So, honestly, I don't do creepy. And when I was given the chance to read this book I was skeptical. Afraid whatever was in it might give me nightmares. I figured, I'm an adult, I should pull up my big girl pants and brave the storm. And I am very glad I did. What started as creepy from the first page turned into a science fiction thrill ride that I could not put down!

Imagine, deep space, years and years into the future, and you wake up from stasis not knowing what you'll find, only to realize you've been asleep for 400 years! From there Alameda takes you on a thrill ride through space. Creatures you didn't expect, twists and turns you didn't know would happen, and characters who grow on you quickly.

I loved the dual narration of the book. It gave me a chance to be in both character's heads. To hear what they each thought and see how very differently they reacted to situations. Laura is strong willed and super smart. She uses both to her advantage in every situation. Tuck comes across as more street smart, learning things as he goes and using his past to guide him.

Almeda introduces creatures that are beyond your imagination. Things you would not ever want to see in your nightmares let alone in the deep areas of space where no one is there to rescue you. He descriptions helped me picture the most unimaginable things in my mind, which I was sure would have me seeing things behind my eyes when I slept (thankfully, this didn't happen).

Her writing is easy to read. Descriptions are spot on and build a world where you can hear every sound, feel every change in the air, and even smell what is terrifying to the characters. And her inclusion of pop culture was amazing. I loved it from the very start. How Tuck was always quoting it and finding ways to stick it into conversation. It made the book fun and lightened the mood during many dark situations the characters got involved with.

Anyone with a love of science fiction and futuristic stories will pick this one and not be able to put it down. I'm so happy I agreed to read an advanced copy of this amazing book.

I didn't get a chance to read this author's first book, Shutter, but I'll be putting that high on my TBR now!

Creepy and intense, but left something to be desired. I could have used more info, and the twist and the end just... didn't work for me at all. It left me unsettled.

This was not at all what I was expecting, but I quite liked it. It is like Across the Universe, Illuminae Files, and the Expanse were put in a blender, shortened, and then reconstituted. For everything that happens, this book is quite short. Tuck has just awoken from cryostasis, and he can not believe that the clock says 400 years have passed. Now he and the few that have awoken must protect themselves, and their precious cargo against a new threatening element set on destruction.

Laura Cruz is daughter to famous Shipraiders. Think of it like Indiana Jones in Space. Her family is one of the most important, and have a ship of treasures, including the original US Declaration of Independence.

Then there is Pitch Dark. A fringe group that should be considered domestic terrorists. They are out to see that the human population dies with earth. You see, humans have destroyed the earth. They are creating colonies in other places, but missing minerals and DNA are causing terraforming problems. And Pitch Dark intends to see that these colonies are destroyed.

All this plays together to give the reader a pretty entertaining story. How feasible, ???? Who knows? But entertaining. Part of me wishes the story were longer because I wanted to know more about Pitch Black. Who started it? What did they do in that 400 year time span? How after 400 years could they still have members wanting to destroy humanity?

Taken as it is, without answering my sci-fi loving hearts questions, you still get an excellent read. It would even make for a fun show (hint hint Netflix). And while it is a standalone, I could see sequels, and making it a Star Trek like adventure. Boldly go where few have gone before.
#GNFantasyChallenge #SpaceOpera
#BBRC #LollypopFiction

This book! While I felt it could have had a little more in way of explaining some things, I loved the horror parts, and Tuck and Laura were interesting, if a little underdeveloped. Overall the horror parts were perfection, and the rest of the story wasn't far behind, but I did get lost in a few places, and had to back track, even then a few times I found I was confused, but continued to read on, despite that. I managed to get enough out of the story to understand most of it, and the aliens were creepy and frightening just as they were intended, I just wish more of the who, what, and where's were explained a little better throughout.

The two main characters in Pitch Dark, Tuck and Laura, keep the plot from being too heavy. Both of them entertain readers with internal dialogue and sarcastic banter. This became somewhat over-the-top at some points, but it definitely helped to drive the story. The ever-present allusion game would be appreciated by many teens. Many of those went over my head; clearly I’m not as current on pop culture as I used to be. I liked that Laura could hold her own in an extremely tough situation. Readers need more characters like Laura! Pitch Dark slightly reminded me of The 100, mostly in the way of embarking on a completely unexpected adventure in a strange new world.

Four stars: A thrilling and scary book, but there were a few too many plot holes.

Tuck wakes with a start. His muscles feel like jelly, and everything is wrong. Tuck finds himself surrounded by bodies and gore. Something must have gone wrong if the crew of the Muir is being awoken from stasis. Even worse, Tuck finds that four hundred years have elapsed. Tuck and his shipmates soon find themselves in a dire situation. The Muir is dying, and they are surrounded by mutant creatures who kill with sound. No one knows where they are, and there is little hope of rescue. Meanwhile, Laura Cruz is aboard a ship that looks for lost historic artifacts. Finding the Muir is a huge accomplishment, and the hope is that it can save humanity. Then things go horribly wrong, and Laura and Tuck find themselves thrown together as allies trying to save themselves and the rest of the human race. Will they succeed?
What I Liked:
*Pitch Dark is a book that grabbed hold of me right from the beginning. I loved the terrifying setting, the frightening creatures, and the premise of being lost in the depths of space. This book is action packed and full of cliffhanger chapter endings, so prepare yourself for a lengthy reading session.
*The world building is outstanding. I loved the setting of a crippled starship lost for centuries in the depths of space. The Muir is overrun with mutant, terrifying creatures that kill with deadly sound waves. The ship is dying, and the crew is trying to stay alive. It is dark, scary and thrilling. Loved it.
*I liked both Tuck and Laura. Tuck is tired of fighting monsters and losing crew mates. He is fearless because at this point he has nothing to lose. He is fierce, flippant and a bit crazy. He is sometimes sarcastic and he has a thing for eighties culture. Laura is a competent computer hacker who finds herself in a sticky situation because she trusted her boyfriend. She is determined to set herself free. She is brave, smart and kind. I loved watching Tuck and Laura work together.
*There is a lot going on in this book, and plenty of twists. I liked that there was hardly a moment to catch your breath in this one. The action never lets up. If you want an adrenaline packed thrill ride, this is one to try.
*If you want just a touch of romance, this one has it. I liked that there wasn’t a full blown romance, instead there is a friendship born from dire circumstances and then an mutual attraction that gently moves into something more.
*The ending is solid. Everything ends satisfactory. Yet, there is a hint dropped that perhaps more is to come.
And The Not So Much:
*I was completely sucked into this one and loving it, but then there were these little plot holes that started to bother me. Warning minor spoilers ahead:
First, there was the magic bow and arrow. As Laura flees from her ship to the Muir, she manages to grab a historic artifact, a bow and a quiver of arrows, to defend herself. The bow proves to be an excellent weapon, especially since it seems to have an inexhaustible supply of arrows. Laura is constantly firing off arrows, but she never stops to retrieve them. I googled it just for reference, an average quiver holds from 20-24 arrows or less. I guarantee she shot more than that.
*It was too convenient that Laura barely survives her short traverse onto the Muir alone, but everyone else, including the bad guys made it safely without being attacked by monsters. A little too far fetched since the monsters seemed to be everywhere and a large group like that would have surely attracted plenty of attention before anyone on the Muir could have gotten to them.
*A hacker can get in and suddenly hack a system that is four hundred years old, and the crew of the Muir allows these strangers access to the ship? I don’t think so. Considering their situation, they would have been leery of outsiders, especially when you look at the way they got on the Muir. I found it completely unbelievable that the hacker pulled off what they did.
*When Tuck and Laura reunite with the crews after a mad dash through the terrors of the ship, Laura needs medical assistance. I thought it strange that Tuck didn’t tell them about Laura’s problem, especially when he witnessed it in action, along with Aren.
*The “ghost in the computer” was a little far fetched, and it wasn’t explained how it happened. I wanted more information on this part of the story.

Pitch Dark was a book I immediately fell into, I loved the story, the characters, the setting and the terror. However, as the story went along, there were a few too many plot holes and niggles that took away from my enjoyment. Still this was a thrill ride, and I was sucked in by the monsters, the action and the dire situations. Dive in and try and overlook the niggles and you will have a great time.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.

Pitch Dark is a strong YA sci-fi horror novel with characters you can't help but root for and a plot that never lets up on the action. This is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The character development is excellent. Prepare for major plot-twists that will shock and awe. Highly recommended to readers who are looking for the next hit YA novel.

4.5

As a horror buff, I don't understand why I haven't heard of Courtney Alameda until now but I certainly will not forget her after reading this book. The entire time that I was reading this book, I visualized the scenes playing in my head as if I was watching a movie. That doesn't happen very often and that's how you can tell when you get your hands on a great book. That and the fact that I had to read this book in one sitting because I absolutely could not put this book down.

With two strong, and equally likable (you won't be able to pick a favorite) main characters, killer aliens, suspense, betrayal, and an action-filled plot that keeps you guessing from start to finish, Pitch Dark is an outstanding read!

This was such an engaging read. I am quickly discovering that I really need more thriller/horror books in my life. This scratched an itch I didn't know needed to be scratched. I could not put this down without immediately wanting to pick it back up. I'm going to try really hard not to give anything away in this review so it will be quick and dirty.

Laura and Tuck = YES. I loved these characters! Laura was a take no crap kind of Latina that made me want to be friends with her in real life. She was raised by a family of hardworking people, which caused her to grow into a smart and quick witted teen. Tuck was also smart and witty - he was great to read. I found myself actually laughing at a lot of his lines.

Regardless of the humor between Laura and Tuck, the story was all around a really good read. The pacing was spot on and quick paced. The plot was just downright brilliant. The flow and everything else about the story just worked.

I do hope everyone gives this a chance because it is a really great read.

Sometimes the humans are scarier than the creatures. This chilling sci-fi horror story brings together Tuck Drake, who recently emerged from a 400 year stasis, and Laura Cruz a hacker aboard a ship which was intentionally crashed into Tuck’s They fight destructive mutants, rogue technology and scheming humans in an effort to protect the remnants of earth which would allow them to build again. Latinx characters – by description, language and cultural references - are center stage, creating a fresh take on this genre. Characters are well constructed, and the scary, intriguing narrative delivers some interesting plot twists. A must read for horror fans and a must purchase for those looking to diversify their sci-fi or horror collections.

I liked this book well enough to recommend it to teens looking for scary sci-fi, even though it wasn't my favorite. I was invested in what the main leads were doing, and was rooting for them the whole time. I liked that the female was a strong independent Latina, though the mixed in Spanish with no translation got annoying. I loved the pop culture references. And I loved the scary, creepy monsters. The fact that the two teens were the only ones who were really doing anything go to be annoying. That was definitely where it lost start for me. Overall though, it was a fun sci-fi adventure.

Reviewed on https://smadasbooksmack.blogspot.com/

Tuck woke up from stasis incredibly disoriented- and 400 years in the future. But something isn't right about his ship, something else has woken up too. Laura wants nothing more but to be free of the tech that was implanted against her will by the person who she thought loved her, and now she is just a pawn to be used against her family. When a terrorist group who wants humanity to end makes their presence known, Laura's ship is set on a path of destruction, right towards the horror that lives on Tuck's.

Words can't even began to describe the love that pours out of me when it comes to Courtney's previous book Shutter- seriously, I am a total fan girl, I forced all my friends to read it, and it holds a special place in my top ten books (and that is saying a LOT considering I read over 200 books a year!). I was thrilled when I learned that there would be another Courtney book coming out, filled with the horror that I now expect from her- but this time in outer space, a place I personally already think is terrifying! I will admit that I was a little hesitant when I first picked up the book since I had built VERY high expectations up, but I am ever so happy to report that I loved this book and every heart stopping, terrifying moment.

Stasis stole something from everyone:
It burned the memories from our heads.
It stole our stories, our humanity.
Our families, too. In most cases, it ended our lives.

The story was dual narrated, switching at chapters between Tuck and Laura. Laura was the definition of competent, a girl who can take care of herself, her own hero, full of fire and spunk, with a will of iron and a desire to live- and her aim with a bow and arrow is top notch (ha, sorry could resist!). Laura is the girl we all strive to be. Tuck on the other hand is very capable and intelligent, but his fight has left him, and instead he takes dangerous risks not at all upset to put himself in danger. But his love of "old movies" aka movies I grew up watching, and his amazing quotes and sayings were just the comic relief that I needed to stop a moment of terror. Be it Monty Python phrases, Doctor Who play on words or his awful love for Die Hard, I could relate to Tuck so much, and his totally inappropriate comments. Keep in mind that this was not a romance, but instead a science fiction horror adventure (love kinda takes a backseat to survival, in the grand scheme of things).

“Doctor who?” Sebastian keeps his rifle trained on me.
Oh, now that’s an opportunity I can’t pass up: “Doctor Who?” I say with an edge of mockery. “You call yourself archeologists and you don’t know about the Doctor?”
“Which doctor?” Sebastian asks.
“The madman with a box?” I ask. “Bad Wolf? We have a lot of running to do?”
They both look at me as if I’m the one who’s lost my damn mind.

Right from the first chapter, the reader is thrown into the danger that terrorizes the characters- be it real monsters that chase Tuck to the powerful people who hide their monster better and subjugate Laura. I had goose bumps rise up on my arms while reading the imagery that unfolded on the pages- I could see every ever so wrong detail about the creatures that stalked the dark aboard the John Muir ship.

Behind me, only the silhouette of some massive beast is visible through the fester-covered glass: the creature stands on two legs, but that’s where its similarities to a human being end. As the monster steps up to the window, something slithers away from its back— a hundred long, thick tentacles unfurl like diabolical wings, writhing as if they each have a mind of their own.

Just typing that paragraph makes me goosebumped again because I know what comes next. I found myself holding my breath while reading silent encounters where Tuck was being stalked by something very wrong, hoping that if I held my breath it would help Tuck not be found. Every noise counts. I felt the panic with Laura where she was in the pitch dark, unable to see, but knowing something was right next to her. I was so wrapped up in the terror that made up every encounter with space...things (evolutions?) that I could not put the book down, I was so wrapped up in the fast paced journey. Pitch Dark was full of creepy imagery that made my skin crawl (worms, worms distrub me more than anything!), as well as even darker imagery of death, dying and destruction in all forms. Maybe read this book with the light on- or better yet, during the day, with all the lights on...

The best defenses against them are stillness, silence, luck…
And in a pinch, a well-aimed knife.

A howl unfurls, a shredded, tortured sort of song. The crew calls them mourners because their shrieks sound like someone sobbing at a funeral. Even at this distance, their cries grate against my exposed forehead like sandpaper.

In case it was not apparent, I highly recommend this read for anyone looking for a terrifying science fiction, action filled ride with strong competent character who can take on the world (worlds?). Pick this up asap, and be ready to hold your breath and be very, very quiet...

​I am voluntarily reviewing an advance, complimentary copy of this book (But I have since then gone out and purchased a signed copy to cherish and give a place of honor to on my bookshelf from my local indie bookstore!).

I was instantly drawn to Pitch Dark after reading the first few lines of the synopsis. Space, hardcore female lead, and zombie like creatures?... I'm IN! The action was non-stop from the first page to the last and I was hooked. Not only was the novel action packed, but it was paced evenly from the beginning to the very end. I always judge a book by how easy it is to put down, and let me tell you... I could not put this book down.
There is nothing I love more than a badass female lead. Laura was that and then some. She was tough, smart, ambitious and showed no fear. She was amazing, but she wasn't the only great character in Pitch Dark. Tuck is just as tough as Laura and he's totally swoon-worthy. Laura and Tuck were such a great team and I loved following their adventures throughout the John Muir.
All in all, Pitch Dark was a exciting and action packed novel. It was unique and incredibly entertaining. I can't wait to see what is next for Laura and Tuck! I would highly recommend this novel to readers who enjoy sci-fi/fantasy novels. Thank you to RockStar Book Tours, NetGalley, CourtneyAlameda, and Feiwel and Friends for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Rating 4/5

I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and a great sci-fi adventure that was pretty light as far as the horror goes. The main characters were great, and both of them were quite capable of taking care of themselves and others. There is also a light romance, which was mostly on the back burner as they were fighting for their lives most of the time.

