This is by far, one of the best novels I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year! If you enjoy watching Ghost Hunting television shows, this book is not to be missed! This is a dark and twisty novel that immediately reaches out and drags you in. This book has a little something for everyone including, strained familial relationships, murder, mayhem, disappearances, strong female lead, and an evil darkness casting a harsh shadow over a small town. There is an enemies to lovers romance that is magically written and engaging. The story flows beautifully, I caught myself unable to put this book down and reading long into the night. The writing is creepy, atmospheric and will leave your head spinning as you try and understand who or what is behind the evil in this tormented town.

I was granted an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Where to even start with this one? The Dead and the Dark is a compelling, atmospheric, and utterly creepy story. The town of Snakebite reminded me a lot of Stephen King's Derry, where there's always something sinister lurking beneath the streets, laying in wait for the next victim - except in this case, it features queer main characters and the writing is far more compelling and exciting without the drudgery of excess detail that King gets bogged down in.

Logan moves to Snakebite with her dads while they investigate strange happenings for their show, ParaSpectors, and she quickly realizes that there's more to the town than her dads let on. Murder, ghosts, sapphic enemies-to-lovers, this book has it all.

I was absorbed from start to finish, and could. not. put the book down, at all (speaking figuratively of course, since this was a digital book). The plot was riveting, the mystery was woven beautifully, and the characters were dynamic. It features themes of loneliness, grief, death, and love, among others. Reading this gave me Stranger Things meets Ghost Wood Song vibes, and it was glorious. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this arc!

The Dead and the Dark was a perfectly creepy and dark book that I definitely needed right now! Missing teenagers, ghost hunting dads, a lurking darkness in the woods near an abandoned cabin, family secrets, teenagers trying to solve this mystery, a town with a name like Snakebite - basically everything I love. There were times I had to put this away for the night because I was alone and actually creeped out. The beginning was a little slow, and the ending was a little too perfect for me, but the whole middle part was SO GOOD. I really liked both Ashley and Logan and thought their character development was very well done. The family dynamic was so sad in the beginning but very heartwarming at the end too (but also hella dark).

This comes out on 08/03 and would be a PERFECT YA thriller to get you in the fall mood. Definitely need more from this author - her next book according to GR comes out in 2022 (Echo Sunset) and is described as a supernatural thriller following 2 sisters as they are lead to an isolated town in ARIZONA (neeeeeed).

The Dead and the Dark is an excellent YA horror title. Logan grew up on the road, moving from location to location so her dads could film their popular ghost-hunting show. But this latest destination, Snakebite, feels very different. Teenagers have been disappearing, and Logan's dads have been more distant than usual.

Courtney Gould does an excellent job building tension manipulating the story in The Dead and the Dark. It's lighter horror, for a YA audience, and is incredibly engaging.

An exciting YA debut. Had me turning the pages to find out what happens next!

Definitely looking forward to Gould’s future works.

This was a really fun book! I loved the TV ghost hunters backdrop and small inserts of the episodes connecting the narrative. It was very unique and created such cool visuals alongside the story. I enjoyed unraveling all the secrets of a small town and the mysteries surrounding it.

Although I was able to figure out the ending about halfway through the book, I was still intrigued enough to see how the characters would figure it out and deal with the outcome.

The queer representation in this book felt very true to life. I appreciated the nods at the internal conversation you have with yourself when coming to terms with your sexuality as well as reckoning with the outside world's view of you.

I wouldn't say that this book is particularly scary. I think it sits on the line between thriller and horror. If anything, this book leans more into the topics of grief and loneliness than fear or desire like a typical horror would.

Overall, I think it's a great book if you want a fast-paced read about ghost hunting dead (and sometimes living) ghosts.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3804347232

One Girl. Her Ghost Investigator Dads. A town with missing kids.... and dark secrets. Logan Ortiz-Woodley is the daughter of TV show ParaSpectors ghost investigators. When her dads take her back with them to their hometown Snakebite... Logan soon finds herself stuck in a town with many missing kids who all hate her dads.. and that her dads have their own secrets and reasons for returning to Snakebite. Soon she meets Ashley Barton, the daughter of someone her dads’ knew and whose boyfriend recently went missing/presumed dead by the town. Ashley is determined to find Tristian and is convinced he is still out there. She begins seeing mysterious things and as more kids go missing Ashley and Logan decide to get down to what is really happening. But what awaits them is not what they had expected at all.... soon more family secrets are revealed, town animosity arises, and everyone’s life is on the life.

