I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those situations where I feel like I read a different book than everyone else, because Briardark has largely positive reviews so far but I didn't enjoy it.

This story is kind of like if Stranger Things had a baby with The Blaire Witch Project, which actually sounds pretty rad. Unfortunately, Briardark had so many problems, like the pretentious and unlikeable characters who act like idiots despite being "highly qualified," a throwaway comment or two about basically every contested social issue floating around the internet today, multiple POV characters who all have the same voice, and heavy reliance on tropes.

2 stars because the pacing and plotting were both reasonably tight.

A captivating, enthralling horror novel with an equally amazing atmospheric plotline. Just as the title suggests, there is something mysterious and dark about the events the story tells.

Told from dual timelines, there is something unbelievably creepy about this one. Like many others have noted, the synopsis doesn't do it justice. It was everything twisted and dark I could have wanted.

Beyond the brilliantly done setting and environment Harian does, the characters are just as well fleshed out with their own personal histories coming into play as the team venture into unknown and changing territory.

It does end on a bit of cliff hanger, which I am not usually a big fan of. There is a book two but it is a ways out.

Thank you to Compass and Fern and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

3.5/5 rounded up.

The author, S.A. Harian pitches this book as a "love letter to my favorite media, cosmic horror, the west coast, the wilderness, suspense, drawn-out mystery, indie games, whip smart women, sensitive men, normalized queerness, and romance with an achingly slow burn." - Personally I think this is a perfect description!

This book shines with its atmosphere and tension. I felt the dread and confusion about what was happening in the woods that the characters seemed to be feeling as well. Part of my reading of this book surrounded a hiking trip and I definitely felt some anxiety going into the hike. However, I didn't feel as connected to the characters as I hoped. I felt the dread of the wilderness, but I wasn't worried for the characters. I knew bad things would happen to them and I wanted to know what those bad things would be and why they was happening. However, I didn't feel it on a more personal level. I did like how the author weaved the characters backstory throughout the narrative, only letting you know some of their history and driving forces as they became necessary to learn. This book is part of a series, but I would have preferred to have the whole story. This book comes to a point where the different plotlines meet up, but there's no real conclusion so I feel it's hard to read on its own.

Overall Briardark did feel unique, atmospheric, and unsettling. I enjoyed my time reading it, but wish this book had more of a self-contained story with characters I felt more deeply for.

Thanks to Compass and Fern and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review S.A. Harian's 'Briardark.'

First of all, what a great and intriguing title for a novel - 'Briardark' just conveys so many possibilities, none of them good! And also a great cover.

The story itself is a head-wrecking, mind-bending, time-shifting, multi-dimensional, overlapping mix of 'WTF?'!

Really terrific structure which takes you to and from between characters, storylines, and the aforementioned possible time or dimensional shifts.

Other reviewers have mentioned Jeff VanderMeer and that's a good comparison for the setting and the tone - just completely unsettling and off-balance. The utterly familiar cheek-by-jowl with the odd.

The moment may have passed for this to be adapted for TV because of shows like Lost and Dark but it certainly deserves to be made into a series. Plenty of material.

Although I knew this when I set out with the author on this journey, the only downside is that this is book one of at least two and the second one is at least a year out. So much to know about what happens next and what happened in the past (or is the present or some other past) to get the characters to where they are in Briardark.

An incredibly atmospheric story that lends new meaning to the rhyme ‘the woods are lovely, dark and deep’.

Final rating 3.75

You’re presented, at first, with dueling semi unreliable narratives.
Siena and her troupe are presented in conflict, questions, uncertainty and misdirection.
Holden’s narrative is far more blunt and a bit distracted at points.

There is some complex layering of cosmic horror, survival and sci-fi elements. Harian does an amazing job building such a compellingly dark and unsettling atmosphere. There’s something beautiful in the unearthliness of it. It reminds me a bit of the way Vandemeer presents elements in Annihilation.
You know something is dangerously wrong but you can’t help but be drawn even further into it.
My only critic is when it comes to Holden and his lot. The way its presented in the book would lend itself much better to an actual live action serial then as a book. In this format it doesn't come across as strongly as it could. It unfortunately feels a little clunky until about midway when more pieces of the puzzle begin to unravel.
That aside this was a fantastic first installment.

