Perfect for fans of:
- V. E. Schwab
- Courtney Summers
- Buzzfeed Unsolved
- Riverdale, but with mysteries that make sense
- Supernatural
Review:
“In Snakebite, you were either fleeting or permanent. People who came to town always left, and people who left didn’t come back.”
To say that this novel took me by surprise would be an understatement. I was intrigued by the synopsis— teens going missing in a small town, ghost hunters coming to investigate and something lurking in the dark, watching—and after reading The Dead and the Dark, I can vouch that this delivered all of what’s promised in the synopsis and more.
Gould mentions in her acknowledgements that her agent’s first comment about The Dead and the Dark was that it was “like Riverdale but good” and I felt that. If you’re a Riverdale fan because of the aesthetics of the show, the dark underbelly of the town but find yourself frustrated with the lack of coherence and dropped plotlines, you’ll find a welcome reprieve in between the pages of The Dead and the Dark. Here, you get a gigantic mystery and the sense that something or someone is always watching, a great cast of diverse and LGBTQ+ characters and a very satisfying resolution.
Gould’s atmospheric writing mesmerised me while reading. Reminiscent of Courtney Summer and V.E. Schwab, Gould crafts a masterful, dark tale and has such a sense of place with the town of Snakebite. The antiquated traditions they adhere to, the way the inhabitants react rudely to outsiders and the underlying sense that this town will be preserved in a vacuum no matter how the outside world might evolve in terms of acceptance of LGBTQ+ people was as haunting as it was realistic. I’m convinced we all know at least one town that’s like Snakebite and Gould really makes you feel that difference between “enlightened” places where Logan and her two fathers used to live and their return to Snakebite, where they are just waiting for the pitchforks to be raised.
I also loved how everything tied in together. We have two POVs in this story—Logan, who wants to leave because she feels unloved by one of her fathers, Brendon, and struggles with staying in Snakebite where everyone not only hates her parents but her by default, and Ashley, a born-and-bred Snakebite resident who is trying to get to the bottom of her boyfriend Tristan’s disappearance. It doesn’t help that Tristan disappeared right after Logan’s father showed up in town. Throughout the entire book, you have this juxtaposition between traditional values and the desire to break out of them, and Logan and Ashley’s friendship really drove that home. On top of that, all the pieces of this eerie story come together beautifully – from Logan’s parents’ past to the disappearance of young teens and family secrets that just won’t stay buried, you can practically feel something ominous about to happen at the end of each chapter, which makes for delicious tension. And while I won’t spoil anything about how the book ends, I can tell you that all the little questions opened up earlier in the book are answered. All in all, this book was fantastic. If you like dark, ominous settings and a nail-biting mystery on top of great LGBTQ+ characters and an unforgettable conclusion, then The Dead and the Dark needs to wander onto your TBR.
In the veins of V.E. Schwab and Courtney Summers, Gould delivers a spine-chilling and eerie debut with The Dead and the Dark that will leave readers hooked from the first page.
The Dead and the Dark is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of August 3rd 2021.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Dark has been waiting for far too long, and it won’t stay hidden any longer.
Something is wrong in Snakebite, Oregon. Teenagers are disappearing, some turning up dead, the weather isn’t normal, and all fingers seem to point to TV’s most popular ghost hunters who have just returned to town. Logan Ortiz-Woodley, daughter of TV’s ParaSpectors, has never been to Snakebite before, but the moment she and her dads arrive, she starts to get the feeling that there’s more secrets buried here than they originally let on.
Ashley Barton’s boyfriend was the first teen to go missing, and she’s felt his presence ever since. But now that the Ortiz-Woodleys are in town, his ghost is following her and the only person Ashley can trust is the mysterious Logan. When Ashley and Logan team up to figure out who—or what—is haunting Snakebite, their investigation reveals truths about the town, their families, and themselves that neither of them are ready for. As the danger intensifies, they realize that their growing feelings for each other could be a light in the darkness.
