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meijke's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
bookph1le's review against another edition
5.0
Easily one of the most brutal, gritty, and tragic books I've read in a long time. I'm having trouble even finding words to describe its power. This was an unsettling read that totally blew me away, and I know I'll be thinking about it for some time. I will definitely be looking for Engel's next book.
cdjdhj's review against another edition
4.0
When 12-year-old BFFs Junie and Izzy are murdered in a deserted park on a snowy day in early spring, Junie's mother, Eve, vows to find the murderer herself and administer her own justice. Knowing that the small, hardscrabble ozark town where she grew up and raised her own daughter held dark secrets at every turn, Eve follows the killer's trail until it leads right back to the place where it all began for Eve and her only sibling, brother Cal. After leaving the rundown trailer where they brought themselves up as their mother cooked meth, hosted drug parties and and brought home strange men, Eve became a young single mother who worked hard and tried to avoid her mother and the life she had been raised in. Cal became a police officer and vowed to always protect his sister and her daughter. As Eve follows the murder's trail she finds that she can never truly leave the place she came from behind.
This book was a real page-turner for me. It's well-written plot made me want to read just a bit more every time I picked it up. While the ending was not completely unpredictable, it leaves the reader with a feeling of closure, however dark and troubling it might be. I will probably read another of Amy Engel's books at some point, but this book was pretty dark (as the title implies), so I need to take a break and read something lighter just now. Reader warning - there is some violence, sex and language in this book, but it is all part of the story and not gratuitous or overdone in my opinion.
This book was a real page-turner for me. It's well-written plot made me want to read just a bit more every time I picked it up. While the ending was not completely unpredictable, it leaves the reader with a feeling of closure, however dark and troubling it might be. I will probably read another of Amy Engel's books at some point, but this book was pretty dark (as the title implies), so I need to take a break and read something lighter just now. Reader warning - there is some violence, sex and language in this book, but it is all part of the story and not gratuitous or overdone in my opinion.
alyssarester's review against another edition
4.0
this was a super quick read for me. it had a great web spinning that was constantly catching me off guard. i really enjoyed this book
karlyo83's review against another edition
5.0
My Rating System: 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ticked all the boxes LOVED IT!!!!
Eve has nothing left to lose, all her life she has known she would never be truly happy and now she has just found out her only child Junie is murdered in the local park. Devastated, crushed, depressed, suicidal - none of this quite covers the need for vengeance that Eve has coursing through her veins.
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozark, in a very small town, with very big secrets Eve has to go back to the dark, violent past of her childhood to find the cruel cold touch of her mother’s ‘love’ to tap into her own Familiar Dark.
This is a story about what you do for family even when they are gone and knowing that even the darkest most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.
But… Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes its better not to know. Eve is about to find out just how difficult that lesson is!!
This is not a nice story particularly if you have a difficult relationship with your mother. Eve’s mother reminds me so vividly of my own (and let me tell you that is not nostalgia at its best) that sometimes I had to look away. I couldn’t stay away for long because [a:Amy Engel|7795802|Amy Engel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1411916658p2/7795802.jpg] writes in such a way that makes you feel the angst, pain and darkness on the page right inside of you. I absolutely loved her other book [b:The Roanoke Girls|30689335|The Roanoke Girls|Amy Engel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1489050287l/30689335._SY75_.jpg|51235136] and as you can see by my rating this is no different.
Eve has nothing left to lose, all her life she has known she would never be truly happy and now she has just found out her only child Junie is murdered in the local park. Devastated, crushed, depressed, suicidal - none of this quite covers the need for vengeance that Eve has coursing through her veins.
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozark, in a very small town, with very big secrets Eve has to go back to the dark, violent past of her childhood to find the cruel cold touch of her mother’s ‘love’ to tap into her own Familiar Dark.
This is a story about what you do for family even when they are gone and knowing that even the darkest most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.
But… Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes its better not to know. Eve is about to find out just how difficult that lesson is!!
This is not a nice story particularly if you have a difficult relationship with your mother. Eve’s mother reminds me so vividly of my own (and let me tell you that is not nostalgia at its best) that sometimes I had to look away. I couldn’t stay away for long because [a:Amy Engel|7795802|Amy Engel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1411916658p2/7795802.jpg] writes in such a way that makes you feel the angst, pain and darkness on the page right inside of you. I absolutely loved her other book [b:The Roanoke Girls|30689335|The Roanoke Girls|Amy Engel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1489050287l/30689335._SY75_.jpg|51235136] and as you can see by my rating this is no different.
christieburke75's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
nina_hsny's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.25
don't fuck with mothers :)
sarahweyand's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I am blessed in that I don't remember a lot about this book anymore so I'll certainly be less vitriolic than I was right after I read it. I thought the premise was interesting, obviously, and the pace was fast so nothing ever dragged, but I could not care less about anything that happened in this book. The characters were flat and their relationships were superficial, I didn't feel the our protagonist cared at all about the death of her daughter, and the ending was absurd.
There was one twist early on in the book that I thought was compelling, so I'll give it that much, but even then it didn't seem to have much consequence for the rest of the plot.
Don't waste your time here; at least the book was short so I didn't spend too long on it.
There was one twist early on in the book that I thought was compelling, so I'll give it that much, but even then it didn't seem to have much consequence for the rest of the plot.
Don't waste your time here; at least the book was short so I didn't spend too long on it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse