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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
3 ★ The Dark We Know is a solid read. I loved the atmosphere of the story and Wen-yi Lee's ability to capture specific moments in such a strong way. I find that nowadays young adult books usually have this specific type of first-person point-of-view writing style that I'm just not a fan of, but I really enjoyed how this book was written. It was written in a distinct voice, and Lee's talent for writing shined from the first page to the very last. There were interludes sprinkled throughout the story written with a collective "We" which I loved and found creative.
I'm not the biggest horror reader, but the premise and comps seemed intriguing enough to try. With horror or thriller books, I love it when the narrative is full of emotion, and my favorite books in the genre combine both emotion and speculative elements. Fortunately, The Dark We Know deals with emotional themes alongside the main plot, which made the book feel more authentic to me. I found the characters well-written, though I preferred the side characters (who are dead) to the main characters and wished there were more scenes with them.
I saw that the author compared her book to the song "seven" by Taylor Swift, and I definitely see the comparison. In fact, there is a scene that I feel is directly inspired by the lyrics, though I'm not sure if that was intentional.
The reason why I am only leaving three stars is because I have mixed opinions. While I loved the writing style, the atmosphere, and the themes explored, I didn't like this book as much as I had hoped. For a horror book, I felt it lacked suspense and tension. There were some intense scenes, but I never felt on the edge of my seat. The book also felt pretty confusing, like important information was left out, and could have benefitted from being a bit longer, as it was a relatively short read. Also, I don't typically enjoy books with religious elements, so those moments did not stick out.
Trigger warnings (provided by the author): Suicidal ideation & suicide, grief and depression, references to self-harm, pregnancy scare anxiety (side character/not main plot), domestic abuse, body horror, religious trauma and general trauma
I'm not the biggest horror reader, but the premise and comps seemed intriguing enough to try. With horror or thriller books, I love it when the narrative is full of emotion, and my favorite books in the genre combine both emotion and speculative elements. Fortunately, The Dark We Know deals with emotional themes alongside the main plot, which made the book feel more authentic to me. I found the characters well-written, though I preferred the side characters (who are dead) to the main characters and wished there were more scenes with them.
I saw that the author compared her book to the song "seven" by Taylor Swift, and I definitely see the comparison. In fact, there is a scene that I feel is directly inspired by the lyrics, though I'm not sure if that was intentional.
The reason why I am only leaving three stars is because I have mixed opinions. While I loved the writing style, the atmosphere, and the themes explored, I didn't like this book as much as I had hoped. For a horror book, I felt it lacked suspense and tension. There were some intense scenes, but I never felt on the edge of my seat. The book also felt pretty confusing, like important information was left out, and could have benefitted from being a bit longer, as it was a relatively short read. Also, I don't typically enjoy books with religious elements, so those moments did not stick out.
Trigger warnings (provided by the author): Suicidal ideation & suicide, grief and depression, references to self-harm, pregnancy scare anxiety (side character/not main plot), domestic abuse, body horror, religious trauma and general trauma
This was so so good. I'd say 4.5
I can't even find the words.
Supernatural but also felt.... Like a magical realism type of supernatural. That's not quite right but I just can't find the right words.
I just enjoyed this so much!!
I can't even find the words.
Supernatural but also felt.... Like a magical realism type of supernatural. That's not quite right but I just can't find the right words.
I just enjoyed this so much!!
i can’t get these characters and this story out of my head
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you to Netgalley for an e-book ARC of this book. And thank you Mai for putting this on my radar!
This YA horror book was everything. In fact, it was so good I binged it in 4 days and could not stop thinking about it. I think YA horror might be a new favorite genre for me.
Isadora Chang is a Chinese American teenager who left for art school and told herself she would never return to her hometown of Slater. But when her dad dies unexpectedly she attends the funeral and is swept up into a mystery involving talking to ghosts, digging into the archives to find out what really happened in the mining accident decades before, hunting a death angel, and fighting off the angel’s song which lures its victims into committing suicide.
This book was the perfect mix between mystery, thriller, and horror. There were so many deep dives into cultural shame, loneliness, belonging, and LGBTQ coming out/acceptance. The writing was gorgeous and filled with emotional dialogue and prose. I loved this book so much that I will now read anything Wen-Yi Lee writes next. This was her debut novel.
Do yourself a favor and pick this book up. It’s such an engaging and unique read.
I didn’t intend to read back-to-back YA horror novels, but here we are.
I wanted to love this one a lot more, but honestly, if it hadn’t been for listening to Natalie Naudus narrating, I probably would have DNF’d.
Isa has been called home from college to attend her father’s funeral. He was a terrible, abusive father, but her mother has promised to share the inheritance if she attends. So, she’s back in her hometown where two of her best friends killed themselves two years ago.
