Courtney Gould's debut 'The Dead and the Dark' follows two teenage girls as they team up to solve a murderous mystery in the small town of Snakebite.

When I went into this book I definitely though the ghost hunting aspect was going to feature more prominently throughout. as well as the sapphic romance. I was wrong. The tv show barely featured and given how much time passes in this novel I find it hard to believe that Logan's dads can be away from work for that long, especially a television show that's been renewed.

This book felt like a first draft and very messy. There was no chemistry between Logan and Ashley, Ashley didn't properly acknowledge or come to terms with her queerness. Her characterisation wasn't fully worked through and neither was Logan, who was awful half of the time. Another example of the messiness was the way information was revealed in the text. Having characters who don't communicate when it's obviously the thing to do, especially when they're being threatened with homophobic violence, is incredibly frustrating!

That last fifteen percent of this book is what is saved it from being one star.

i've been sitting on this review for quite a while thinking about what i want to say

this definitely won't be for everyone, but i am a sucker for the weird paranormal stuff that doesn't necessarily make sense but it doesn't HAVE to make sense in order for me to enjoy because it was well done and i liked the characters. that's exactly what this was and that makes this quite literally the perfect book for me.

it has everything i enjoy in my paranormal/horror stories - characters i can love, a story that doesn't bore me, writing that was particularly great considering this is a debut, and just the right amount of paranormal creepiness (though i didn't find myself scared) for me to be invested in. i am an absolute sucker for ghost stories, regardless if i find myself actually scared, as long as the story is something i can fall in love with.

this book is insular. it's unsettling at times. it has lovable characters and a heartbreaking family dynamic. it's unapologetically queer. it's got ghosts. it's got secrets. it's heartbreaking in the best way. it made me cry. it was so freaking good.

was it a completely perfect book? no, it honestly was probably more of a 4.5 maybe even a 4 star rating but i loved it enough and i feel comfortable in my 5 star rating

The Dead and the Dark grabbed me right off the bat and never let me go. It's got great atmosphere, engaging characters, high stakes tension, fast-paced plot, and solid spooks. Just a completely well-constructed book from start to finish, with a tense, emotional story and richly depicted character relationships. Definitely recommend this haunting read for the fall, or any time of year!

CW: Child death, homophobia.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advance review copy!

I loved this book! From the minute I saw the cover I knew I had to read it! It’s a dark and creepy read! It all starts in snake bite and it all will end in snake bite!

I'm always on the lookout for a book that will grab a high schooler's attention and this is that book. I really enjoyed it. It is a good blend of horror and murder mystery, not too creepy but just creepy enough. The paranormal element was just one of the aspects that led to the dark nature of the novel.

i love a good ghost story and this did not let me down! The Dead and The Dark is a unique and one of a kind plot and it blew my mind! This book creeps up on you, it legit scares you. I had to keep the lights on for this story, and I just did not want to stop. A ghost hunter team take over a small town, and it's safe to say the people in this town aren't too happy with them being there. Also, the LGBTQ community is amazingly present and well represented in this story!

Darkness urrounds the town, and it's taking all the light and hope from it's young residents. Logan is taken from town to town thanks to her dads popular tv show, she is lonely and knows her father is keeping secrets from her. Logan wants to be able to clear her fathers' name because the people of the town believe, theyre involved with a young kids disappearance. Logan meets Tristan's gf who sees his ghost, and together they set out to find out what is really happening.

A dark, twisty, ghost story this book is absolutely brillant. Its so original and I LOVED it.

Thank you for netgalley and Wednesday Book for the copy in exchange for review

I really enjoyed this novel! What mainly struck was how absolutely beautiful the writing was. I also loved the characters and felt that they were incredibly dynamic and well-developed. Very impressed by this debut and will definitely read more from this author in the future!

Courtney Gould’s debut novel, The Dead and the Dark, is one of several late-summer releases that bring some serious spooky season vibes to our August reading lists. A thoroughly creepy ride from start to finish, with a story that involves everything from possession and ghosts to serial killers and hate crimes.

Gould has a gift for supernatural storytelling and The Dead and Dark has a distinctly tense and unsettling vibe throughout. (Even when the story’s dealing with very real-world horrors.) It’s clear that something is wrong here – both in terms of the potentially paranormal events taking place and the more human failings of its characters.

Your mileage will inevitably vary on how you feel about the book’s big reveals at the end. Shocking, sure, but for me, they didn’t entirely work — simply because The Dead and the Dark doesn’t bother to explain how any of them are possible and basically handwaves the biggest twist involving Logan away as the consequence of a sort of blandly generic yet ridiculously powerful evil.

