Reviews

The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel

Only show reviews with written explanations

rachellynndanny's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.0

karlyo83's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

christieburke75's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.25

don't fuck with mothers :)

sarahweyand's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings