My initial thoughts when seeing this blurb was "Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity? Don't mind if I do!" Despite being a paranormal skeptic, I cannot get enough of ghost stories; however, The Dark Beneath the Ice missed the mark for me. Drawn in by the premise of missing time and paranormal activity, these elements are very much there but to me that wasn't the main focus of the story. It is as much of a family drama about the breakdown of a family and the struggles of divorce on a family as it is a supernatural story.
The silence still clings to me. If I close my eyes it's there waiting for me, filling my mouth, heavy as water. Ready to swallow me again.
The opening lines captivated me straight away, and it is clear that Bérubé is a talented writer who has a poetic way with words. Unfortunately the initial hook of the book loosened its grip on me and I found the prose almost distracting at times. I found the narrative stilted in a way and slow to get started, full of a lot of back history that I honestly didn't care about.

There is something about the writing style that didn't work for me that I am not able to put my finger on. Typically I love a first-person narrative in thrillers/paranormal books, but it just didn't work for me here. Perhaps because of the family drama? Or the fact that the spooky bits I was looking forward to didn't really get started until much later in the book? I think the blurb had me expecting more of a psychological thriller than a family drama with spooky elements. The ending left me a bit unfulfilled, but I did appreciate the LGBT+ rep present in this book.

This book just wasn't for me but I think that those who enjoy family centered drama with supernatural elements could enjoy this book.

Electronic ARC provided by Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The is definitely a creepy book. I could not read it a night, it was that creepy.

However, the characters felt flat, the paranormal activity never seemed to make sense and the ending left me with so many questions.

I can see why others would give it a high rating. It is exciting and creepy from beginning to end, but to me it just felt like it was missing something.

*slow clap* wow. This book is amazing. At first, I had no idea what was going on. But as the book progressed, I was taken along on a roller-coaster of fear and terror with the main character. Was she being haunted, was she crazy? I just wasn't sure! I definitely did not see that ending coming at all!! That was 100% a surprise twist I did not see coming! 5 stars and 2 very enthusiastic thumbs up!

The ending is a touch too neat for me to give this a perfect review, particularly where horror is concerned. (I'm a tough grader in that regard.) However, if you pick up this book for some remarkably strong chills, atmosphere so thick it can dampen even a beautiful sunny reading day, a sweet romantic subplot that doesn't detract from the rest of the story, and a protagonist who is far stronger—and angrier—than she knows, I can't imagine you'll be disappointed. Marianne's a character whose inner life is every bit as interesting as the ghost story that her outer life turns into, and Amelinda Bérubé is a frighteningly good new voice in YA. One of the best YA horror novels I've read in... well, ever.

3 1/2 stars. I read this so quickly what the fuck. I was literally at dinner with my eyes popping out of my skull and my parents, presumably, were feeling completely disappointed in everything about my being.

The Dark Beneath the Ice is blurbed as Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity, and honestly, I think that’s about accurate. This a completely-impossible-to-put-down YA thriller about the day being saved by a combination of self care and lesbian love.

Okay, main promo for this book: it’s really scary. Writing truly horrifying scenes takes a a lot of talent, and this book did a wonderful job at scaring me shitless. The paranormal aspects are brilliantly frightening and written with just enough restraint that it’s hard not to feel deeply, deeply scared. Tension builds up slowly and perfectly.

One of my favorite horror movie conflicts is the man vs. self conflict - when we see a character struggling with their inner demons above all else. Here, I adored the main character, Marianne. her arc around self-hatred is very compelling and intriguing. Though the divorced parents storyline at first came off a bit cliche, her complex and somewhat-codependent relationship with her mother soon adds a super intriguing angle to The Dark Beneath the Ice’s paranormal elements.

And I really loved the way the romance was written! It’s sapphic, and though it’s not a huge element of the book, it has a good slow burn - it’s hard not to get invested in the relatively slow build. Marianne and Rhiannon [who both have weirdly long names] make for a really sweet couple in a book that is otherwise pretty damn dark.

DNF @ 43%
Sadly, I gave up on this book. The premise has a really cool idea with the losing of time and paranormal plotline. But the main plot line in all of the blurbs doesn't even start until like 35% into the book which is way too late. I can tell that the writing style was jarring on purpose to show how the main character blacked out and got confused a lot. But while I can see the reason why this book was written that way, I didn't like it. The random imagery was very confusing and never scary. I never felt any suspense except a tiny bit during two quick scenes and then I was bored again. I also thought the main girl was one of the most blandest characters I've read from. Her mother was way more interesting than her with all the stuff she was going through. Everything just felt too flat and simple for this character's POV to even get me to care. I also hoped to get more of the dancing stuff but with reading almost half of it, it was barely mentioned so the blurb of it being "Black Swan meets Paranomal Activity" doesn't feel true. I wanted to like this, but after a huge chunk of nothing happening, I didn't care to find out what happened.
A link to my blog post will be provided when the post is up on Thursday July 19th.

This book was a pretty good paranormal YA thriller, but I didn't love it. It was fast paced, but I didn't connect with the characters very much.

Not for me. I'm a hit or miss with YA books and although the premise (Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity) thoroughly intrigued me, I felt the writing was a bit stilted, the story line convoluted, and the ending just "meh." I really felt like the writing was almost trying too hard to be literary. It just was not my cup of tea and unfortunately I did not enjoy it.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an E-ARC of this book to review via Netgalley.  

Marianne's life hasn't quite been going to plan.  She quit dancing after succumbing to the pressure of not being good enough, her parents are getting a divorce and her mother has been hospitalised.  Sent to live with her aunt until things calm down, strange things start to happen around her.  She has tried to stay invisible at school, but when one too many odd occurrences happen, she seeks out the outcast of a girl who's mother is a psychic.  Ron turns out to be just the type of friend Marianne needs, but when they decide to try and confront the entity head on, things go from bad to worse.  This mysterious entity wants something Marianne stole from it, but Marianne's sure she doesn't know what it is.  As the paranormal activity gets more and more violent, Ron and Marianne need to find out what is going on before it takes over Marianne's life.

This book was scary.  I don't usually read scary books, especially paranormal type scary (axe murders and human killer books are fine though, go figure) but this one just sounded too interesting to pass up!  I was hooked right from the beginning.  It was so disconcerting that both Marianne and her mother didn't know if they could trust themselves, and everyone keeping their own secrets caused people to jump to the wrong conclusions all the time.  I find psychological horror to be the most frightening subject to read in books.  Having nowhere to turn for help, due to the thought that no-one will believe you and admitting anything that's going on could just earn you a one way trip to hospital is just terrifying.  I really enjoyed this book, but I kind of wanted the ending to be different somehow.  I wanted the explanation to be, well it's impossible to say without spoilers, but just something more I guess.  

Overall though, I was thoroughly frightened and it took me longer than normal to read because I gave up reading it at night (so I could sleep with the lights off). :D

The Dark Beneath the Ice is a wonderfully scary novel about a girl who is being followed by some entity that wants to take over her life. The majority of the story definitely had Paranormal Activity vibes and I was honestly so scared reading this book, and I loved that about it. It was genuinely scary and I felt like it was incredibly interesting to read from the perspective of someone who was possessed and dealing with her moments of memory loss and confusion. All of this was really well handled in my opinion and left me wondering right along with the main character what was really going on. I will say that the ending fell a little flat for me. There wasn't enough of an explanation and what we did get, wasn't as satisfying as I wanted it to be. That being said, still really enjoyable to read and perfect if you are in the mood for something creepy and scary.

4 stars

I was really surprised by this one!

I don’t know what I was really expecting, but mystery thrillers still aren’t my favorite genre because they just feel a little drab sometimes.

But this was very much Not Drab™.

The first big plus was how atmospheric it was. I just loved reading the chilly spookiness of the “ghost’s” doings–the blanks in Marianne’s memory where she unexpectedly does something out of character, the spooky voice, and the paranormal occurrences.

