This was creepy in the best way possible. An even darker Black Swan, if you will. It was wonderfully written, intense, and suspenseful and I liked it so much.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells the story of Marianne. She's given up a potential career in dance, her parents are getting divorced. She is basically having a terrible year. Her best friend has moved away, so she is kind of left to deal with everything on her own. She starts dealing with mysterious things occurring around her- time missing, visions of water, things moving around on their own. She befriends the local "misfit" who has a mother that deals with things of the paranormal nature, and she tries to help her. Ron and Marianne go on a journey together to try and figure out what exactly is happening with Marianne, and what is "following her". Overall I enjoyed the book- I found the ending to be unique in a sense, but I can't say I was completely satisfied with how they decided to end the story. I think it was an interesting read with lots of character development, I would definitely read more from this author in the future.

I love books like The Dark Beneath the Ice because if this was a movie, which would be an absolutely terrifying idea, I wouldn't be able to watch it. Seriously. This is just the kind of movie that would totally keep me awake for nights to come. But as a book, I was able to enjoy the thrills, the terror, and the eerieness. And The Dark Beneath the Ice delivers majorly. All while also delivering me an adorable f/f romance that had me making cute noises admist my terror. AND a story about family, with its problems, secrets, and trying moments.

There are so many reasons why me, my scaredy cat heart, really enjoyed The Dark Beneath the Ice:

The sapphic side plot was adorable. Like a freaking adorable. I don't like my terror with no brief glimpses of light, or sweeteness. So this was the perfect addition to this chilling story.
The chills, the eerieness, all of it. This was just my kind of supernatural fear that I am here for. And I am a terrible wimp. And this book still wrung four stars out of my terrified heart.
Water is almost a character of its own. Not only are there gorgeous water metaphors, but the water almost becomes its own entity. Delightfully dark.

When I read the synopsis for this novel, I was all in. When I really got into it, I was not feeling it. I had heard it was a dark and scary novel with hints of Paranormal Activity and I was really excited to get into the Halloween and fall spirit, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. It really wasn't that scary and I honestly had a hard time getting engaged.

I don't think there was really any one thing wrong with the novel. I think possibly my expectations were just a little too high and I became bored with the story. This novel has pretty decent reviews on Goodreads so I would still recommend checking it out if the synopsis interests you. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 2/5

Thank you to netgalley I received this as an ARC. I enjoyed it very much.

I was very excited when I seen this was on NetGalley and could not wait until I got my hands on it.

This was a quick read and I was very intrigued by the world. It had its dark moments.

It gave this a strong 4.5 stars.

Former ballet dancer, Marianne, is struggling after her parents’ divorce. She loses chunks of time, things around her spontaneously break and she dreams of drowning. When she meets Rhiannon, a new student whose mother is a psychic, she reaches out for help in communicating with the dark entity that is stalking her. As her psychological turmoil increases, Marianne’s feelings for Rhiannon blossom into something more than friendship.

This book was far creepier than I was expecting it to be. Just wow.

Marianne's life is drastically changing due to her parents. This life change starts making strange things happen, first Marianne starts losing things, and then she starts losing pieces of her memory as well. The more time goes on the more things start getting strange and the less she remembers about certain situations. She doesn't start putting things together until her mom leaves her with her aunt while she goes and checks herself into the hospital. With this happening Marianne is now convinced that she is the problem and that she is the one going crazy as she is having more and more trouble focusing on school and finals. With a little help from her new friend Ron though she is able to start figuring out what is happening and it appears to not be human.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I needed to know what was going to happen next and what in the world was happening to Marianne. I loved how her new friend Ron stuck by her side through most of it, and helped her figure things out the more scary things got for Marianne. Another thing I liked was how even though Marianne's parents were going through things they still made sure she was okay, and they tried to work together through the aunt to make sure that she stayed safe with all of this strange things happening.

One thing that I found really frustrating was the exam portion of this book, I know it was a little thing, but for some reason the fact that she was still taking them even though all this other stuff was going on and we never saw her studying bothered me for some reason. Another thing that bothered me was how clueless the aunt seemed to be about certain things that were happening in her own house. Like really, come on now, we all know you're smarter than this you've lived alone for years you know certain things don't just happen.

Dark Beneath The Ice kept me on my toes throughout the book with the need to know what happened next, and I can't wait to read Berube's next book!

