My thoughts-

Dare has a podcast name Attachments, she is a fan of everything spooky and haunted and is here to find out more about the sudden drowning of Atheleen Bell and if the town is seriously haunted by something sinister.

This was such an interesting read, I loved the author's writing style and also how the story went forward. This was such a page turner guys the perfect amount of spooky and fun.

I was all for The Haunting of Hill House vibes of this novel, the Gothic and Arrington State, the small town with a secret, the mysterious lake Paradise, the hidden doorways, vintage photographs, dusty attic, creepy doll and old letters.

This is a horror story but I loved all the added elements to it and how the author treated them such as Type 1 diabetes, Waffles- the service dog, the LGBTQ representation, the teenage romance and etc.

If you're looking for a good spooky story to satiate your Halloween loving soul, a good story with an illness rep, you should give this one a try.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the LGBT+ rep and the inclusion of Type 1 Diabetes rep was awesome. I feel like I definitely learned a lot more than I expected to. I did find the book mostly predictable but I did really enjoy it.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me with an e-ARC of The Girls Are Never Gone in exchange for an honest review!

Listen, listen — I love YA horror so much, but I will be the first to admit that they don’t always hit. They’re good, they’re fine, but I move on pretty quickly after closing the book. The Girls Are Never Gone, however, is one that I can guarantee will stick with me. It’s probably my biggest surprise of the year — not that I thought it’d be bad, but I just didn’t think that it’d become an instafave.

Let’s start with the horror elements, yeah? One of my favorite things is when a skeptic is forced to become a believer — in order for someone who’s so strong within their beliefs that ghosts are not real, something majorly terrifying would have to happen. & friends, that’s obviously what happens in The Girls Are Never Gone. There are a couple of horror scenes in this one that left me with chills & as someone who’s so desensitized when it comes to the horror genre, this is wild.

The Girls Are Never Gone is perfect for fans of haunted houses & small towns with a secret trope.

On the not-so-scary side of things, The Girls Are Never Gone is such a fantastic story about friendship. We have three girls who come together for this internship and bond over the strange occurrences happening at this house; it comes to a point where they're willing to sacrifice their own safety for the safety of the other girls & my heart. I was so here for this trio. Plus! Two of the girls are romantically involved, and yassss, we are here for it.

We can't forget to discuss one of my favorite characters, Waffles. Waffles is a service dog & he plays just as much as a character as the humans in this story. Which, btws, he's a service dog for our main character, Dare, who has diabetes -- so not only is there LGBTQ+ rep in this book but also Type 1 diabetes rep -- which is something I don't think I've seen previously in a book.

As can be expected, The Girls Are Never Gone has a lot of mystery & plot twists. A lot of things go over my head, so you can take this with a grain of salt — but I didn’t see any of the plot twists coming. And the ending left me with GOOSEFLESH. Loves it.

I definitely recommend picking up The Girls Are Never Gone! & it’s out just in time for spooky season!

The Girls Are Never Gone captures those whispers in the dark and that chilling feeling in your bones. It is the perfect read for the times as the nights grow darker and the temperature drops.

Right away, you’re hooked by the atmospheric and menacing, atmospheric opening. It clearly and effectively sets up the claustrophobic small town feel and the central mystery of what exactly happened that night. From there on, you are fully ensnared by Sarah Glenn Marsh’s exquisite writing. The whole way through you have this looming sense of dread hovering over proceedings. The tension seeps into your skin and the scares grow and grow. Very rarely have I been truly terrified by a book but this one pulled it off with one particular jump scare that was so vividly imagined.

The Girls Are Never Gone is probably best described as The Haunting of Bly Manor meets Sadie with a dash of The Conjuring. This unnerving plot meshes really well with the interludes of the podcast. It gives it that multimedia feel and carries you deeper into the story. Dare’s voice is so entrancing and seeing her edited version of events through the podcast is fascinating. The reminder of the wider world listening in adds this meta layer to the story that reminds you of the community standing behind our characters. It also allows that supernatural influence to creep in, but in a way that builds naturally and feels incredibly believable.