One of the best horror novels of the year! Loved it and it kept me enthralled! Sienna was a captivating character and her supporting cast were well thought out and interesting. And excellent novel that I'll be recommending!

The cover for this book really caught my eye whiles I was browsing NetGalley and then when I read the synopsis I absolutely had to get my hands on a copy. Just for the record, it is probably weirder and more terrifying than you might expect from the synopsis, though the first chapter is likely to clear up any misconceptions. It begins with a group of women on a backcountry hike in the Deadswitch Wilderness and they are trying to escape from something horrifying and it quickly becomes clear that they’re not going to make it out alive.

Immediately following, we jump to Dr. Siena Dupont and her expeditionary group setting out to a remote cabin in the same wilderness to study the Alpenglow glacier. The team starts off for their multi-week research project in good spirits, but it quickly becomes apparent that not only is not all well with the team members, but they find a dead woman in the branches of a tree not far into their journey which immediately sets the whole team further on edge. Upon their arrival at their research base, the unsettling occurrences only get more frequent and disturbing - hallucinations, a disappearing glacier, a threatening stranger - and the team’s personal history starts to rear its ugly head. There is a darker side to the Deadswitch Wilderness, a hidden world called the Briardark, and Siena and her team have to escape without becoming trapped which may not be possible

The other POV chapters belong to an IT guy named Holden Sharpe, who is supposed to be going through some old hard drives to make sure they aren’t about to toss anything valuable or important. On one of these hard drives he finds a video journal that Dr. Dupont made during the Alpenglow expedition. All the files but one are corrupted and as the story progresses, more videos unlock. It seems normal enough at first, but there’s an exciting twist a bit later in the book. 

This book was honestly creepy as hell and deserves the comparison to LOST. The Alpenglow team had loads of believable, well written drama and personal history that added to the tension. Holden Sharpe’s perspective was fascinating because you think you know where things are going and then everything you think you knew gets turned upside down. The Briardark is this dark and terrifying other world that has left me with so many questions. It’s not explained in detail, but you get the gist of it in this book. Fortunately this is a series, so the next book is probably going to give us more details. This was an unexpectedly cool reading experience and I would definitely recommend it.

If you are a fan of the shows Lost or Dark and cosmic horror then Briardark is the book for you.

Briardark begins with the story of the Deadswitch Five who went missing while hiking in the Deadswitch Wilderness. They were never seen or heard from again. Seven years later, Dr. Siena Dupont, a geomorphologist, and her team go on an expedition to Deadswitch in order to study the melting of the Alpenglow Glacier. After entering the woods, strange things begin to happen which they can't explain. They lose contact with the rangers. The woods begin to physically change rendering their map useless. They find a dead body that mysteriously disappears. Little does the team know that the true horror is yet to come.

Normally, I do not read cosmic horror but I decided to give this book a chance and I am so glad that I did. I was not able to put it down! I really enjoyed the creepy/mysterious/anxiety producing atmosphere of the story. It really played on my fear of getting lost in the woods and not being able to find my way out.

The story is told through multiple points of view. There is also a second storyline involving Holden, who works in IT at Oregon State University, who finds tapes about the expedition recorded by Dr. Dupont. Holden along with his coworker, two of the scientists who had originally worked on the glacier study, and a ranger who knows all involved in the expedition as well as being part of the search and rescue team of the Deadswitch Five, attempt to rescue Dr. Dupont and her team. All of the character narrations tie in nicely with each other and are very cohesive. Great writing by S.A. Harian!

The only thing I didn't enjoy is that the novel is left on a cliffhanger. Will Dr. Dupont be saved? What is happening in the woods? I need answers! Unfortunately, I will have to wait until 2024 to find out what happens. Oh the delicious torture!