The writing was beautiful and atmospheric, totally drawing me in. I found the ending pretty confusing, though. Will recommend to teens who want a creepy read!

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
I’m not a big reader of paranormal stories but the cover and the blurb for this book caught my attention, so I decided to give it a shot. The story takes a few chapters to get going as we learn about Marianne, her parents’ separation, and her life. Once the setup is established, it was easy reading and I started having different ideas as to what was actually going on and what was haunting Marianne, if anything. Eventually I realised all my theorising was getting me nowhere so I stopped and just enjoyed the ride.

The author does a really good job setting the atmosphere. There is an eeriness and a literal darkness surrounding this story. Marianne’s world has an absence of light. Looking back, even those scenes set in the daytime appear grey in my mind. As the story progresses and the disturbances in Marianne’s life become more pronounced and more violent, I was really getting tense and the big finale had me on edge, right up until the big reveal. Because really that was it? What a letdown. I get what the author is saying but I was disappointed, probably because I was hoping for a big surprise, something I hadn’t considered and in the end, the answer was the obvious one.

The Dark Beneath the Ice is an engaging story and the mood and atmosphere are still with me several days after finishing the book, which is a sure sign it made an impact. 4 stars.

Young adult age recommendation: 13 and up.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the ARC of this title, which I absolutely adored!

Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity is a perfect and concise way to explain this, but there is much, much more going on here. This book tackles the big questions: who am I and what if I don't bend to the will of those who are my family? What if I'm too much, or not the 'bunny' they wish me to be?

There are questions of identity, issues with parental and teen mental health, the lack of listening adults, sexuality and relationships, and the paranormal. As in, could deep seated misunderstanding physically manifest itself into what once would be called ghosts.

It's scary and fun and thought provoking. A really great read that I keep thinking about and telling people of all ages about. You just don't get these big questions in most of the adult books.

The synopsis was well-pitched enough that I wanted — scratch that — needed to read that book. But the reality is else: while it is spooky, I’ve been asking myself what was wrong with Marianne, caring about what happened to her. It made me think of Stranger Things and the Upside Down, an alternative universe creepy as hell. But that’s about it. The story has its lengths, it didn’t really captivated me by wanting to devour it. I’m sad, I wanted to love that book...

I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A major strength of The Dark Beneath the Ice is the language Bérubé uses as she describes the horrors that Marianne is experiencing. She describes the world she's created through lyrical prose.I love the exploration of Marianne's relationship with Rhiannon, or “Ron”, an outcast at school. Their interactions and the development of their relationship is definitely one of the highlights of the book.This book is beautifully written and very fast-paced, but it doesn’t spend enough time developing the characters.

When I first saw the cover for this book I thought it was gorgeous and I instantly had to know more about the book. It started out a little rough. For the first couple chapters I didn't really know where the story was headed but I was quickly captivated by Marianne's story and had to know more. Very impressive for a debut author. The paranormal elements were outstanding and I definitely couldn't have predicted the ending. It was a perfect blend of young adult contemporary and horror. I would highly recommend adding this to your fall season reads!

Marianne is a Junior in a small rainy town in Canada where things seem to perpetually go wrong for her. Her best friend Ingrid moved to San Francisco and her mom and dad are splitting up- leaving her to live with her Aunt Jen by the Ottawa River. The worst part is things keep happening and she doesn't remember them happening, only the aftermath. Her dreams are cold and full of darkness but she doesn't feel like she can talk to anyone which leaves her more secluded than ever.

"Dread rises up around me, colder than fog, nagging at me. Trying to remind me of something I don't want to remember. Something awful and familiar."

As things with her parents escalate, so does the supernatural activity in her life. She turns to a girl named Ron at school for help not realizing everything is about to get so much worse.

Thank you to Sourcefire Books, Amelinda Bérubé, and NetGalley for an ecopy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Quotes were taken from an unfinished galley and may differ from the published edition.

Paranormal Activity clashes with Black Swan.
Honestly kept me on my toes and left me feeling spooked.
Was an amazing read until the end where it felt a bit meh.
But if you’re into a YA thriller this is definitely for you!!

‘THE DARK BENEATH THE ICE’ BY AMELINDA BERUBE IS PARANORMAL ACTIVITY & BLACK SWAN’S QUEER LOVE CHILD

The title of this review is 100% true; no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The Dark Beneath the Ice by Amelinda Berube is Black Swan & Paranormal Activity’s Queer Love Child.