That said, even though some of the explanations within the narrative itself are weak, The Dead and the Dark is a propulsive thriller with some genuine shocks and a choking sense of dread woven throughout. And, as an author, Gould is really willing to “go there,” so to speak, from the horrible ways some of the Snakebite teens treat one another to the grisly deaths of multiple teens.

This book is full of great characters, supernatural elements, and dark twists! Logan Ortiz-Woodley is being dragged from town to town by her two fathers to hunt ghosts for their TV show. They end up in Snakebite, Oregon where teenagers are ending up missing and dead. Logan pairs up with Ashley to try to find answers on what is happening inside Snakebite, while Logan struggles with her relationship with her dads.

TW: Child death, murder, strangulation, drowning, homophobia

I'd rate this somewhere between a 3 and a 4. The premise of the story is interesting and the characters were good enough, but I couldn't help but feel like the author could have dug a bit deeper for this one. The language (especially at the beginning) was particularly haunting and beautiful. I know I will have students who would gobble a story like this right up, so I'll definitely recommend it, but it fell a little flat for me.

I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the writing or the characters no matter how hard I tried. I'm grateful for the opportunity to read and review.

Logan is the adopted daughter of Brandon and Alejo. Brandon and Alejo grew up in Snakebite. They left after “something” happened when Logan was little. What happened? Brandon and Alejo are the stars of the reality tv show ParaSpectors. Logan finds Snakebite’s community not very friendly. When Brandon arrived in Snakebite, deaths started happening. The community think that Brandon is responsible for the deaths. Is he? Logan is alienated from Brandon. Brandon and Alejo are her fathers. She doesn’t understand Brandon’s non-reactions t0 her. While in Snakebite, Logan makes a friend, Ashley. Ashley is grieving over her deceased boyfriend Tristan. She doesn’t want to believe that he is dead. She clings to that hope as Tristan’s body has been found. Ashley decides to ask Logan to help her find Tristan in case he is a ghost. Logan agrees as she hopes to learn more about Brandon. Whenever she has asked her dads about their life, they tell her later after they leave Snakebite. Logan and Ashley find themselves attracted to each other but at first they ignored it for different reasons. As Logan and Ashley get closer to finding answers, they feel a darkness that they don’t understand. What is this darkness?

This novel is complex. The two gay men and two lesbians that are the main characters. The ghosts, sounds, and possession support the story making it creepy at times. Snakebite is shown as a racist and homophobic town. Alejo appears as bisexual earlier in the novel while appearing to be gay later in the story. Most of the characters are white while a very few are brown skin. The story is intense, intriguing and mysterious. I couldn’t stop reading it! When I had to do other things than reading I thought about the novel wondering what was going to happen next. It’s an intriguing thrilling read.

In Snakebite, Oregon, teenagers keep disappearing or turning up dead. Things just seem off. The locals blame Brandon and Alejo Ortiz-Woodley, two former Snakebite residents who are back in town. They now host a popular ghost hunting show and travel the country with their daughter Logan. Wanting to clear the family name, Logan winds up joining forces with Ashley Barton, whose boyfriend was the first to go missing. Ashley is sure she can feel his presence guiding her around Snakebite. But as the two team up, they discover some pretty terrifying and dangerous things about Snakebite.

I loved this book so much. Sometimes it feels like I read similar books over and over. Not this time. Gould’s book is original and spellbinding. This is such a dark and ominous read. Gould truly brings you into Snakebite, the supernatural, creepy, and quite unwelcoming small town. It’s atmospheric and spooky. I could not put this book down!

DARK is filled with LGBTQIA representation, between Logan’s dads, the fact that she’s an out lesbian, and her own burgeoning friendship (and more) with Ashley. I loved everything about all of it.

This book is part horror story, part exploration of the meaning and depths of darkness, and part look at family dynamics. It’s an extremely well written ghost story with a sapphic love interest. It really doesn’t get much better than that! (It’s so good, read it—and it’s a debut!)

The saying “Home Is Where The Heart Is” never seemed more truer than in this book. A creepy tale seemingly out of an Archie Comic, The Dead & The Dark tells the story of Logan a girl whose essentially grown up on the road as her dad’s film a paranormal show.

But when one of her dad’s Brandon, heads back to the small town where Brandon and Alejo (other dad) had met and grown up.. trouble ensues the moment that Alejo and Logan arrive as well. They come to a town that hates them from the get-go for something that occurred in the past and for the strange occurrences that have taken place in the small and backwards town of Snakebite since Brandon arrived. Upon arriving, Logan learns that one of the handful of teens in this town has gone missing and with everyone thinking it’s Brandon, Logan herself doesn’t know what to think as Brandon has always seemed distant and angry.. teaming up with Ashley, one of the girls in town, they both endeavor to figure out what goes bump in the night in this small town.