This was so good. I--I don't even quite know how to articulate how much I loved this. I love creepy forests, I love like....cosmic horror type spooks, I love expeditions (or anything with like a camera crew, or a film crew--any sort of team). Disappearing bodies?? I read this book in less than two days, and I would take the exhaustion 5 times over if I got to read this like it was the first time again. I don't want to give away too much, because I think what's in the synopsis is sufficient, but this was so good. I will be making sure that my library purchases a few copies for circulation, and I'm also most definitely buying a copy for myself!

This is one of my favorite types of horror.
>Creepy woods - check
>Creepy woods filled with not just actual scary things. but things that make you question whether or not your losing your mind. - check
> cosmic horror- check

I started Briardark last night, thinking I would only read a few chapters and finish it up today... Well before I knew it I was sucked into this story and I was reading the last page at about 2 am... I am very tired today but this book was well worth it.

SIena Dupont and her research team are headed off into the Deadswitch wilderness to chart the melting of the Alpenglow glacier. Almost right away things begin to feel off. A fork in the trail where the map only shows one, a dead body that mysteriously looks like someone that went missing years ago. However, the body looks as if it's only been dead days at the most, and no one is answering the satellite phone if it rings through at all...

Fast forward to IT guy Holden who stumbles across some random drive he is supposed to make sure is not important before being wiped... He doesn't have any idea what he has found in the files of Siena Dupont and her team's terrifying adventure in the Deadswitch Wilderness or that looking into the drive and its contents will change everything.

SA Harian seamlessly weaves the multiple storylines together, drawing us deeper into Deadswitch and the mysteries it holds. It ends in a cliffhanger in the most diabolic place, I must know what happened to Siena, and will anyone else escape Briardark? How are Holden and Siena connected? I must know the answer!!! How am I supposed to wait until the next ones come out!! Well, I guess I'll have to read this one again and see if I missed any clues..

The Perfect Book for fans of the TV series 'Lost,' 'Dark,' and 'Yellowjackets,' but also of VanderMeer's Annihilation books. Frankly, however, I think this book is far, far better! Full of strong women, interesting male characters, and intriguing developments, 'Briardark' is a real page-turner, written intelligently and with a gripping story that makes no concessions to the reader. It dawned on me this is the first volume in a series, when the plot kept getting more and more complex, more and more interesting, and I was (sadly) reaching the end of the book! How am I going to wait for volume two?! Anyway, this isn't a simple survival story, since folk horror creeps in almost immediately; it's not a simple horror story, either, since, at a major point in the book, the plot goes heavily into science fiction territory; still, it's not purely sci-fi, since there are some wonderfully creepy moments that any horror fan will appreciate and yearn for. What I really liked was how expectations-defying the whole book is: there's no way to guess what'll happen, no way to make sense of the story on your own beforehand; you, as a reader, have to make do with the tidbits of information coming your way as the people in the story get to know them, bit by bit. This makes for an utterly immersive story, full of mysteries and atmosphere, with the supernatural elements right in your face! Highly, very higly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC!

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher.
Simply put amazing! I loved every second of this book except the ending and that’s because I didnt want it to end, I need more immediately! This is most definitely 5 stars!

This book takes place in the mountains of California in what they call the Deadswitch Wilderness broken up between a group of five missing women, a research team sent to study a glacier that now suddenly has melted overnight, and an IT worker who discovers some concerning and disturbing audio files he’s meant to just delete. I was completely hooked and invested in this story and all the cast of characters in it. The added bonus of a mysterious video game was just the icing on the cake for me as I myself am an avid gamer. The author does a wonderful job of weaving and building this book’s plot; I found it to not only be exhilarating but also incredibly spooky all the while accomplishing this in such a perfectly unsettling harmony. The amount of times I audibly caught myself yelling “what!” was so exciting and I loved every second of this wild journey that was reading this book. The descriptions had me picturing Mount Agnes and the cabin so perfectly that I felt as if I was there while reading. I will say that this book while amazing has completely solidified my fears of ever going out and trekking through any mountain ranges. If you are looking for a twisty sci fiction/horror book this one is for you, I promise you will not be disappointed! I can not wait to see what is next for this series and where the author takes us!
Briardark comes out January 16, 2023

Thank you again NetGalley and Compass and Fern for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

First off, thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!!
I really enjoyed the creepiness of this book, the atmosphere and mystery were amazing… this book definitely had annihilation vibes, I also already think the woods are creepy but this book solidified that. It’s going to be soooo hard to wait until 2024 for the sequel but I’ll have to make do until then, I just hope time flies!

