If you love Stranger Things/The Outsider/Supernatural then this book will definitely be up your alley! This book was absolutely phenomenal! Super dark and twisted, and had me going WTF so many times.

Highly recommend

This is such a haunting debut and I'm so happy I got the opportunity to read it! I don't always lean towards paranormal books, but I love horror and TDATD does horror so, so well. It is engaging, and I love how I was immediately drawn into the setting. Having never lived in a small town, I loved how Gould weaved the characterization of not only the residents, but the town in such an accessible but creepy way. It was alive on the page. A highly recommended read!

Oh myyyyyyyyy.... I couldn’t even finish my sentence! This is sooooooooooo darrrrkkk!

This is disturbing! This is uniquely mind blowing! That’s the earth shattering, WTH I just read, head spinning, inner demons summoning novel I was looking for so long!

My moviemaker mind worked overtime during my reading because I truly saw the scenes in my head!

Something eerie, terrifying, extremely ominous, haunted is watching you behind at each chapter! It slowly gets under your skin, captures your mind, paralyzes you! You get speechless and numb! That’s what I felt when I was reading this book or watching it in my mind!

It was like the mash up of best Supernatural episodes meet Stephen King’s Outsider with amazing LGBTQ representation! Especially the conservative, hostile, agitated townies against ghost hunter reality show producer gay couple ( once upon a time they were two of them, they were born and raised at this land! ) and their adopted 18 years old girl who is also gay is a delicious story line to hook you up!

But that’s not the main story: darkness lure around the town, hunting young adults, sucking the last drip of hope and happiness from its people’s hearts!

Two main feelings you get when you read this stunning, original story: loneliness and pure hatred!

Logan Ortiz-Woodley, dragging from town to town because of their fathers’ longtime popular show and cheap motels become her second home.

She feels so lonely, her fathers keep secrets from her: she can feel it! And their last stop Snakebite made them feel like they bit more than they can chew. It could be literally their final stop as something so dark and dangerous hunt the young population of town!

Logan wants to clear her fathers’ name because entire townies think the disappearance of Tristan connected with their return to town!

Logan teams up with Ashley Barton who is girlfriend of Tristan, seeing his ghost, feeling his existence which make her friends worry about her. Logan gets used to witness irrational things and she wants to know what happened to Tristan because searching the secrets of town may help her to learn more about herself.

Ashley and Logan forms an unconventional friendship which gets negative attention of townies. And another young boy gets disappears! Things get more heated! Are two young girls ready to fight against the invisible monster? Maybe the real monster is already at their inner circle and they’re so clueless about the danger lurking around!

Prepare to scream and hide under your bed as like I did during my read. Even after finishing the book, it took two hours to leave my hiding place!

It’s brilliant, twisty, surprising reading which earned my full, eerie, creepy, bleak five stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I wish that in the book description trigger warnings would be placed rather then within the first few pages if the book. Due to triggers I was able to read it. From what I’ve gathered it is a well written novel.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's press for allowing me a chance to review this book. It was actually a surprise that I was chosen since I don't remember requesting or asking to read it.

But I did, and I feel this book will certainly appeal to people who are looking for something along the lines of Stranger Things.

It is difficult to focus on any level of this book without letting a spoiler come through. Yet, picture a girl who lives with her two dads. One of them is distant, the other present. They both run a paranormal investigation team that has a show that is quite popular. The father who is distant is currently residing in Oregon where a teen has gone missing. Reluctantly the girl and her other father return to Oregon where they meet up with him and that's when things start hitting the fan. Because her parents have a history in this town, and their return is not taken too kindly.

Homophobia is a big part of this book and what spurs a lot of the actions of the characters. At times, I forgot this is a supernatural book because it felt more or less like a thriller or a fiction book without a supernatural angle. I feel the mixture of the supernatural bit weighed down the homophobia and the two did not blend together so well by the end. I felt the supernatural reveal was not as strong or emotional as it should have been. Personally, I would have chosen one or the other as the focus. Or perhaps the author was not that strong with writing for both of the topics.

In any case, it is what sunk the book down two stars for me. This book is getting a lot of 4/5 star reviews which had me excited to read it. Yet I felt coming away from this that I was missing something. Oh well.

I read a Digital ARC of this from Netgalley. I definitely think there were good parts of this book. The idea behind it with the Dark was interesting. I did like most of the characters. There were also definitely some good twists that I didn't see coming. Some things that I didn't like as much is that there would be big moments and then it would cut to either another character or two weeks later. The book had many times where two weeks went by since the last reveal or big event, and there would be a brief summary of an event or two that happened and some reaction. It was hard to believe that nothing much happened during those two weeks. For instance, Logan discovers two big things on the same night and the reader is left with a cliff hanger at the end of the chapter and the next chapter starts two weeks later and we don't get many details as to what happened during those two weeks and it seemed like then those two events weren't really a big deal since life just went on mostly normal during the two weeks. I also feel like Alejo and Brandon treat Logan like she is a young teenager, more along the lines of 13 in some cases and her real age of 17 in other cases. They don't really seem to care a lot about what she does and leave her on her own frequently, but when she wants to know the truth about some of the mysterious activities going on they treat her like she is much younger.