Laura Cruz was a Latina archeologist in training. She is also a computer hacker and a pretty kick ass fighter. She has a great relationship with her parents and her family as well as a close group of friends. Very devoted to all of them and their well being. But Laura has some issues. She picked poorly when it came to boyfriends, Sebastian is rather nasty and unfortunately part of the crew of her ship. His family is funding her family and they will do anything to get their hands on some earth relics, including controlling and blackmailing Laure. But that doesn’t stop her from trying to get out of their clutches. She will also do anything to protect the John Muir ship that they think is empty of life.

Tuck is also very smart and a talented fighter when he needs to be. He also happens to be from the past, 400 years in stasis. His world is totally different than Laura’s. When he wakes up on the ship he finds that some of his family and crew mates were changed into something not human. He spends the months prior to Laura showing up, trying to survive and get the ship moving again. He is also very tough, but has pretty much closed himself off from his feelings. When he meets Laura, he is not sure what to think of her. I also loved that he was very into 1980’s films and tv show as well as other cultural references. He often used quotes from these shows to express his emotions.

The world that has been built here is very interesting. It seems that a few centuries has not been enough to eradicate bigotry and racism. This was not a huge theme of the book, but it is there. Also, it appears that the earth was so environmentally impacted in the future, that chunks of it were placed inside spaceships and carried off, perhaps to new colonies on other planets? This was not really explained well. I don’t want to spoil the story by telling to much more about the John Muir and what it carried. The monsters though were also interesting. They killed with sound, which was quite scary. I did have a minor issue with them though. Apparently they had been human but when they came out of stasis they were somehow transformed into these monsters, not a storyline that I particularly care for. I would have rather they be alien lifeforms that had somehow taken over the ship. That would have been more believable to me.

There were some other minor issues with the ships and what they carried that made me a little skeptical of the story in the whole, but I still was able to enjoy the story and would recommend it to anyone who likes space adventures with a little light horror and romance thrown in.

I enjoyed Courtney’s other book and I was all over that synopsis, so I was pretty excited to get to it.

I liked Laura and Tuck well enough. They’re both sassy and sarcastic and smart. They had some great banter and I wish they would have been together more in the story. There were some other interesting characters, but I didn’t feel like we got to know much of them.

Plot wise, I was lost for a good portion of the book. All of the ships and space and mechanics confused me and at times it felt like I was missing something I should have known. However, I loved all of the alien action. They were creepy and that entire section of the story was fantastic.

Overall, it was an interesting idea and a quick read with a satisfying ending. There were a lot of things I liked, yet I wasn’t ever captivated. If there’s a sequel, I’ll definitely be reading.

**Huge thanks to Feiwel and Friends for providing the arc free of charge**

Courtney Alameda's debut novel Shutter was one of my favorite horror novels of 2015, so i was super pumped for her sophomore effort. Pitch Dark is a sci-fi horror novel that's essential about Alien Banshees. You can see that Alameda took a lot of influence from the Alien Franchise and I think she did a wonderful job at capturing that sort of claustrophobic tension the first movie had so well. The atmosphere remained tense and well paced, dripping with what is now Alameda's signature grisly writing style. The two main character, Tuck and Laura, were both fine. I enjoyed Laura's narration a lot more then Tuck because she seemed to have more stakes and was more involved with what was happening aboard the John Muir. But, neither were necessarily awful. But this is the sort of book you read for the horror it brings and the tension that seems to drip from every page. Alameda has developed a mastery of atmosphere and I can't wait to see what she does next.

This book had me hooked the first 'chapter' in; it's been the only book to terrify me within the first opening sequence. Tuck wakes up from stasis after 400 years and finds his ship, the John Muir, he been jettisoned to deep space and will likely never be found again. With other ships trying to colonize Mars, we learn about other ships who are raiding lost ships to try to find any surviving life. Laura, a young hacker aboard the Conquistador, finds herself in a lot of trouble when she discovers ANOTHER hacker on board, and not an ethical hacker, a malicious one. Soon, the Conquistador and the John Muir collide, killing many left on board. Laura and Tuck find themselves face to face in the Muir's deepdown tunnels and must work together to try and get power restored or surely everyone will die from lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures.