Dare is an excellent protagonist for this, as you follow her journey from sceptic to feeling that extra presence. In that way, she really allows the audience in and makes the story build in an incredibly believable way. I loved her as a protagonist with her intelligence, drive and passion. You can tell that she wants to do the best by both her listeners and her friends, but she is also having to untangle all her preconceptions around the supernatural. Likewise, the other central characters felt well-developed and three-dimensional. They truly felt like Dare’s found family for the summer and you end up loving them all.

Great horror novels allow your imagination to create your own nightmares and Marsh seems to intuitively understand this. A lot of the book preys upon the darker recesses of your mind, as you create your own figures lurking in the night. There’s these subtle touches of menace that only grow stronger the more you read on. This is a genuinely creepy and unnerving book. The horror slowly grows and then it almost explodes onto you with horrifying moments that feel so real. It’s incredibly immersive, precisely because you’ve been drawn in by the atmosphere and the incredible characters.

I absolutely loved the representation in this story. Dare has Type I diabetes and the way this is interwoven in the story is fantastic. It is just normalised, but at the same time, Dare is given the space to explore her disability and how it affects her everyday life. It is a realistic depiction of living with a chronic illness, highlighting both how normalised accessibility and representation should be, but also the difficulties that comes with managing your chronic condition or disability. For many people, it’s a constant balance where you’re always walking that tightrope. The central romance is also achingly gorgeous. It’s unabashedly sapphic and fills your heart with butterflies. I liked how the romance grows so naturally and lovingly. While they have these spectacular moments, they also have these beautiful quieter moments that make your heart glow. There’s shades to their romance and this adds this realism. You can practically feel the flutters and it’s so wonderful to watch.

The human touches behind the supernatural are possibly the most unnerving aspect, with aspects of jealously and an inclination towards violence. This endless cycle of new playthings for the creature to devour and feed upon has this abysmal sense of inevitability to it. The fact that they’re also always young teenage girls uncannily reflects real life examples of exploitation and violent crime. Similarly, without giving anything away, I actually liked the ambiguity and touch of despair in the ending. It is definitely not a straightforwardly happy ending with uncertainty but there is still a glimmer of hope in there.

The Girls Are Never Gone is the sapphic horror story you need if you’re looking to fill that Bly Manor shaped hole in your heart.

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Disability Rep: 5/5

A special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

Chronic illness & disability rep! And #ownvoices at that! I was so excited to read this book—and it did not disappoint!
I’ve been reading (and watching) a handful of podcast-based mysteries/thrillers lately, and I’m loving this new trope. I could never listen to a true crime podcast (I like my mysteries and thrillers fully fictional) but reading about made up ones is quickly becoming a favorite. Our main character, Dare, is a disabled, queer, blue-haired badass who is starting her own ghost hunting podcast after breaking up with her boyfriend and podcast partner. The scene of this adventure? The Arrington estate, a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of nowhere that was the site of the suspicious drowning of Atheleen Bell a few decades back. Now, Dare might be a ghost hunter… but she doesn’t actually believe in ghosts. But something happened to Atheleen on this estate, and Dare is determined to figure out what.

The idea of a ghost hunter who doesn’t believe in ghosts was really interesting to me, especially in the way that Marsh writes it. Dare hunts ghosts, not because she believes in them, not to trick others into believing them for clout, and not even solely to disprove them. She hunts ghosts because she wants to find one, even if she doesn’t actually believe she will. Marsh masterfully expresses the way that chronic illness can force you to face your own mortality at a young age, and the ways that can change you. That added undercurrent to the story, and to Dare’s motivations, sets The Girls Are Never Gone apart from other paranormal mysteries and ghost hunting book. Especially for me, a disabled teen.