This was such a fun read! I loved the build up of the mystery and how the tension kept rising. I loved that you got to read from multiple points of views and get a little bit of background on everyone. The overall mysterying was a fun one and the atmosphere was spooky. The ending wraps everything up nicely and I really did enjoy getting to see Ashley and Logan building up their relationship. Definitely a good late night read!

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This book was INCREDIBLE!!! AND it was a debut novel?!

Gay dads, a gay daughter, ghost hunters, and missing teens in a small town - what more could you ask for in a small town horror-mystery novel.

This entire book played out like a TV show in my head. The plot kept me on the edge of my seat from the very first page to the very last. The writing was stunning. It was dark, creepy, and completely gripping. I could not put this book down. I stayed up well into the night because I just needed to know what happens next.

Favorite character: Alejo! That man is an adorable golden retriever and deserves all the good in the world. Honestly, Alejo and Brandon's relationship was the most interesting to me. Gould did a wonderful job at making you feel the love between them, even with everything else that was going on.

Overall, this book was an amazing read. It touches on so many topics - family, grief, loneliness, love, and belonging. The Dead and the Dark is the perfect book to get you out of a reading slump! "Riverdale, but good" was the perfect description. I can't wait for what else Courtney Gould has for us in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!

Early review copy provided by the publishers via Netgalley, opinions are my own.
I've been waiting for a great creepy ghost read for a long time, and I'm so happy this book more than delivered on its premise. I absolutely adored reading about the brooding, dark, strange town of Snakebite, with its unwelcoming locals and secrets galore. One of my guilty pleasures is watching ghost hunting shows, so to have a novel that includes a family of tv ghost hunters was right up my alley.

I wish the book was a little darker and scary at times, and that the romance was more fully explored, but I'm still satisfied with this book and would definitely purchase a finished copy and read it again in the fall.

If you are looking for something with murder, mystery, hauntings, and suspense, then The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould is the perfect read for you! From the very first pages, The Dead and the Dark will leave you at the edge of your seat.

Teenagers in small town Snakebite are suddenly being murdered, and the community has a growing suspicion that Logan and her ghost hunting dads may have something to do with it. Logan meets a local teen, Ashley, and together they try to figure out what is happening- each for their own reasons. This isn’t your usual murder-mystery, though! There is something dark and sinister in Snakebite, along with many secrets that Logan’s dads and the townspeople are keeping. This book has so many twists and turns, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a thriller and/or mystery.

A huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Content warnings: Homophobia, biphobia, death of a child, murder, strangulation and drowning.

My rating: 5/5

Highlights:
First time I’ve ever seen the author provide a full list of content warnings at the start of a book.
Honestly the atmosphere of this book is just brilliant.
Insidious small town secrets? Sign me up
I love a ghost hunting show, this one sounds like a queer ghost adventures and I want to watch it

It has existed in Snakebite as long as memory, but in the man it sees new horizons. It is the shadows , the shifting boughs, the deeps of the lake. It has existed here as long as hate has clouded the hearts of Snakebite like black smog. It is impossible to say when the Dark begins. But this is where it ends.

I read this book in one day, on Easter Sunday, armed with a massive mug of coffee and a fluffy blanket. I got to 97% at maybe midnight and went ‘Well now I have to finish it’ and I DID. That is the enormity of my endorsement of this book. It’s creepy and queer and brilliantly written and I loved it so much. I will be riding the high of my one-day book until approximately 2035.

This book just sucked me in and refused to loosen its grip until it was done, and it did so by including a number of my favourite things:
Queer rep
Supernatural haunting type creepiness
A whodunnit
Small town secrets
Did I mention the queer rep
A cheesy ghost hunting show

Yup, this book centres around Logan Ortiz-Woodley and her fathers Brandon and Alejo who are the stars of a paranormal investigation show that sounds as cheesy and dramatic as that one show we all know but do not mention by name for legal reasons but rhymes with post shmadventures but a thousand percent queerer and more romantic and honestly I want to watch this show. I mean there’s a toilet that doubles as a portal to hell - how dare this not be a real show. When Brandon ups and moves his family to the town he and Alejo grew up in - Snakebite, where small town politics and homophobia take not just a front seat but the entire front row - to film an episode of the show, Logan is just waiting until she hits eighteen and can officially leave. Brandon has been pushing her away for years, and she’s sick of trying to figure out why. Of course, when it turns out that a string of disappearances in Snakebite line up with her family’s appearance in town they don’t exactly get the warmest of welcomes.