With more teens disappearing & with one of her dad’s in the small town police’s sights.. it’s up to Logan and Ashley to figure out what happened all those years ago, and how it ties into the now. Along the way, these two realize that they may have more than friendly feelings towards each other but with the darkness looming in.. they must do all they can to stay alive themselves.

A Sapphic, YA, Supernatural. The Dead and The Dark is full of suspense and drama, with very personal themes. The Small Town, USA-feels made this story approachable and solitary, all at once. I've never read a book like this one, with all the things I needed in a book, done so well, but I need more. Gould represented so many under-utilized voices in this book, without making the writing or the plot suffer. The depressed, the broken, the lost, the lonely, the bitter, the living, and the dead, were all given their time to speak. As a reader, you understand them all, you can place their motivations into the puzzle of the plot seamlessly.

This book's plot will keep you turning the page for more. Gould combined two of my favorite genres in The Dead and The Dark. Mystery/Suspense and Horror tie together so well to keep readers guessing and entertained. We know some things that the characters don't but they still have a story to tell, the parts that we couldn't possibly know and without both sets of knowledge, there is no book.

The main characters are both real in their own ways. They were there for each other when it really mattered, they pushed each other, they kept going, they kept the story moving. They're brave and relatable. They're wonderful leads for young women to learn from.

I would recommend this book for anyone who loves the CW's Nancy Drew and Riverdale. I will definitely be on the look-out for Courtney Gould's next novel.

Teens have been going missing in Snakebite, Oregon, and some of them are turning up dead. Coupled with odd weather and ghost hunters arriving, the populace is sure they're involved. Logan Ortiz-Woodley and her ghost-hunting fathers arrived, and the town seems plagued by ghosts. Ashley Barton's boyfriend was the first to go missing in town, and she feels his ghost everywhere. While the townsfolk shun Logan and her fathers, Ashley is hoping that she will help discover what went wrong in Snakebite. The two grow closer, and their growing feelings for each other might be the love that's able to drive out hate.

Logan feels alone even when she's with her famous fathers, so she isn't terribly surprised at the prickly greeting the people of Snakebite give all of them. Some of it is that they blame one for the murder, and some of it is because they're incredibly homophobic. It doesn't help that she's gay as well as an outsider, giving her few people to potentially talk to in an already small town. Ashley is the town's golden girl: she's literally the blonde in a group that excludes others, her family has employed most people in town, and her mother is the social backbone. The two join forces when their needs collide: Logan wants to prove her father innocent, and Ashley wants her boyfriend back. But there are secrets hidden in the town's past, such as the fact that both of her fathers once had lived in town, and left thirteen years before. Something about that time period leaves one father distant and the other excusing it, driving Logan away to investigate on her own. At the same time she learns more about that hidden past, Ashley learns about the hate simmering beneath the polished veneer of the town, as well as the fact that she feels more interest in Logan than she ever had for Tristan, indicating she probably isn't straight.

The alternating POV's give us insight into what Logan and Ashley experience, and how they feel loneliness despite the first impressions they had of each other. The premise of the novel also indicates that ghosts are real. Here, they are remnants of the dead or the strong emotions left behind, creating imprints of a soul and the memories left in their wake. Ashley isn't the only one that can see them and the ghost hunting tech that Logan takes from her father's works. The joint investigation they try to do gives them the opportunity to get to know each other, but it's the belonging and potential connection that allows them to move past the darkness in town. The darkness grows in the presence of hate, fear, and isolation. Acceptance and love are all that can keep the dark at bay, something that every reader can appreciate.

The Dead and the Dark is everything I want from a paranormal book. It has missing children, ghosts, and well-rounded characters.

It is creepy and atmospheric. It has some twists that I never saw coming, and it kept me intrigued until the very end.

The relationships were well developed, all of them not just the romantic ones. Some of the characters are infuriating, but that only adds to the tension. One thing I did not like was how much complaining (about the same things) Logan did.

First off, the cover is gorgeous! I really enjoyed this, it kept me guessing. It was suspenseful, emotional, and scary too, it had a little bit of it all for me. I’m really impressed with this author, I can’t wait to see what they do in the future!

First off the atmosphere is amazing and really draws you into the creepy small town eerie feeling, however it seemed lacking in some of the character developments and relationships. It did keep me interested and guessing about what was causing deaths. I think a little more backstory on The Dark would have upped my rating, I wanted to know more about it. Strong debut and I am excited to read Courtney's next book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Wednesday Books and Courtney Gould for allowing me to read an ARC for review.

Courtney Gould's original ghost story is very enjoyable and has lots of twists. The story was full of creepy moments that made up one genuinely haunting tale. The story was definitely a slow burn but that added to the eerie elements of the rest of the plot and made more atmospheric things seem almost horror-story like. The story was a quick read because I wanted to know what was the truth in the situation and what was imagined or fabricated.