The mystery itself was great. It was definitely more on the thriller side of mystery, but in a way that was good for YA and not too scary for me (a certified wimp). More than a sense of whodunnit, the plot was driven by suspense and strange happenings, although, there was of course a mystery to be solved. There was no list of suspects or red yarn maps. I wasn’t focused on trying to figure out the perpetrator, I was simply along for the ride. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book, but if you’re looking for a traditional whodunnit mystery, you won’t find that here. There was some twists at the end that required some suspension of disbelief and kind of felt a little out of place to me, compared to the themes and tone of the plot prior, and that’s the main reason I didn’t rate the book 5 stars. However, it wasn’t a severely whip-lashy, just a little bit “meh”.

The only other “complaint” was Waffles (and I put that in quotes because I’m not sure how I feel and also, I’m not a service dog owner/handler). Now, I loved Waffles as a character and, like, a dog. But as service dog representation I felt like he perpetuated some pretty damn harmful stereotypes. Waffles was bad at his job. It’s acknowledged in the text, like, immediately. Dare brought him because he’s her dog, but basically admits that he isn’t actually all that helpful when it comes to alerting her about low blood sugar. In fact, if Waffles were a real service dog… well. He wouldn’t be. He has an accident, he doesn’t come when called or listen to commands, he runs off whenever he feels like it, and he doesn’t even reliably alert. He wouldn’t have passed the certification process to become a SD.
Having Waffles in the story, written the way he was, adds to the idea that service dogs are just pets that can do some extra tricks. Which is not true at all. Service dogs are medical equipment (and pets, of course). They are necessary to the lives of their handlers, and they are well trained, highly specialized, and unobtrusive when they are on the job. Not any dog can be a service dog, and many people and establishments are already unhappy to allow service dogs in because they think they’ll have an accident, or run off, or get in the way—which are all behaviors that Waffles exhibits—but a real service dog wouldn’t do any of those things, and the idea that they’re “just regular pets that people get certified so they can take them places” is an incredibly harmful (not to mention ableist) mindset that Waffle’s portrayal only adds to.
Now, Waffles could have been a regular pet who had been taught to alert at home. He could have played the exact roles he did without using the title “service dog” and simply specified that he wasn’t a real service dog, and there wouldn’t have been an issue. It’s just quite harmful to call Waffles a service dog, when, in reality, he would never have been able to become a service dog, and therefore giving the idea of service dogs a bad name.

All in all,
chronic illness rep? Incredible. Perfection. Spectacular.
The plot, story, romance, etc? Amazing. Enticing. Must read.
Waffles as a service dog? No. Just no.
Regardless, I really hope you read and love this book, just please keep in mind that Waffles is NOT good service dog rep.

This book was absolutely spooky! It hooked me from the beginning, and I was not expecting some of the events to happen the way they did in the book but I was highly intrigued! This is the start of more to come! I loved it!

"Just as I've done so many times before, I'll reach out into the darkness, safe in knowing nothing ever reaches back."

The Story: Dare Chase is the voice of Attachments, a brand new paranormal investigation podcast. She is a supernatural skeptic and to keep her listeners keep tuning in, she decides to investigate the Arrington Estate which is rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Atheleen Bell. Dare wants to prove that there are logical explanations for the strange incidents in the house. But will the house change her mind?

My thoughts: What an entertainingly spooky YA horror/mystery! I absolutely loved the spooky house setting and the strange happenings in the house give me all the chills!

The mystery was good too with unexpected twists along the way. I enjoyed following Dare and her friends solving the mystery. It was really interesting to see how Dare trying to explain away all the strange things while she herself is experiencing some supernatural things too!

I am a podcast addict and I loved the podcast aspect in this story! It was really fun to read!

Overall, I enjoyed this book! It has the right mix of mystery and horror, and great characters that you will love!

Pub. Date: Sep 7, 2021

***Thank you Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group, Razorbill, author Sarah Glenn Marsh and NetGalley for this gifted review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

***ARC Review***

I want this ghost story scrawled on bloodstained pages and bound up in leather, but I could do without the drama.