The fourth member of the gang of besties, Mason, seeks her out because he thinks she’s the key to communicating with their dead friends. He has his reasons and turns out, he’s right.
What we then have is a mystery about why there are so many suicides/accidental deaths among the young people of this town. Something otherworldly is going on and Isa and Mason have to figure it out and put a stop to it.
This one was a little overly complicated for my taste. And I wasn’t drawn in to the characters enough to care what happened to them. I would have given it two stars, but the narration elevated it to three.
I wanted to love this one a lot more, but honestly, if it hadn’t been for listening to Natalie Naudus narrating, I probably would have DNF’d.
Isa has been called home from college to attend her father’s funeral. He was a terrible, abusive father, but her mother has promised to share the inheritance if she attends. So, she’s back in her hometown where two of her best friends killed themselves two years ago.
The fourth member of the gang of besties, Mason, seeks her out because he thinks she’s the key to communicating with their dead friends. He has his reasons and turns out, he’s right.
What we then have is a mystery about why there are so many suicides/accidental deaths among the young people of this town. Something otherworldly is going on and Isa and Mason have to figure it out and put a stop to it.
This one was a little overly complicated for my taste. And I wasn’t drawn in to the characters enough to care what happened to them. I would have given it two stars, but the narration elevated it to three.
Goodreads deleted my review so here we go again
Rating: A strong 3.5 rounded up to 4
"The thing about being bi is that it seems like there's an option for you to just be normal. Like you have an easy way out...But that escape is a slow death in itself, a self-inflicted drowning"
The biggest strength of the book comes in the form of its commentary regarding mental health, poverty, queerness, generational trauma, and religious trauma. The depiction of the sheer bleakness that comes with poverty was just so well done, and despite Slater being a fictional location, I found the Angel persona to be such an insightful parallel to the suicide epidemic in impoverished, rural, isolated environments such as Native reservations in the U.S.
I also felt that the themes of religious trauma, shame, and sin, as well as generational trauma and genetically/environmentally passed-on mental illness, while all given a supernatural spin, were very well depicted. I also appreciated just how queer this book was, with almost every character being somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum :)
I will say that some of the supernatural elements were lost on me, and at times it became really hard to locate where the character was situated (Is she hallucinating being in a cave-like area? Is she at home? Where is the dreaded quarry? Who is at the graveyard at the climax of the book?). But other than that, I was really able to empathize with the deeply-mentally-ill-but-trying-to-heal MC, and I enjoyed reading this debut!
Rating: A strong 3.5 rounded up to 4
"The thing about being bi is that it seems like there's an option for you to just be normal. Like you have an easy way out...But that escape is a slow death in itself, a self-inflicted drowning"
The biggest strength of the book comes in the form of its commentary regarding mental health, poverty, queerness, generational trauma, and religious trauma. The depiction of the sheer bleakness that comes with poverty was just so well done, and despite Slater being a fictional location, I found the Angel persona to be such an insightful parallel to the suicide epidemic in impoverished, rural, isolated environments such as Native reservations in the U.S.
I also felt that the themes of religious trauma, shame, and sin, as well as generational trauma and genetically/environmentally passed-on mental illness, while all given a supernatural spin, were very well depicted. I also appreciated just how queer this book was, with almost every character being somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum :)
I will say that some of the supernatural elements were lost on me, and at times it became really hard to locate where the character was situated (Is she hallucinating being in a cave-like area? Is she at home? Where is the dreaded quarry? Who is at the graveyard at the climax of the book?). But other than that, I was really able to empathize with the deeply-mentally-ill-but-trying-to-heal MC, and I enjoyed reading this debut!
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
DNF-ing at 34%
First of all, it really doesn’t help that Natalie Naudlus, queen of not being able to voice more one than type of voice, Queen of “every single character sounds the exact same” narrates this.
More importantly though, this story bores me. The layout of the plot feels so predictable framed amidst “only BIPOC in a small white town” rhetoric, the MC is edgy for the sake of being edgy (oOoOo she has tattoos and piercings she’s soooOoOoO rebellious you guys), and the plot hook, especially for a mystery novel, fell completely short.
First of all, it really doesn’t help that Natalie Naudlus, queen of not being able to voice more one than type of voice, Queen of “every single character sounds the exact same” narrates this.
More importantly though, this story bores me. The layout of the plot feels so predictable framed amidst “only BIPOC in a small white town” rhetoric, the MC is edgy for the sake of being edgy (oOoOo she has tattoos and piercings she’s soooOoOoO rebellious you guys), and the plot hook, especially for a mystery novel, fell completely short.