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

What would happen if the creators of Netflix’s Dark teamed up with Blake Crouch, and wrote a sci-fi horror-mystery set in Area X from Annihilation…? First, I’d throw my money at them unquestioningly and second, you’d get something quite similar to what S.A. Harian created with Briardark.

7 years ago a group of 5 young hikers, among them a famous Youtube streamer of survival horror-games, goes missing without a trace in the remote and desolate wilderness of the Deadswitch-woods. None of them are ever heard from again. History now threatens to repeat itself when a group of environmental scientist on a field expedition encounter a series of inexplicable phenomena in the area. Landmarks disappear without a trace, satellite phones fail and strange, everchanging foliage hides dark shadows in the periphery.
Told through alternating perspectives, between the missing researchers and the man looking into their disappearance via recovered audio- and video-logs, Briardark takes us on a disorienting journey through time and place, into the dark woods…

What I liked:
Briardarkhad me hooked from page one with its tight plot, compelling mysteries and unsettling twists. With almost every chapter ending on a cliff-hanger or suspenseful reveal, I was reading compulsively past my bed-time, unable to put the book down. Where the synopsis may seem “familiar”, it subverts expectations, adds elements and leaves you second-guessing all the way until the end. Throughout the novel you might feel disoriented at times, but it always feels intentional, rather than being the result of poor plotting. Rather, you feel what the characters feel as they uncover piece by little piece of the puzzle that is the Deadswitch-wilderness.
Worldbuilding, environmental descriptions and atmosphere are spot-on. I’ve started this review by comparing the atmosphere and setting to Area X, which is a huge compliment coming from me, as Annihilation is my uncontested favourite horror-novel.

What I didn’t like:
The engagement I felt to the plot and mystery unfortunately didn’t extend to the characters. Despite the authors efforts I never felt attached or connected to them beyond their “role” in moving the plot. This may be in part due to the many different POV’s, that all read quite similar, and don’t differ in narrative tone of voice from one character to the next. For a plot-/mystery-driven story, this works fine, but for me as a character-driven reader, I would’ve liked to get to know our cast a little more in depth. I do really appreciate a cast of smart characters, who actually act smart on page, at the center of a survival horror novel. It’s surprisingly rare, but brings a breath of fresh air to the genre.
When I first received my ARC, I wasn’t aware that this would be the start of a new series. As such, I wasn’t quite able to adjust my expectations towards the ending. Briardark leaves many questions and mysteries open, and although it succeeded in hooking me for the sequel, I would’ve like to have gotten a little bit more resolution at the end. I’m hoping the author will nail the ending in the sequel, and not repeat the pitfalls of her YA debut.

Overall, despite the slightly unsatisfying ending, I still recommend Briardarkfor fans of sci-fi-horror or speculative mysteries. I myself will be eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Many thanks to Compass and Fern for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a pretty solid book, though I was surprised that it's the first in a series (at least, that's what it seemed like, from the ending). The pacing was better in the first part of the book, and for me it dragged a bit towards the end, but I liked the characters (besides Emmett), and it kept me intrigued. I liked the scientific element--how things kept happening that the main characters knew, based on their science backgrounds, should be impossible.

There's something about a horror novel that takes place in the woods, everything is creepier in the solitude of nature! This book is atmospheric and enthralling. Harian creates a world full of mystery that leaves you questioning whether the Briardark is an alternate reality, another plane of existence, or a magical world that lies just off the trail. It's a great mix of sci-fi/horror/thriller that any reader could pick up and fall into. I'm usually cautious about multiple storylines, but they really helped tell the story of those lost to the Briardark and I cannot wait for the next installment to see how they come together. It's going to be a long year waiting for book 2!

