school drama... If you enjoy more slow-paced and character-driven thrillers where the 'exciting' part only pops up later on, A Step Past Darkess will most likely work better for you though. I did love most of the second half myself!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Racism, Alcohol, Classism, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Violence, Child death, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, and Death of parent
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