Absolutely incredible story that will keep you guessing. The creepiness factor is off the charts, which makes it even more appealing to YA readers. One of my favorite horror YAs I’ve read this year.

"One.
Inhale.
Two.
Exhale.
Three.
I was gone."

17 year old Hylee keeps getting sucked back in time to the worst night of her life; the night her brother disappears. The night that sets off her continuous jumps between the present and… somewhere else. Now, she has to solve the mysterious disappearance for her brother and for herself.

—

This book has such spooky vibes and feels like the perfect transition book from light summer reads to the moodier darker vibes of fall. With an august 2023 release date, it comes at a perfect time to ease you into your more sinister TBR pile.

The book has been likened to Jordan Peele’s films and I can definitely see it as a inspiration source. However, while Lewis definitely embraces the Get Out and Us vibes she still keeps her voice present in the story.

Hylee, the main character in the story is just trying to figure out herself, her new family dynamic, and her new home all while navigating grief. What I loved about her character was that while she grew within the story it was slow and often times a little messy. She had moments of reflection where she could recognize the duality in the world around her but it was in a way that very much seemed appropriate for someone her age. I loved that we witnessed her clouded judgement and mistakes as well as her ability to learn how to communicate. It was fun, scary, and had a sweet little hint of romance.

I also enjoyed a lot of the horror elements but found that sometimes they would be pushed to the back-burner in favor to some of the more sci-fi elements in the story. The horror felt more successful in that we were really in those moments with Hylee. It felt real, gripping, and even relatable. I was often reminded of the many sleep paralysis demons I’ve faced lol.

Once thing I did struggle with was the pacing in the story. It took me a long while to get into the story and it was a little heavy on the foundation of the story. However, once the story is going, I was fully committed. I finished it in like 4 hours and didn’t want to put it down. But another thing revealed itself while reading and that was the fact that the beginning felt like it had too much time and the rest of the story had soooo little time. This lead to a few friendships being underdeveloped and a strong desire to be left in certain key moments a little bit longer.

Despite the pacing issue, I really enjoyed this story. I didn’t want to put it down and it kept me on my feet! I actually let out some gasps at different revelations and I definitely shed a tear at the end!

A Special thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC to me for Review.

This was such a fun read! The concept was really cool - I loved that the horror elements were mixed in with the science fiction of time travel, it was something I haven't seen done before. I liked the plot- the mystery and darkness sharing its seat with mundane high school life with a little bit of romance (which was so sweet I loved them so much). The way her time travel was paralleled with her grief, and how unravelling and learning more about one ended up bringing her closer to closure and acceptance with everything going on with her family, that was really well done. The second half of the book was definitely my favourite part, it was high stakes, there was a cool twist when she goes back and accidentally messes up the timeline- I wish this was explored a little more; seeing how a small shift can completely rearrange the family dynamics etc.

I feel like this book tried to do a lot of things, so some things felt a little brief- like they could've been explored in more detail. The science of time travel was touched on but was compared to Marvel/superheroes a lot (it felt like a shortcut to explain it without actually explaining how it was possible). I would've loved if we got more scenes with his grandpa talking about his experiences with different times and dimensions etc. There were also those really lovely flashes of memory/future/parallel realities where the two MC's are having really sweet, fluffy moments- I would've liked to have at least one full scene where they used time travel to do something fun - even just as a short epilogue, but their relationship definitely could've been explored more.

The interpersonal relationships (aside from her and her brother) felt kind of filler-y, her best friend who she ends up telling her biggest secret to only had a couple scenes worth of page-time. I really wanted to see more of their friendship, how it would help the MC heal a little more of her grief and maybe come out of her defensiveness a little. Speaking of, I really appreciated how self-aware the MC was of her own behaviour. She knew when she was doing something wrong/mean etc. and especially with Eilam, we see on-page reconciliation which I LOVED!! More often than not YA protagonists are oblivious to their own behaviour (especially bad/toxic) so this was really refreshing!!

Structurally, this one fell a little short for me. The pacing felt very sporadic- the middle section felt very stagnant compared to the start and the end which were very action-packed so it dragged a little there. I would've liked if maybe the time-travel training could've happened IN different timelines, it would've made the stakes a little higher and it feel less repetitive. I also would've liked if the time travel element was introduced - just a paragraph of general introduction (even if it was just a marvel lore or something like that) to set it up, because it felt very paranormal and then when the science-y time travel was revealed it felt a little anticlimactic. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the flowers growing out of their mouthes image - I really loved the idea of monstrous, invasive foliage incorporated into the physical bodies of the alternate characters but this felt a little cheesy. The ending was good, I liked the image of vines and greens growing around her brother after being trapped there for so long- like that world was consuming him slowly, stitching his mouth closed. I think if that was the tone from the start it would've leaned more into the horror which would've been fab. Sentences also started with verbs a lot, which was a little jarring to read - "Couldn't pinpoint" instead of "I couldn't pinpoint".

Overall, it was a fun read and the concepts were really cool but the execution could have been more focused.

