Oh how I hate reviewing books that I did not care for, for that reason I’ve skipped reviewing on GoodReads and only shared here.

This book was a little rough for me. Multiple characters were difficult to enjoy and had me skimming through their parts. Pastor Matt, the roommate, and even Mia herself. She was all over the place and reminded me of someone I would never interact with in person.

While this story had good bones, the exterior flopped. The characters interactions and character development didn’t do it for me. But thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

A solid 1.50 stars.

Mia was a conflicted character, never seeming to stick to her guns or beliefs, always changing her mind.
She was hard to like and connect with.

I didn’t really like any of the characters (except the cat), and this book just fell flat for me.

Interesting idea and plot summary, unfortunately not very well executed. It felt very "a man trying to write from a woman's perspective" and too much time spent on romance.

Unfortunately, I have been locked out of my netgalley account for a few months and was not able to see which books I had on my list, in order to properly read and review. I do apologize and am doing a 3 for neutral. Will update once I’m able to obtain a copy and read!

This book started out strong setting up the background for the story about a girl currently in college who comes from an overly religious background but suddenly finds herself in a world full of demons and possession. However, after that things become difficult to follow and a bit of a mess.

The author does a great job with some truly creepy, atmospheric elements, but once the main character "leaves her body" things get weird and the POV shifts. I also wasn't a fan of the "rush to love" relationship featured.

Perhaps others will enjoy this more, but it just ended up not being for me.

Yikes....this was hard to read. 1.75 stars rounded to 2. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mia is so excited to start college! She will finally be away from the oppressive church she grew up in and is interested in getting to know who she is while keeping true to her beliefs, even if that doesn't match up to her parents. When strange occurrences begin haunting Mia when she's alone, will she face what is lurking in the shadows? Or will it continue until it consumes her?

Buckle up, Goodreads family; this one is going to be bumpy. I hate giving bad reviews, but I can't with this one. Mia herself, for someone so repressed, has such a bad attitude....perhaps she should be on medication? She goes from pias one minute to deciding to sleep in the same bed with some guy she just met the next; terrified of the paranormal due to a Ouija board experience to astral projecting(WILLINGLY!!) in the next chapter. Mia was playing with fire and got burned, but she wasn't even the worst part of the book. Once we finally meet the illusive Pastor Matt, Mia's dad, and her boyfriend the author almost throws everything they find vial at them in order to make Mia worth saving. The best characters by far are the occultist and his cat, but we don't get enough of them to save the story.

1.75 stars, I'm sure the author did their best, but some more refinement and rewrites are necessary in my opinion. If you're willing to give this one a try think Insidious meets religion. Age recommended for 17+ due to graphic material.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited for this book but it disappointed so bad. The plot and dialogue was so bad I could not take it seriously, It was a struggle to finish this book and not just DNF it. Also the romance, it just felt very Nice Guy TM, it was so cringy.

As someone coming from an abusive religious background myself, i have to admit I anticipated more from this novel. That is not to say it was not enjoyable, it just did not explore the themes in a way that resonated with me personally. It felt too heavy handed with how the characterizatioms were handled, and I had a hard time connecting to the story because of this.

Mia join's a para-psychology club in college. And learns astral projection. Something follows her back. Can Mia be saved from the evil. Great characters. I received a complementary copy and left a voluntary review..

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What to say about this book? I had initially been very excited - it seemed like a book involving the occult, unraveling fundamentalist, toxic Christianity, and about a young woman who finds herself amongst this trauma and wildness. However, when I read the book, I didn’t get any of that complexity - instead, the author seemed to go for cheap one liners or simple oversimplifications. For example - if you have a culture that’s okay with assaulting people, those smart enough to hold people under their thumb aren’t going to say “it’s okay to assault”, but are going to make comments that IMPLY that to encourage people who follow them - but much like with everything in this book, the book follows the former rather than the latter, and it makes for flat lines that don’t really give the story or concept the true level of depth that I thought it should.

Another aspect was the romance. I think far too much time was written on this romance - and it all felt very Nice Guy TM like, I found myself cringing through a lot of the dialogue. There were moments where characters would talk about a supernatural moment and then switch immediately to romance, and I could have to reread the page to figure out how they realistically made that jump.

Some other things that just didn’t sit right with me - one character is stated to be dark and has cornrows, so I’m assuming he’s Black, but the actions of that character are………..really based on poor stereotypes. If he’s not Black, the author may want to rethink some choice descriptors used for him. There’s also a male (multiple) rape victim involved in this story, and I hate essentially everything involved in his story. I think you can write a character who goes through that repeated trauma and also acknowledge that they can fail other people (and May not get forgiven for that failure or allowance of harm, which is perfectly fine!) without demeaning their masculinity or acting like they’re a pathetic person.

This book gets a star because at some points the dialogue was so random and out of nowhere that it was kind of funny, though.

[Minor Spoiler]
Well, that was the fastest DNF ever. Three chapters and I‘m done. The synopsis sounded so great but the writing is very…male. In the first chapter we read about a parapsychology class and I can only describe the professors vibe as ‚pretentious‘. In the second chapter we witness car crash-like „flirting“, a prime example for the disastrous ‚men write women‘ subreddit and chapter three confirmes that Bruce is a fuckboy, already scheming how he might make it out of the friendzone. (I peeked at the prologue, of course they end up together.)
I work full time, I read for fun, so I‘m not gonna waste any more time on this book.
Tho, to end on a positive note: I love the little illustration at the beginning of a chapter, I wish more books had them.

Breaking away from an over religious family, a girl finds herself at College, mixing with a new weird bunch of students. Nothing really stands out too well for me in this one. It's not bad overall, but nothing that hasn't been done before. Some of the typical horror tropes,
I've heard of the nether from my daughter playing Minecraft.
eh

I absolutely love a good horror novel in this one is absolutely great! It reads incredibly quickly but it’s a great story and I was terrified. Highly recommend!