This isn't all easy work though. There are monsters out there. Mourners, Weepers, and Griefers. Their screams alone can tear your guts apart. The only advantage Tuck and Laura have is that these monsters cannot see, but only hear. Something went wrong with some of the Muir's crew during stasis, morphing them into Alien-esque beasts, covered in goo, tentacles, and becoming some nasty form of space zombies.

Friendships are made, others are broken. Secrets are revealed. It's up to Tuck and Laura to save the rest of humanity.

The timing between events in this book was perfect. I had trouble putting it down because I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next, if they were going to get out of a situation alive. I didn't think a book could scare me and get my anxiety going, but this one did the trick. I liked the modern references (reminder that this takes place long into the future so our modern references are considered retro) and the Galaxy Quest reference especially. Definitely worth the read if you are looking for something exciting that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Thanks NetGalley for the advance review copy of this book!

#NetGalley #PitchDark #CourtneyAlameda

Even the gods have abandoned us out here.

If you follow my reviews, you know I’m a big horror fan, but what you might not already know is what a sucker I am for horror/sci-fi genre-blending and spooky stories set in outer space. Courtney Alameda is known for her horror writing, but she interlaces the terror aspects with the sci-fi, futuristic, technology side stunningly.

We were supposed to wake up saved, or not wake up at all. That was the deal we made with fate.

→ Tuck ←
The narrative of Pitch Dark alternates perspectives between two protagonists – one from the “past”, and one from the “future”. Our first introduction is to our “past” character, Tuck, who has been in cryo-sleep for a few hundred years, only to awaken to a spaceship full of corpses and monstrosities. He’s hopeless, angry, and hurting, but has such a good heart – a quintessential “teddy bear” character, at your service. Unfortunately, despite how lovable he can be, Tuck never felt three-dimensional to me, and his lack of intricate development was a huge drawback.

“The madman with a box?” I ask. “Bad Wolf? We have a lot of running to do?” They both look at me as if I’m the one who’s lost my damn mind. “All righty then. Allons-y.”

→ pop culture references ←
On the other hand, my favorite thing about Tuck was easily his pop culture refs. I make no attempts to hide my usual annoyance with these sorts of things, because they frequently come out forced and unnatural, but Tuck’s are done phenomenally and are so cute. The above-quoted Doctor Who reference was easily my favorite, but most of all, I adored how frustrated he got when people didn’t catch his references! (I relate so much.)

To all the girls who write their own histories, who resist men telling them to “stop,” and save themselves in the end, this one’s for you.

→ Laura ←
Our “future” perspective comes from Laura Cruz. She’s a teen Latinx girl with archaeologists for parents, and she is positively brilliant and fierce. She takes nobody’s mess and is determined to take care of herself at all costs, relying on no one to save her. If you enjoy hard-headed, angry, capable heroines, Laura’s your girl. I appreciated her so much, and my favorite thing about her was the social commentary she was able to provide on the current state of society.

I’d like to say that in the last few centuries, humanity’s grown past these compulsions in a moral sense, that we’ve become better. Nobler. Wiser. But we haven’t.

→ racism ←
As a woman of color, Laura explains that a few centuries haven’t been enough time to rid the entire human race of its bigotry. There’s been so much reproduction between races, it has caused a sort of ethnic mesh in most of society, to the point where fully “white” individuals only keep their white skin by going to great lengths to avoid any biracial reproductivity. Because of how deliberate being a white person in Laura’s world is, most individuals assume that entirely white individuals are simply clinging to Nazi-like ideals of the past. This was a really refreshing take on the idea of a world in white cultural and racial diversity is normalized, but was also a truly interesting theoretical prediction for the future of our world.

“That’s the folly of the human heart. We make macro decisions based on micro motivations.”