When I started this book I wanted to DNF it almost immediately, I’ve read this story before too many times. Girl has a podcast/show/whatever else about ghosts so girl goes somewhere haunted and encounters ghosts. There is drama, there is romance, there is a happy ending, I’m bored.

I decided to give it a chance and kept reading. Girl encounters ghosts. This ghost story is SO GOOD. There are rotting deer floating in a lake that drags girls down by their ankles and ghosts entering through taps and leaving bruises on shoulders. It’s truly haunting and I love it. The mystery is absolutely insane and the history and personality present in it really make it an incredible story. The atmosphere makes it feel as though this should be an old classic and it’s written so beautifully that it’s jarring to be yanked out of this tale and brought back to podcasts and crushes and beach parties.

As much as I appreciate a kissing book, it just feels like that doesn’t belong in this story and it drags the book out more than it needed to be dragged out. I do love the education on diabetes and the queer rep, but it feels as though these are two different books meshed into one and I was really looking for a horror story, not a contemporary drama.

I think the characters are interesting and I really like the girls supporting girls aspect of this book. I can’t say I felt particularly connected to any of the characters but they were all fairly realistic, which is often hard to find in a YA book. I also really like how the romance is never considered “perfect.” Some of the shifts in beliefs and personalities were confusing or seemed illogical, but I generally think the characters were pretty solid.

Actually, one of my favorite things about this book was how nothing was truly perfect. I wouldn’t call the ending happy, though it wasn’t tragic either, and it gave me chills for sure.

Despite some clichés, The Girls are Never Gone ended up really surprising me, as it turned out to be realistic (if you suspend reality a bit), creepy, and all-around a very enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher and then bought my own ebook copy. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Girls Are Never Gone

Author: Sarah Glenn Marsh

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: T1 Diabetes bisexual MC, Service dog, Puerto Rican lesbian side character, F/f romance

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, paranormal, mystery, thriller

Genre: YA Paranormal Mystery

Publication Date: September 7, 2021

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 336

Recommended Age: 14+ (romance, slight animal gore, death, Underage alcohol consumption, Slight religion talk)

Explanation of CWs: Just an FYI, the animal gore seen in this book is just from the skeletal remains of other, long-dead animals. The religion talk is also very slight and in passing.

Synopsis: Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts.

Privately, she’s a supernatural skeptic. But publicly, she’s keeping her doubts to herself—because she’s the voice of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, and she needs her ghost-loving listeners to tune in.

That’s what brings her to Arrington Estate. Thirty years ago, teenager Atheleen Bell drowned in Arrington’s lake, and legend says her spirit haunts the estate. Dare’s more interested in the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death—circumstances that she believes point to a living culprit, not the supernatural. Still, she’s vowed to keep an open mind as she investigates, even if she’s pretty sure what she’ll find.

But Arrington is full of surprises. Good ones like Quinn, the cute daughter of the house’s new owner. And baffling ones like the threatening messages left scrawled in paint on Quinn’s walls, the ghastly face that appears behind Dare’s own in the mirror, and the unnatural current that nearly drowns their friend Holly in the lake. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of Arrington, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

Review: I really liked this book. I thought that the story of all was very entertaining and it definitely provided the Spooks I needed to get into the Halloween spirit. I also liked the bond between all of the girls and I really liked the sapphic romance. I thought that the World building and character development were really well done and the writing was marvelous, although I might be a bit biased because this is one of my favorite authors.

The only real issues I had with the book is that there or two distinct monsters that I felt needed a little bit more development on the page but also the ending was a little abstract in what happened. We don't have the real motives behind the monsters, which you can argue makes for a really good monster, but we also don't have a clear cut ending to the story which is kind of giving me hope that maybe in the future there will be a sequel because I need to know. And if you have read this book then you know what I need to know.

Verdict: It was so good.

At times it felt like this was two books rolled into one. I wasn't connected to the characters, and it just dragged through the middle. I wish we would've gotten to the haunting quicker and the book was a little bit shorter.