It all felt very chilly and haunting, but not enough to scare me away, just enough to put me on edge (which I very much appreciated). I was intrigued by the paranormal activity and wanted to find out why and how and the omg askdjfl.

The cover really does a good job of demonstrating the atmosphere, and if that looks like something you’d like, totally check this one out!

Plus, the “ghost” went from spooky to straight-out creepy, and I loved its progression and how it played tricks on Marianne. This book really makes you question the narrator and wonder if Marianne is accurate about what she’s telling you, or not.

It was definitely cool to see this, because we don’t get very many unreliable narrators in YA.

But, the next thing that was just wonderful was THERE’S A GIRLxGIRL ROMANCE IN THIS BUT NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT??? Hello? Marianne literally falls for another girl, and I have no idea why nobody is talking about this and lauding it as the Next Sapphic Big Thing™? So yeah, now you know.

The romance is honestly super low key (probably why it’s not the Next Sapphic Big Thing™) and very much not the focus of the story, but I found it to be a lovely side plot. I totally ship it.

Plus, the subtext of Marianne’s own personal struggles and how it mimicked the “ghost’s” actions was so on point. Like, the red slipper metaphor that showed up throughout the book was really nice to read about, and I enjoyed the meaning behind it. And just the intensity throughout really grew in a way that I enjoyed. The way the pacing moved did a great job of keeping me entertained.

So, if I loved so many things about it, why is it a 4 star?

I honestly don’t know. As much as I was entertained reading it–I totally devoured it in a couple hours–it just didn’t completely click with me. Maybe it’s still the genre that’s holding me back, but I wasn’t 100% obsessed with it. Sometimes I feel like it could have been tweaked a bit to be better.

Also, I wish that Marianne’s past was a bit clearer. Some of the background of what happened that led her to her aunt’s house was a bit unclear for me, and I wanted more solid of a basis for the background.

Overall, I still really loved reading and it was such a good get-out-of-your-skin sort of experience that was deliciously ghostly and spooky! I definitely recommend it if you feel like this spooky, Black Swan x Paranormal Activity pitch sounds like something you’d like! And if you’re scared it’s too horror for you, don’t be! Chilly, but not intended to make you run away screaming.

" The Dark Beneath the Ice" is the debut novel by Author Amelinda Berube. I did not know what to expect when I began to read this book but what I found was a dark yet beautiful tale. Amelinda has quite a way with words! The pacing was good albeit a bit fast at times. I think some of the characters could have been a little more developed than they were, specifically Marianne. I won't' give away any of the storyline or events that happen as to not spoil anything.

I think where it fell short was the tag line that it was Black Swan meets Paranormal activity. It is entirely in its own lane and that is perfectly ok. I love horror and creepy. I love books and movies that make me afraid to close my eyes at night. This book definitely made the hair on the back of my neck stand up a few times. I loved the LGBT representation!

*** I received this book from the Publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review ***

**Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

**2.5 stars**

I wanted to love this book. I really really did. The Dark Beneath the Ice promised everything I wanted in a YA supernatural horror/thriller book; it just didn't deliver in my opinion. The story and the characters fell flat.

Originally, I started this book a month ago. I put it on pause because I thought I simply wasn't in the mood for this type of book, but in reality, it was just this book. The Dark Beneath the Ice just didn't work for me. It may work for you, and I hope it does. The premise of the book is great.

Where it went wrong for me:

1. Marianne is a bland narrator/main character. She is so dull. I was bored a lot of the time (I skipped several pages at a time)
2. The other characters weren't that great either. Ron was the only interesting character, but even she couldn't save this reading experience for me.
3. The pacing was a bit slow. It took a while for me to feel the teensiest bit engaged (roughly around 70%)
4. The family dynamic between her and her parents was very weird and confusing. I was hoping by the end of the book I would be able to understand more, but there were still some holes left.
5. Things wrapped up in a weird way. You're left wondering how much was supernatural related, how much was simply all in Marianne's head, and how and why it all started. I don't know, the ending just didn't sit right with me. It felt rushed and I didn't feel any sense of closure from it.