When the publishers reached out to me with a copy of this book I hadn't heard much about it. This is one of the most intriguing YA thrillers I've ever read.

This is a very emotional read and I enjoyed the way the author dealt with trauma and the different obstacles that had to be crossed in this book. The world building was amazing. A small eerie town where young girls are vanishing, lgbtq ghosts (there's some homophobic issues in this book that the author tackles well), The Dark and the whole concept of it was interesting and and I felt like the reveal was satisfying an not very predictable.

My review can also be found on my goodreads which is linked, as well as my tumblr blog Prettygalsread, closer to publication date.

THE DEAD AND THE DARK was a quirky combination of horror, dark thriller with a twist of teen romance thrown into the mix. The action takes place in the small Oregon town of Snakebite, where several teenagers have disappeared. Now attracting media attention, a team of ghosthunters from a popular TV show hit the town looking for answers, much of the novel revolves around Logan, who is the daughter of the presenter of ParaSpectors. Quite early in the action we realise that this is one of those towns where weird things happen, the weather is unpredictable, ghosts are real and that the town in buried in a layer of secrets. Beyond the secrets, there is something in the darkness and the town is the target. Although the book had plenty of engaging characters I found myself feeling I had been here before, on many occasions, and found THE DEAD AND THE DARK to be nothing particularly new. But a solid debut nevertheless.

Something is wrong in Snakebite, Oregon. Teenagers are disappearing, some turning up dead, the weather isn’t normal, and all fingers seem to point to TV’s most popular ghost hunters who have just returned to town. Logan Ortiz-Woodley, daughter of TV's ParaSpectors, has never been to Snakebite before, but the moment she and her dads arrive, she starts to get the feeling that there's more secrets buried here than they originally let on. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this amazing book. I highly recommend reading this book.

This book was INCREDIBLE. It’s YA horror at its finest (with a satisfying f/f romance - YES!) My trip to the fictional town of Snakebite was an eerie, edge-of-my-seat, and wildly entertaining ride.

The suspense in THE DEAD AND THE DARK was phenomenal - I love books that make my mind whir, trying to get to the answer before something awful happens. I was so invested, and when all the pieces finally fell into place I was truly stunned (can’t say more because of spoilers!).

And the quietly surging exploration of homophobia in a small town starts low then swells as Gould spins her way to the book’s finale, elevating this book from pure horror to something much meatier and more important.

This was one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I’ll be anxiously awaiting future novels by Courtney Gould!

If you’re a fan of Buzzfeed Unsolved and The Haunting of Bly Manor then buckle up because you’re in for a wild ride!

There’s something bad happening in Snakebite and the arrival of Ghosthunters don’t make things easier especially when the two have a personal connection to the town and a teenage daughter Logan digging into the past as she forms an unlikely alliance with local Ashley to find out what happened to the missing boy and solve the case before the bodies start adding up.

I enjoyed every second of this book!

The atmosphere is perfect as we enter a small town with questionable values as their distaste for Logan and her fathers are evident from day 1 and it only goes downhill from there. Trigger warning there is homophobia and mention of slurs facing our trio as they try to do their job and it may be hard to read for some. I think it’s a difficult conversation to have especially in today’s climate if you’re calling a place like this home as the risk of going from the golden boy to the outcast for simply loving your truth is the most heartbreaking thing imaginable but to see those moments where these two men were happy as a family make up for that.

Each characters was perfect and I loved everything about Logan as she carried herself with the kind of attitude I wish I had while also wanting the most basic thing which was to be loved and I wanted to hug her the entire time! Ashley too is one who from the first page is going through it and while dealing with the fact that her boyfriend is missing, she has to deal with the new feeling that grips her when around Logan and what that could mean for her future.

The concept behind the Dark was very cool and I liked the little insights into its mind as it lingered in the shadows over the course of the book and I felt that the explanation was pretty sound as well as the reveal behind it all which is always a good thing!

I can’t recommend this book enough my only regret is that I finished it so soon!

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!*

This is a deeply emotional, atmospheric, stunning debut.

Gould has developed two wholly relatable girls weighted with grief and strength. Logan and Ashley were such a joy to read; for me, they were the showstoppers. It was so easy to fall into the heat of their uncertainty and vulnerability. Even in a story fraught with ghosts and heartache, their moments of light and humor still shine. (I seriously adore Logan; her arc is just WOW.)

Gould's depiction of small-town Snakebite is both familiar and totally fresh. Coming from a small, at times problematic, town myself, I was so enthralled to see the nuanced depiction of the love that lives there—and, of course, the dark. And the paranormal plot seamlessly weaved with Logan and Ashley's emotional journey so well. This book is so much all at once. A tender exploration of grief and longing, and a tightly-paced suspense with a fantastic and satisfying finale. I devoured this book in one day. And I'm so excited to see what Gould does next.

Very good YA horror selection. I loved the strong female protagonists, I loved that the “villain” ended up being hatred. I loved, loved loved this book, and I don’t love horror typically. My teens do, though, so I’m always looking for new selections for my library. I will definitely be purchasing for my teen library horror section!