I read Sarah's other YA series, Reign of the Fallen, and absolutely loved it! That book was more fantasy than paranormal, but it's a world where the dead come back to life and it's so eerie. This book is more paranormal fantasy, set in our world, and oh my gosh it creeped me out!

One of my favorite things about the book is the paranormal investigator main character who doesn't believe in ghosts. Dare doesn't believe in ghosts, but she's willing to go into this "haunted" space to find out more about the home and the mysterious deaths of girls who have lived there, the history behind the original family, and the weird stuff that is going on. Her podcast, which I loved the inclusion of the podcast episodes, is set around this home and her experiences and it was so fun seeing her opinion change over time. 

Meanwhile, there are two other girls living with her, one who is the daughter of the owner, Quinn, and another girl helping at the internship, Holly. Dare quickly becomes friends with Quinn and Holly, and even something more with Quinn. Her service dog, Waffles, steals the show - he's just so stinking cute and don't worry, he does survive!

Speaking of Waffles, I loved the disability rep in this book. Dare has type 1 diabetes, which if you didn't know, is very different from type 2 and the author does a wonderful job highlighting the condition and the struggles. Type 1 is something you're born with and lasts a person's entire life, while type 2 is something you develop over time and it can be reversed. Waffles is Dare's service dog and alerts her when her blood sugar drops too low or goes too high, though according to Dare, he's hardly ever right.

With the rep in this book, we also have LGBTQIA+ rep and I loved watching the relationship develop! Dare is bisexual and Quinn is her love interest in this book. It was so sweet watching them fall for each other over the few weeks and care for each other, though I wished their experience in the house was better than it was. 

Being in that house would have terrified me. As they're working to renovate the home and spruce it up, weird stuff starts happening. Dare hears scratching by her window when there's no branches nearby or anything to scratch it. The girls hear and see weird things that they can't explain. Girls have died in the lake and they can feel it calling to them. The weird stuff begins to build up and if it was me, I would have hightailed it out of there after the first night!

Sarah does a great job setting up the history and the mystery for Dare to solve. I was so invested in what was going on and while I was terrified, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. The ending absolutely killed me and I really, really hope we get a sequel! I have some unanswered questions that I really need answered, so hopefully we get another book to figure out what's going on. 

If you love ghost stories, thrillers, disability rep, or wlw romances - this is a great book to pick up! I loved this book and I will be patiently waiting for some kind of sequel or at least answers for some of my questions.

I really enjoyed this novel as a whole. The concept of Dare, our main character, having a podcast was a very fun idea to me and a great way to incorporate popular media of our current time. The type 1 diabetes representation through dare was great, as I feel as though I have never read a book where it is stated that the character has this illness. The horror tropes in this novel made me squeal in horror and delight all at the same time. I definitely wnt to check out more work by this author.

Let me just say before starting with the review that I hit the « request » button not only because of the cover but also because of the mention of a true crime podcast. I am a huge sucker for all things having to do with true crime and investigations. It’s only logical that I wanted to particpate in this blog tour. And girl, am I glad that I got a spot because this book is « Freaking-tastic »!

This book is so spooky and scary that I seriously don’t want to be alone in an old and semi-abandoned house anymore. I’ve got goosebumps after every scary scene and this is good. I rarely read Horror books and I wasn’t really sure what to expect with « The Girls are Never Gone ». It’s good that I didn’t have any expectations so ever because I loved this YA Horror novel and just couldn’t get enough of the story about Dare and her new friends.

I don’t remember having picked something by Marsh up before, so let me say that I enjoyed her writing style. It worked perfectly well with the horror setting. The details were also amazingly well written. Sometimes I got the feeling that I was playing some major part in the story as well because I could imagine everything so easily. I need an adaptation of « The Girls are Never Gone » right now! (Please make this happen)

Dare is also one of my favorite main characters ever. You simply cannot not love her. (Did this make sense right now? Probably not.) I also liked the fact that there was a diabetes type 1 representation in the story. It doesn’t happen often in books and the illness in general needs more representation so that people can become more aware of it. I always feel like diabetes is a taboo theme in our current society so this was refreshing to see how the main character lived with her diagnosis.