I'm going to stop my review here. I hate writing negative reviews. I hope some people still decide to give this book a chance. I'm sure this story will work and satisfy tons of people. The writing and the characters simply didn't work for me.

This was such an emotional whirlwind! It was the "Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity" descriptor that hooked me, but it was the Babadook-esque happenings that kept me enthralled. This was a wild read that I sped through in less than 24 hours. Loses a star because after ratcheting up the tension and the scares for the first 3/4 of the book, I found the ending to be a bit of a let-down. Everything seemed to resolve too easily/neatly after all the emotional upheaval the characters went through for the majority of the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy - I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for Amelinda Bérubé's future projects.

The Dark Beneath the ice, what can i say...This book grabbed me from the very beginning and kept me reading until the very end. It had just the right amount of creep factor that put me on edge and made me not want to look in a mirror for a couple days. I was disappointed about the ending though and there were some holes in the story and I would have liked a bit more backstory into Marianne's life but otherwise I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good mystery with a touch of creepiness.

The Dark Beneath the Ice was my favorite kind of paranormal story. I love realistic settings and characters that have unusual experiences. In this case, the plot revolves around high schooler Marianne. During a turbulent time in her life, unexplained events start to make her worry about her sanity. It was a deliciously creepy read!

There were a few reasons I didn't give this more than 3 stars. First, it was really heavy on dialogue (both internal and between characters). I get bored easily with reading conversations. Also, the repetitive mentions of water/ice/cold became super tedious. I understand the necessity of providing a bit of context, but it was overkill. It also seemed like "swimming" would have been a more relevant fit to the story instead of dance.

This will appeal to teens who want stories with -- what do they call it now -- diversity? The main character struggles with her sexual identification, and it plays a significant role in her emotional baggage. It actually fit well with the plot, and added an interesting layer to the side characters.

This review will appear on www.powerlibrarian.wordpress.com on Tuesday, July 3.

Marianne's life is falling apart. It isn't because her parents are getting divorced, because her mother had a psychotic break, or even because her best friend moved away. It's because strange and terrifying things keep happening whenever she's around. Light bulbs burst. Mirrors crack. Furniture moves. Convinced she's possessed, Marianne tries to communicate with the demon inside of her. This turns out to be a horrible mistake...

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.  The frequent use of water and ice imagery—which ties back to the title perfectly--is haunting, yet beautiful.

I do have a few criticisms of the story.  The paranormal events escalate too quickly. This novel is marketed as “Paranormal Activity” meets “Black Swan”, but in both of these movies, the mysterious occurrences are subtle at the beginning. So subtle you could almost miss them, and you could easily explain them away as being caused by something based in this reality.  My major issue with this book is that Marianne always suspects she’s possessed.  She does question her sanity for a brief moment at the beginning, but the reader cannot experience this uncertainty with her, because of how quickly the events escalate. In one of the first chapters, Marianne walks down the street and the streetlights blow out.  Immediately the reader is tuned into the fact that this can't be a figment of her imagination and that there is definitely something paranormal going on.  The movie "Black Swan" is beautiful in its simplicity.  Natalie Portman’s character might just be going mad. I wanted Bérubé to explore this possibility, if only for the first portion of the book. Instead, we discover right away that it can’t just be in her head.  Something supernatural is definitely taking over Marianne.

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.  Marianne has recently lost her best friend, who moved out of the country.  Ron fits perfectly into this gaping hole in her life, and whenever they interact, we get to see parts of Marianne that we wouldn't otherwise.  It isn't quite insta-love, but it's a touch of sweetness in an otherwise dark story line.

For a book about possession, I expected the main character to have more introspection. She’s going through a lot. Her parents are getting divorced, her best friend moved away, her mother just might be insane.  Yet she doesn’t ruminate over it, and while this could be a defense mechanism, she doesn’t even think about not thinking about it. There are some flashbacks in the story, but not enough to fill in the blanks of her past. Whether this is intentional or not is beside the point—if she was intentionally ignoring the pains of her past—then she should have thought about it occasionally to let the reader know why she doesn’t like remembering.