Ashley Barton’s boyfriend is missing, and she will comb every inch of Snakebite’s woods until she finds him. Tristan seems to be lingering in the corner of her vision everywhere she looks, never quite in sight, always on the periphery. When this odd new family appears, it only makes sense for her to investigate.

I loved this book, the sinister, creeping tone of it, the small town prejudices given almost tangible form. Snakebite was that epitome of American small town horror, with its ‘close knit’ community and distrust of strangers, and that something in the air around all of them. Given that Logan’s fathers do a show about ghosts, the book seems to me almost more about the things that haunt people every day - not the dead, necessarily, but the things left unsaid, the lies, the secrets people keep and the lengths they will go to in order to conceal them.

While it’s definitely not terror-inducing on the horror scale, more an atmospheric read, it definitely has some heavy topics in it. All are listed at the start of the book, and the top of this review, in case you may find them upsetting to read. If you’re comfortable with the topics mentioned, I’d highly recommend this book - in fact it was so good, I may just read it again!

The Dead and the Dark is a gripping (not so scary) story of a ghost hunting family visiting their home town where something dark and eerie is haunting all of the innermost corners of this small town full of people with very small minds. * Gasp * Which one could be scarier?!

This book, like previously stated above, literally GRIPPED me from the first chapter and refused to let me go. Like I was sitting up in a dark room with just my kindle to light the way with my eyes peeled, itching to figure out what is happening in the extremely small town of Snakebite. What I got was a bunch of twists and a lot of gasps and some (happy) tears.

The Dead and the Dark was so much more then I expected it to be from the LGBTQ rep, which btw, I thought the romance was done excellently and realistically. But also we we’re handed a family with a ton of issues and shown that not all family’s look and act the same way and how some family’s are found instead.

Yes, this book had some supernatural-esqu vibes but I loved every second of it and found it to be so much deeper then it appears. This book was ultimately about what dark and evil thoughts and feelings can do when they seep into the heart of a community and what it can create with so much hate.

Also, the writing style was so easy to read and just devour. The author not only showed us what all of the main characters were thinking and feeling but also how outsiders of this town viewed what was happening as well as the perspective of the people that actually live and breath that small town.

If you couldn’t tell already, I loved and definitely do recommend this story. I’m so very happy to have enjoyed this and I’m glad to say it has lived up to the hype surrounding it.

CW: Murder, homophobic slurs, death, blood, violence

Truly one of the best books I’ve read all year! I could not put it down (ended up reading the first hundred pages in a single day). The characters are so brilliant, I was captivated by all of them. The writing is gorgeous, with a haunting lyrical quality. It was creepy in a way that wove through the atmosphere of the story. I would recommend this story to anyone!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Guys. Oh my god. I feel like the only thing I can say right now is wow. Wow wow wow wow. I am so in awe! I finished The Dead and the Dark with a pounding heart, blown away by how incredible it was. I was distraught to leave this story!

This is one of those books that snags you from the very first line and never lets you go. The hook all by itself is mind-blowing. The prose is rich, pulling you in so deep you’ll be seeing a vivid movie behind your eyes. There were perhaps some lines that felt overly familiar and definitely a bit cheesy, but if they took me out of the story, it wasn’t for very long – Gould is talented enough to reel you right back in.

The atmosphere of this story was incredible. It felt dusty and dark and damp and cold and hot all at once (in the best possible way!) and I had a wad of excitement and anticipation lodged in my chest every second while reading. This is also marketed as a horror, and while I certainly found myself tense more than a few times – because again, this is definitely dark – I can’t quite say I was scared. That said, I’m also not a teen anymore so I’m not technically the horror aspect’s target audience!

The cast of characters were all deeply relatable in their own ways, and I adored all of them from the second they were introduced. I love a somewhat pessimistic protagonist, which is what we get with Logan without her being overbearing or exhausting. Ashley’s uncertainty and fear and confliction hit me right where it hurts. I wanted to wrap both of these girls up in a blanket and give them the tightest hugs they’ve ever had – I want to be best friends with them. And, of course, Alejo and Brandon… well, what’s not to love about a pair of secretive ghost-hunting husbands?

Speaking of! The main romance in this story is seen between Logan – an openly gay teen, adopted daughter to the two aforementioned ghost-hunting dads – and Ashely, a girl from a small, close-minded town whose boyfriend, Tristan, has gone missing. Ashley is still grieving from Tristan’s disappearance, so the romance could never have been the main focus of the story, but don’t get me wrong: it’s here, it’s queer, it’ll make your heart melt. It’s something of a slow burn, and it’s so worth it. Also, given that Ashley was raised in a town where the homophobia runs rampant, I felt it was handled extraordinarily well. The romance, while still being soft and wonderful, was also refreshingly raw and real. I miss them dearly already.