→ social commentaries ←
Besides the discussion of racism, there’s a lot of observation of how we treat the planet, as we are informed that the reason humans left Earth in Tuck’s time was to escape the mess they’d made of it and the fact that the planet had been utterly drained of resources. Even the creatures on Tuck’s ship are explained to have been created not by some zombie virus or magical mutation, but by the after-effects in breathing and drinking in too much pollution from the Earth era.

They’re not aliens or zombies, just our own mistake.

→ fear factor ←
I know a lot of my followers are hesitant to pick up horror stories, so I wanted to go ahead and let you guys who aren’t horror fans know that, in my opinion, this is an extremely approachable read for individuals who don’t typically enjoy horror. It’s so heavy on the sci-fi aspect that it doesn’t read like your usual horror story, but there are some gruesome descriptions of mutated creatures, so if your stomach is easily unsettled, you may want to proceed with caution.

This book is inspired by the Aliens film franchise, and I would say that it felt very similar to those in terms of the level of horror and “grossness” achieved. If you enjoy those films, I think you would enjoy this story, too. This would be a good time to warn you that there is a scene in this book that comes with major warnings for trypophobia. As someone who has a mild case of trypophobia, the description in that scene was really nauseating and I had to skim past it, but it does give you a bit of warning before it goes into detail.

I wonder what I’d do with such a lonely boy, one who carries a broken heart in his chest and pretends it beats the same as everyone else’s.

→ romance ←
Finally, I want to touch on the only other thing that didn’t catch my eye much in Pitch Dark: the blossoming relationship between Tuck and Laura. You see it coming a mile away, but towards the end, I felt like it became oddly forced. They were a great pair for each other and the chemistry was there from the start, so I thought it’d be a home run, but at the end, I almost felt like, “Wait, that’s all?” I don’t want to give any sorts of spoilers, but I’ll just say that the romance was the main reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5.

All quotes are taken from an ARC and may not match the final product. Thank you so much to Feiwel & Friends for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The preview of this novel was so enticing. I was looking forward to a nice and dark horror/thriller in space, with futuristic surroundings and lots of action. And I got that. Kinda.
Pitch dark starts with Tuck coming out of hyper sleep, 400 years in the future. There is a great sense of foreboding and a nice side note of humor that evens it out. Laura’s character starts in a high tech scenario that brings out her savviness and cultural heritage. Both characters develop throughout the story and are interesting together and on their own. They have a wonderful banter when they have dialogue and are equally fun to follow around on their own.
Alameda spent a lot of time focusing on Laura’s culture and Tuck’s “history” knowledge. These were both aspects I felt helped and drew back from the book. Laura’s Hispanic heritage was a great addition, but went over the top at times to try and force it in. At one point towards the beginning, Laura had a small rant about the world of the future that gave her character a little bit of a holier-than-thou attitude that was hard to shake. I did enjoy her sassiness and the sense of family bond that she brought. Tuck’s humor was a little more easy-going and read easier as a result. His cultural references (old movies, quotes) were humorous, but could be lost on a teen audience of today.
The setting itself is a little lacking. Tucks ship is so immense that it is hard to imagine. Having full mountains in a ship? How would they even get in there? It seems highly farfetched for even 400 years in the future, much less the 80 when it was constructed. As a result, I could never fully immerse myself in the ships, I only saw snippets that were still distorted and continually shrinking.
The horror/thriller factor was also lost to me. It was much more action than horror. There were some great action scenes, yet the “monsters” were also quite fuzzy to me. Alameda had some great descriptions, but these creatures seemed to always be different and ended up just becoming a kind of oozing creature in my head at the end. They did not have a scary factor to them, and I wished that there had been more of an explanation as to how they were formed (why do there seem to be different species?) or if they could be healed (these were humans not that long ago, right?).
As I made it to the end I felt that I had enjoyed the book, while disliking it at the same time. I had gotten a lot of what I did not expect, but missed out on the reasons I had wanted to read the book. I feel that this needs a little more fine tuning to make it a great read. I cared about the characters and where they were heading I just wish that there had been more thrills along the way. I plan to try this out with some of my SciFi teens to see what their perspectives are since I can’t quite make up my mind.