Overall, if you enjoy a great mystery horror novel in the YA universe and you love a good scare then « The Girls are never gone » is going to be your next favorite read. I especially recommend this book during this time of year because autumn is right around the corner and Halloween is in a month and a half. So what are you waiting for? The goosebumps won’t be coming on their own!

If you are looking for a book with vivid history, deeply child ghosts, and a skeptic who is trying to search for more in the darkness, look no further than The Girls Are Never Gone.

After a breakup with her boyfriend and the cohost of a wildly popular YouTube channel about everything creepy and haunted, Dare is looking to move on and does so with her own paranormal investigation podcast, Attachments. But she is having trouble finding traction and she is constantly watching her follower count not rise…

This brings her to Arrington Estate for the summer, the place where young Atheleen Bell drowned and died thirty years ago. The estate is known for its paranormal activity and she has a summer of investigation ahead of her for episodes in her podcast.

Dare has never seen a ghost, heard unexplainable voices, or felt that unsettling “feeling” when spirits are said to be around be. And she knows she won’t actually find anything here, but it doesn’t stop her from continuing to search for more out there. Along with her service dog, Waffles (she has type 1 diabetes and he is supposed to alert her when her levels are off) Dare meets the inhabitants of the estate, a woman renovation the house, her daughter Quinn, and another guest, Holly.

Immediately sparks fly between Dare and Quinn and I thought that their chemistry and their relationship were really sweet. But aside from budding love, Dare soon realizes that as a skeptic, this place was way more than she bargained for. Unexplainable things begin to happen pretty quickly and Dare is constantly trying to explain them away (much to my annoyance - but I get it… it’s her thing) and none of them are safe. The more Dare learns about the history of the house and the family that lived there, the more terrifying the book becomes. And it’s so good! This is a real on the edge of you seat read and I LOVED it!!

When I saw “The Conjuring meets Sadie”, I was immediately drawn in. The Girls Are Never Gone did not disappoint! I loved all of the characters. I loved the LGBTQ+ representation. I LOVED the ghost story and the mystery through it. I loved the twist right towards the end. It kept me so hooked through the entire thing. This book was absolutely incredible!

3.5⭐

This is a really fun, creepy YA story that will the perfect addition to anyones fall TBR. This has queer characters, a haunted house, chronic illness rep, and plot that will leave you questioning if ghosts are actually real.

There was so much to love in this story. But I think my absolute favorite aspect was getting a chronically ill main character. This is an own-voices story for Type 1 diabetes and it was so fantastically handled. The main characters relationship with her disease is something I completely related to. I loved how it's part of her that she embraces but it still occasionally self conscious over. It was just such a wonderful and realistic depiction of living with a disease and I'm forever grateful to see that from an amazing female lead.

This also has a great female friendship plot! While a relationship also forms, there's less emphasis on the romantic feelings, and more emphasis on the platonic feelings. And I LOVED the way the relationships worked out in the end!

The haunted house, creepy ambience was also fantastic. I love a good atmospheric story and this definitely delivered that! There is absolutely no way you would have caught me dead in this terrifying house!

Overall this was just a really great, creepy read that I will definitely be recommending this October! I can't wait to read more from Sarah Glenn Marsh in the future!

Something happened to me while reading this book. I am not someone who generally gets scared at movies or books. My friends hate watching scary movies with me because I tend to laugh during them. However, the further I got in this book, the more lights I was turning on. It's one that has slow burn tension building in the background that you sort of ignore at first but then find yourself feeling later. I loved Dare. She was so fun and courageous, while being the most relatable to me since I'd call myself a skeptic. I liked that her podcast was to tell the truth, not to make up lies about seeing ghosts. I went back and forth on whether I liked Quinn and Holly but that was more part of the story. I liked the very last twist in the book because I had doubts myself. For me, this was a 4/5.