I hate this book.

This is a book that is SO good that you immediately want to read book 2 except this book isn’t even out until January and book two is slated for TWENTY-TWENTY-FOUR. I guess onto the review since I can’t time travel…

Siena Dupont’s mentor told her “don’t go” on his deathbed. She didn’t listen. Now, on an expedition into the Deadswitch Wilderness with her team things start to get weird and she’s beginning to wonder if she should have listened. A disappearing dead body in a tree is just the start.

This is definitely a creepy, twisty story and I can’t wait to see where the series takes us. There’s so many threads to this story that really makes you want to see how they all come together. I mean - there’s cults, strange entities and missing hikers - and I’m pretty sure that’s just chapter one.

I really enjoyed this book and am really grateful to find a new voice in horror. Can’t wait to see what’s next and return to the Briardark!

Read this if you:
- Like hiking and love to freak yourself out
- Hate hiking and need a reason to never go into the woods again

I hesitated a bit at requesting Briardark, as the description says "for fans of Lost and House of Leaves," which is totally in my wheelhouse, but I've read other books that made such claims but fell way short of their promise. But Briardark absolutely fits that description and more - in addition to having the kind of mysteries, possible time travel and/or alternate dimensions associated with both those properties, it also was reminiscent of at least two specific X-Files episodes and the movie/noel Annihilation. It mainly starts when Holden, an IT guy working for Oregon State University, is tasked with checking old external hard drives to see if they have any pertinent data left on them before wiping them clean. On one he discovers files, including audio files, of Dr. Siena Dupont, a fancy geologist from Cal Tech who led an expedition into the Deadswitch Wilderness in northern California to follow up on previous research of a melting glacier that had been conducted many years before. This also happens to be the same area about which a famous true crime book had been written about five hikers who went missing without a trace in that same region seven years previous. But now Dupont's team encounters strange things on the mountain, including possible findings relating to the missing hikers, trails and mountain peaks that don't appear on normal maps, a mysterious dark presence and possible time/space anomalies. Meanwhile, the recovered audio files lead Holden to begin a search of his own to find out what happened to Dupont who may or may not be missing herself,.
This novel was written in an intense and captivating manner, the mysteries keeping you glued to the page and eager to find out what happens next. While a lot isn't explained, at not point is the plot too obtuse or confusing, just mysterious. The only real drawback is, though I know it's listed as part one of a series, it was frustrating that just as it seemed a crucial turning point was about to occur, the book ended. I'm not sure I can take another 360 pages of going through all the mystery, but I can't wait to find out what happens next.

I really enjoyed this book! Dr. Siena Dupont and her small team set off into the Deadswitch Wilderness to study the Alpenglow glacier and then a ton of crazy things happen and they just keep happening. the other important character is Holden, who comes across Dr. Siena Duponts hard drives and audio files recounting the madness of the expedition in the Wilderness. Holden in intrigued by the mystery of the recording and is determined to solve it.

This story is told from multiple POVS, I'm a big fan of this if its done right and I think this was definitely done right. The author was able to portray each characters view without having the same information overlapping from character to character.

I was enveloped in the story from page one, when you think you might have an idea of what is happening... you don't. I was a little disappointed that the book finished without any concrete answers but I know this is just book #1 in the series and I cant wait for when book #2 releases. I need answers!!!

I think if you enjoyed the shows "LOST" and "DARK" then you're likely to really enjoy this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Compass and Fern, and S.A. Harian for sharing the digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my authentic review.

Briardark is S.A. Harian's first published novel and woah what a debut! This horror novel is filled with mindbending mystery, spine chilling scares, and a dark fantastic storyline. While reading I was completely engrossed!

I can't wait until the next installment of the series. I believe S.A. Harian will take the horror genre by storm with Briardark!