Marianne’s relationship with her mother is fascinating. It’s clearly an unhealthy relationship, which unfortunately doesn’t get explored much, as Marianne spends the majority of the book living with her Aunt Jennifer.  Unhealthy family relationships are often at the centre of a good horror story, with the supernatural plot line mirroring or accentuating distorted relationships and emotions.

This book is beautifully written and very fast-paced, but it doesn’t spend enough time developing the characters. I felt like I understood the love interest, Rhiannon, better than I understood the main character.  I wanted to see more growth and revelations about Marianne’s motivations, fears, and desires as the story unfolded, but unfortunately the plot didn’t turn this way.

The Dark Beneath the Ice is a deliciously atmospheric read set in Ottawa (hometown represent!).  I recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a light supernatural horror that puts an emphasis on setting, but if you’re looking for a darker take on psychological issues, psychological abuse in family relationships, or other themes that are often explored in possession or haunting books, you might be better off picking up a different book.

e-arc via netgalley

content warnings: horror, obviously, anxiety, discussions of hallucination

oh wow, okay. this book. the star of this book is marianne. not the horror plot, not the romance, not the ghost in the story. it is marianne, her character development, and how she interacts with the world around her. the horror is interesting and feels like a subtle commentary to so many different in the world around us, but if you're looking for a horror novel that is akin to a horror movie that will keep you up at nights and give you nightmares, then maybe this book isn't for you. that being said, it WAS undeniably creepy, and honestly, if you put yourself in marianne's shoes.....yeah. you wouldn't want to be experiencing what she did.

i know this is pitched as black swan meets paranormal activity, and i'm not sure how i feel about that. yes, there are elements of dance and psychological horrors, and yes, there is a ghost 'villain', but i'm not entire sure if the comp works perfectly. i feel like this is a story that stands on its own without the comp, which i mean, is a good thing. but if you're a hardcore fan of either of those movies and you're looking for something super similar to them, this might not be it.

anyways! onto the good stuff! my god, i am in love with marianne. she is such an interesting main character and i love how there are "light" and "dark" sides to her without making her an antagonist as well as a protagonist. i mean, in a way, i suppose you can say she is, but i'd argue that the antagonist in this story is the environment around her. there's just....so much to read between the lines with this story and personally, those are my favourite horror stories. horror is so often done for the sake of being scary, but at its core, horror to me is a genre that serves as a commentary about the things that we fear around us in our society. as in, mundane things but morphed into something else in horror stories as metaphors. and i feel like the dark beneath the ice did exactly that, which i loved.

and while marianne is the star of the story, her relationships with other characters were done so beautifully. my heart ached for her as she experiences the constant anxiety of how to act around the people that she loves. as someone who is mentally ill, i can relate to constantly checking myself to not be "too much" for the people around me.

and oh my god! the romance! it was such a cute f/f romance thrown into a horror story, which WORKS. the romance doesn't overshadow the story, but it also doesn't feel like a random subplot. it's a subplot that adds a lot to the story, and it was such a cute and healthy relationship that i really enjoyed.

overall, this was a worthy read, and despite its horror theme, it felt sort of like a light read to me in the sense that it won't take you long at all to finish it.

A complete review will be posted on my blog close to the release date, but wow this was really good! It was delightfully creepy and I loved the unreliable narrator. I loved that there was F/F representation as well. However, I did find that the end was a little... rushed? I mean I still thought it was good because of the hidden message that the monsters we are afraid of are often ourselves, but I felt it could have been better. Also there were some things that were not addressed that I feel SHOULD be addressed.

I didn't care much for Black Swan, so I shouldn't REALLY be surprised that I was not a huge fan of The Dark Beneath the Ice either. The characters are fairly generic, and you could swap them out with no repercussions. Our main character is flat and a bit boring, and the big reveal didn't seem to hold much water. There was unnecessary relationship drama between the main events, too, that we could really cut out all together. 90% of the time, YA and I play nicely, but I think this is one of the rare YA novels that I would just be better off leaving to actual young adults. Mara Dyer might be a better bet for those looking for a "reliable narrator" twist.