Let me explain.

The Dark Beneath the Ice is a contemporary horror story about a teenage girl named Marianne. She’s smack dab in the middle of her parents divorce, the unraveling of her mother, and a paranormal possession that is slowly tearing her apart. Marianne is quiet, invisible to her peers, and is content with cruising through life burying every single feeling that comes her way.

Her “cruising” ways are put the test when she arrives at her aunt’s home and starts to note the weird things that are going on around her. She doesn’t remember throwing a figurine and smashing her rooms mirror. She doesn’t remember silently staring at her teacher while snapping every single piece of chalk at the front of the classroom. She even doesn’t remember making phone calls and having conversations.

Shit gets spooky.
It doesn’t take Marianne and the reader long to see the connections with something like Paranormal Activity. There’s something dark and twisted haunting her that wants to destroy/take over Marianne at whatever cost. This entity will hurt Marianne, hurt those she cares about, and slowly break her down until Marianne feels like she can’t fight anymore, just like in Paranormal Activity.

The similarities to Black Swan ground this book in a way that Paranormal Activity never could while giving it a twist of dealing with mental health issues. Like Black Swan’s main character, Marianne was into ballet. She was gifted, to say the least. Then something snapped in her, something changed, and she gave it all up in one fell swoop. And ever since that moment she’s felt torn and like she can’t touch the world anymore. Like she’s disconnected.

Marianne going to therapy and starting medication makes you wonder if the reality of her situation is that she’s mentally ill. That right there makes you second guess and read over every single thing that you knew about the entity that is haunting her. It also grounds the story in a manner that I’ve never seen before when it comes to horror stories such as this one.

You never see the victim actually seek out help in possessions/supernatural occurrences like this. It’s always, “There’s a ghost! Let’s call the church or those people from The Conjuring!” Or they ignore it, foolishly thinking that it’ll go away with time. Marianne going to get help, attending therapy, and taking her medicine made me question the state of her mind but also made me become more patient with the development of her story. It made me respect her and want to really figure out what was going on with her.

And then there’s the queer love child of all of this that I included in the title.
I didn’t know that this book had queer characters. I went in thinking I was just going to have a good time getting my socks scared out of me. The queer snuck up on me. Seriously, I was minding my business, engrossed in everything that was happening to Marianne, and then she met Ron.

Rhiannon was this emo badass outcast of the school who despite her appearance doesn’t fall into the stereotypes that go along with women like her. She stuck her neck out for Marianne, got to know her, and helped Marianne uncover what was happening to her. And when the queer started happening….YOU BEST BELIEVE I READ IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO CONFIRM THE GAY!

The heteronormative gaze sometimes means that people will write things while looking through a straight lens without realizing what they’re writing is hella gay. This wasn’t the instance here. Marianne and Ron are hell queer/gay for each other and it’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! There’s hand holding, people! And not just, “Oh she took my hand.” I’m talking Marianne was trying to remember every single point where their hands touched and the warmth of Ron’s hand.

The Dark Beneath the Ice gave me a queer romance that stuck to their guns and treated it like any other romance I’ve ever read. Marianne and Ron stood up for each other, supported each other, and grew as people next to each other. They were funny, sweet, and honest, even when it was hard to do so. It became the focal part of the story, for me at least, without drowning out Marianne’s journey or Ron’s development.

Crazy supernatural shit aside, their friendship, their romance, made me feel less alone when it comes to my mental health issues.
The Dark Beneath the Ice made me realize that there are people in my life that are my ride or dies no matter what’s going on in my mind. It gave me perspective on who I am, what I try to hide about myself, and the ways that I cut myself off from the world just so I can cruise through it without bringing attention to myself. That right there is what sets The Dark Beneath the Ice apart and why you should give it a chance yourself.

The story itself is good but I felt a bit disconnected with it and somehow confused at some parts but I still give it 3 stars

I was so unprepared for how much I ended up enjoying this haunting story! Halfway through this book, I realized that I have been waiting to read a spooky horror story for far too long this year and this book definitely earned the creepy vibes.

The Dark Beneath the Ice is about a teenager named Marianne who is dealing with a lot in her family life right now. Her parents have just split up and her mom is not handling it well at all. Marianne is struggling to hold everything together when she begins to realize that something strange is happening to her. She keeps losing time or blacking out into a dreamlike state only to come to and realize that items have broken around her, or she herself has done something she would never do. Something is following her. Something dark, angry and hungry for her life.