If you like paranormal ghost hunts, girls with heart eyes for each other, or is someone who wants to get a little spooked, this is the one for you.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is fantastic. It's very atmospheric and creepy; the tension starts high and keeps getting increasingly more unsettling as the story goes on. I feel like that's not necessarily hard to do, but what IS hard to do is the other thing this book did: it made all the scares and the backstory completely unexpected. Everything about this story feels new and original, and that's a real achievement.

This was absolutely fantastic. I was excited to read this because it was advertised as a sapphic horror book and that’s definitely something I’m interested in! That being said, I’m a scaredy cat, and the only way I can consume horror is through literature because I can control when and just how much to read. However, this had me reading at times when I would’ve never expected to pick up a horror book—namely, at night—because I just needed to know what came next. I was extremely hooked.

Firstly, I need to talk about how exquisite the mystery of the novel was. Dare, our protagonist, is a paranormal investigator with a brand new podcast that she’s dedicating to this particular case of Atheleeen’s drowning. Seeing her uncover the mystery surrounding the Arrington Estate is equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. The narration was great in presenting us with the information in a way that was genuinely scary and unsettling—don’t be like me and read this at night. I personally don’t think I’ve ever been this pleased to be horrified.

Dare’s diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was another wonderful aspect of the story. I must admit that before reading this I had no idea what such a status implied and I really enjoyed learning about it. I thought that it was beautifully integrated not only on Dare as a character but also on the story as a whole. It is obvious that Sarah Glenn Marsh knows what she’s talking about from her own lived experience, and not only that, but she knows how to make this information comprehensible to an audience who might not have had any previous knowledge of this autoimmune disease.

In the same vein, we need to talk about Dare’s adorable service dog, Waffles. I will be honest and admit that although I love animals in real life, I often don’t enjoy them in stories—I have no idea why that is, so I can’t explain it. However, I thought Waffles was a great addition to this cast of characters and I felt like he truly played a part in the plot, albeit a small one. He was not only a comedic element but also an important part of both Dare’s life and—to my understanding— of the ongoing investigation.

Moreover, I truly enjoyed the friendship between Dare, Quinn, and Holly. It was really enjoyable to see these three strangers get to know each other and develop a very intense relationship caused by both the forced close proximity and their shared paranormal and horrifying experiences. Each of the girls had a very distinct personality, which in my opinion was what made them work so well when put together.

Finally, to no one’s surprise, I really enjoyed the glimpse of sapphic romance. I loved how it wasn’t rushed at all and it seemed to flow in a very natural way. And I especially adored how their circumstances—the weird happenings in the house—affected them and their interactions with each other.

All in all, this book had many great aspects, and all of them made the story feel so much more alive—from the horror at the core of it to the Type 1 diabetes diagnosis of the protagonist which played a vital role in her character as a whole. I have no doubt that this is a book I will be recommending for a long time.

I read that this was like The Conjuring and Sadie which got my attention but another review compared this to Nancy Drew meets Ghost Hunters. I’m going to agree with a little bit of all those descriptions. It definitely had some creepy moments but nothing extremely frightening. For me, when a book takes place in a haunted house it is all about the atmosphere and the subtle horror elements that keep you up at night as a reader. Those elements were present but the flow and pace of the story were too chaotic during some of those moments so I couldn’t grasp that vibe with this book. Aside from that, it did have some entertaining moments like Dare’s dog, Waffles! Loved him. And he’s a service dog. Dare is a type 1 diabetic. It played a huge part during her actions and feelings throughout the story so I know this is an important representation to mention as I know a few of my friends on here are type 1 diabetics. Overall, I did enjoy this YA paranormal story and I think it’s perfect for readers who don’t usually read horror but want to enjoy a spooky read to get in the mood for Halloween and this fall season!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Teen for my eARC in exchange for my honest review!