Remember when I casually mentioned the missing boyfriend? I think I could talk about the mystery here for paragraphs upon paragraphs, but I will once again bring it short with a holy crap. Once again: mind blown. The mystery was beautifully dark and twisted and so insanely clever. I was jotting down notes trying to work out what was going on (I did not succeed, but it was fun rather than frustrating). Everything ties up so neatly – even the things I didn’t quite… expect. Beautiful. Chef's kiss. MWAH.

All in all, The Dead and the Dark deserves every five-star review sent its way! It’s emotional and loving and dark and sapphic and UGH! All the love! Add it to your TBRs. Or else. :)

I liked this! I enjoyed both the main characters and the story was good.

The only drawback for me is that it wasn’t scary at all, and I wish I had more of the romance in the end.

Overall it was a decent story though!

This YA paranormal mystery/thriller was this author’s debut novel. It was creepy and haunting. It was emotional and loving. It was so much more than I expected and I loved it from start to finish.

Logan Ortiz-Woodley, 17, accompanied her dads on their trip back to their hometown of Snakebite, Oregon. They haven’t been back there in 13 years, and for good reason. There was something dark and sinister going on in Snakebite, especially within that isolated cabin in the woods. When one of the local teenagers went missing, the townspeople looked to the dads as suspects. Ashley, the daughter of the wealthiest and most powerful person in Snakebite, enlisted Logan’s help in trying to find her missing boyfriend. Logan agreed and at the same time tried to find evidence to prove her dad had nothing to do with the missing teenager. As the girls searched for answers, they uncovered truths not only about Snakebite, but about themselves as well.

I loved how the dads and the girls evolved throughout the story.The latter going from enemies to friends to girlfriends. Ashley initially fought her attraction to Logan and then eventually fought for their relationship to continue. It was not easy and there were some very tense scenes involving homophobic rage directed their way.

When I started reading this, I was intrigued with the paranormal aspect of the story. Then as the story developed, I became invested in the lives of Logan and her dads. Logan had such a disconnect with one of her dads that it was heartbreaking. But there was a reason for that..and that unveiling was both beautiful and dangerous. The author did a great job in bringing everything together.

This was a very well written story and highly recommended for all types of readers.

An ARC was given for an honest review.

It was really satisfying to sit and read a good ol' ghost (or what have you) story, especially in the rainy weather. The book definitely had spooky vibes and got more intense as the plot escalated. I expected more from the relationship aspect but it worked well that the characters were more focused on what was going on in town. I could have used a bit more spookiness but it was still fun.

I just Googled to see whether The Dead and the Dark has been optioned for a TV series (nothing yet!) because the premise just begs for screen time: recent graduate accompanies her two ghost hunting dads to the creepy rural town where they grew up, becomes implicated in a string of paranormal teen disappearances, and uncovers a dark secret about her past, all while practicing her cutting sarcasm on the town bullies and flirting with the cute girl who becomes her partner in crime (fighting). The narration largely alternates between Logan, new to Snakebite and not thrilled to be there, and Ashley, the hometown hero whose boyfriend was the first teen to disappear, with occasional appearances by the Dark—the mysterious force at the center of the deaths in Snakebite. To be honest, I was less spooked by the Dark than I was by the more predictable darkness of homophobia and casual violence that pervades Snakebite, but the mystery is compelling enough to encourage binge-reading. I was hooked from the start, and I'm excited to recommend this book to my reluctant readers, horror fans, and romance lovers.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

I love a good mystery thriller book, and The Dead and the Dark delivered just that! The it was amazing and kept me on my toes. This book has been compared to Riverdale and I could see the similarities but The Dead and the Dark was way better in my opinion! This is a must read!!

I didn’t read too much into the plot before reading this one. I love a YA thriller so I had high hopes and this did not disappoint. Logan’s the daughter of Brandon and Alejo, known for their paranormal tv show. When Brandon returns to their hometown of Snakebite to “scout new locations,” Alejo and Logan ultimately follow. However, mysterious things have happened including the disappearance of a teen. Logan is stuck in the middle and tries to navigate this new town with the not super willing help of Ashley, the missing teen’s ex girlfriend.

This book gave strong Riverdale vibes. It was eerie and interesting and I was unsure what was going to happen. Definitely recommend!