The creepy scenes in this book are so chilling and brought me straight to the same feelings I have when watching a horror movie unfold. The way the author unfolded the supernatural elements of Marianne’s story and the horror that follows her, left me thinking about this book whenever I would put it down. It ended up being so compulsively readable for me that I put aside every other book I was reading at the time to finish it (which isn’t something that I do often).

But it is not just reading the chilling scenes that make this story, it’s also the compelling way that the author reveals parts of Marianne’s character and her relationships with others. I can say for myself, I’ve certainly felt some of the pressures Marianne felt in high school and with family, she is the type of character who carries too much of the burden of others on her own shoulders. And ultimately, it wears her down. Not to mention that on top of that, she’s being haunted.

I also absolutely loved the character of Rhiannon and the relationship that developed between her and Marianne. I have to say I was super excited when I realized that the story was leading them towards being more than friends! The things that we learn about each of these characters and how they dealt with their feelings amongst their peers are poignant and really made me fall for these two even more.

I gave this book five stars because I could not put it down, it was chilling and spooky and so many of my favorite things. But also because I was thoroughly impressed with how the author managed to convey a great message through a horror novel. I will definitely be buying a hardcopy of this for myself and I cannot wait until her next spooky tale comes out!

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to review this book!

I absolutely loved this! It’s so hard for a lot of authors to bring fear and the paranormal. Success! I loved it! Thank you for allowing me to review this! Can’t wait to read more.

This book is a wreck. The write up was strong, but I had no idea it was going to fall apart and going to go mixed up and confusing homosexual. The main character decided she was possessed and it went from there. The ending fell apart. It was like a lot of drama and then a long slow fizzle. I'm sorry, but this book disappointed me on every level.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own, left of my own free will.

I love debut novels. I like to think of an author’s first book as a blind date. You’re all excited and a little nervous to get there because you’re unsure of what to expect but then you see your date and start thinking that it could have promise and you’re really happy that you wore that dress everyone says you look smoking hot in. As the night goes on, you might decide that there just isn’t enough chemistry to keep you interested so you part ways respectfully knowing that you won’t see each other again but you’re happy you gave it chance. You also might realize half way through that this guy is just an idiot who is going to stiff you with the cheque so you duck out the back door while he isn’t looking so you don’t have to deal with him again. There is also the possibility that your date goes quite well and, even though you aren’t really sure about it just yet, you see a lot of potential, are more than happy to exchange numbers and look forward to seeing what that second date has in store. The Dark Beneath the Ice is definitely getting my number.

What stood out the most to me while I was reading this book was the amazing imagery used. It was brilliant! I don’t know a single teenage girl, or any woman for that matter, that doesn’t feel like they are drowning at times and portrayal of the water and the ice speaks so powerfully of where Marianne is both mentally and emotionally and there were so many times that I could almost feel her terror with her. Such an amazing way to display those feelings. I also thought that it was important to focus on the mental illness factors that plagued, not only Marianne, but her mother as well.

Unfortunately, that is pretty much where my enjoyment of this book ended. I do enjoy a good Young Adult book from time to time and I am a big reader of the paranormal but I felt that this particular coupling lacked the finesse I was hoping for. The parts of the book that focused on Marianne’s haunting were psychologically terrifying but they came across in a very awkward manner. The same goes for pretty much anywhere Ron, her mother or Marianne’s father came onto the scene. The flow just wasn’t there and it seemed like the first half of the book dragged a fair amount and then just exploded to a rushed ending.

I also didn’t find I had any real connection to any of the characters. I wanted to like Ron and towards the end I started to get a feel for her character but it was too little, too late for me. Marianne’s family just annoyed me and don’t even get me started on Ron’s mother!

I do want to point out that I was incredibly impressed about the Esther Cox mention. Although it didn’t mention her name specifically and you probably wouldn’t notice this wonderful piece of Nova Scotian paranormal history unless you actually knew the story, I got a little too excited to see it in this book. The Great Amherst Mystery is a huge part of my hometown’s history so it’s a story I grew up with and I would highly recommend reading up on this terrifying tale. Massive love to the author for adding in this detail!

I think this is the kind of book that would be more enjoyed by its target audience than by an adult that loves YA from time to time. Most of all, though, I think that this book really shows the potential the author for more books and I will look forward to the second date!