Chills, tingles, butterfly flutters!! This was a such an easy read due to the flow of the writing and quick pace of the storyline. I absolutely adored this book! The Dark Place was truly haunting and heartbreaking, and the romance subplot was genuine and sweet and hopeful. I would read this again which I don't do that often.

Spoilers below!

I don’t know what I expected from this but I loved it! Although it was a simple book I had such a fun time reading this.

The story follows Hylee, a 17 year old who went through a traumatic event and now finds herself “disappearing”. I really enjoyed the main character and her struggles as well as the romance and mystery aspect of the story (although I am not a huge romance fan).

I didn’t see any of the twists or reveals coming and was shocked with what Hylee discovered. I would love to see a sequel of her investigating her uncles disappearance!

The Dark Place is a beautiful story of grief, friendship, self-discovery, and mystery. Britney S. Lewis is a master at imagery. I could picture the dark place and the vining threads weaved throughout the story so well that it was hard to read at night sometimes!

I really loved the relationships throughout the book. Eilam and Hylee had great chemistry, her relationship with her grandma had a lot of depth, and her various girl friendships were so relatable—even with the surface conflict of the friendships being time travel!

My only wish is that the ending was longer. I felt that the resolution was a bit rushed; I wish we could have had more.

(I also loved all of the references!)

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and was honored to receive an eARC. I can’t wait to see what Lewis does next!

Thank you Britney S. Lewis for posting your giveaway on Twitter and allowing me to come across this and read this amazing book! I love science-fiction and magical realism and it is so rare that you get to read this type of book with a Black main character. Lewis incorporates African American culture and family skillfully in this narrative. I can really relate to Hylee as the second child and first daughter of the family and always feeling like you have to fix what’s wrong with the family. The Dark Place is an amazing read that I’ve already been recommending to my friends!

This fascinating story crosses between Stranger Things and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Suppose you like a complex love story with the dark and mysteriousness of the upside-down and a parallel universe on a loop. In that case, this is the story for you. This is Britney's sophomore novel. The Dark Place follows a Seventeen-year-old, Hylee, who finds herself with the ability to vanish on a night her brother goes missing during events that change her family dynamic forever. This story is a walk with grief, trauma, love, friendship, family, and secrets. It reveals how only together can we heal and move forward. Brittney lucidly writes of PTSD and dissociative amnesia. This, paired with the mystery of her brother and the multiverse, makes for an intriguingly dark and twisted story of what's real and absent and how we must find and face it. It cleverly brings to life the physical manifestation of grief so exquisitely. This story also questions the preordained destiny of soulmates and how sometimes, lovers are timeless and fated. This tale was thoroughly researched and mapped out; it has it all. There are no lulls. This action-packed and emotionally heavy story takes you on a whirlwind. This is a five-star must-read.

Content Warnings: Murder, Alcohol/Drugs, Graphic Violence, PTSD, Trauma, Mental Health

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This books has got the be the most anticipated read of the year! Idk what it is but the darkness and recall to memory from the main character, Hylee, gives me so many chills! I went through all of the emotions with her and it actually caused me to look within. This book is truly a work of art

Hylee Williams doesn’t know why she can disappear, only that when she does, she’s thrust into a dark, rotting version of the night that has defined most of her life: the night someone violently broke into her house and her brother went missing.
She’s convinced that this terrifying place is the key to understanding what happened to her brother, but she can’t seem to stay in that other place long enough to get the answers.
When she meets Eilam Roads, he seems all too familiar despite having never met. And when she disappears right in front of him, she has two options - lie or reveal her secret. “Together, Hylee and Eilam investigate the truth about time, space, and reality, with Hylee increasingly convinced her time travel holds the key to saving her brother. But the more they learn, the more Hylee begins to see darkness lurking in her world--and in herself.”


This book was stunningly creepy, and I could feel The Dark Place lurking on every page. There were so many things that I loved about this book.
The horror time travel element was so unique and effective and allowed us to really see all of these parts of Hylee and her internal world. It served so well to explore Hylee’s grief and processing of her trauma. I loved the bit of romance that develops (we all love to see a grounded, stable, positive love interest!!). Eilam is my favorite. And it’s so refreshing to read teenagers that actually act like teenagers! Britney Lewis does an incredible job at creating characters that make teenage decisions and say teenage things realistically, and I think that this book is going to be so important and meaningful in the hands of teens who need it.
In addition to the horror and time travel plot, we get complicated familial relationships, friendships, and Hylee’s own journey of grief.

I really enjoyed how the end wrapped everything up, but won't say more in order to avoid spoilers!

This is a wonderfully spooky book about coming to terms with the things we can't change and the ways that the past can fester and haunt us.

I devoured this in a single day and enjoyed every page.

Thank you Britney Lewis, NetGalley, and Disney Hyperion for the advanced readers' copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is not my first Britney Lewis book and The Dark Place will not be my last. Britney Lewis has the ability to write complicatedly, beautiful dark stories that hold vivid characters that are hard to forget. I loved the pop culture references woven within the pages of the book also it gave beautiful background to such an engaging story.
_______________
Seventeen-year-old Hylee Williams didn't ask to disappear. But she did disappear, and not only that, but when she vanished from our world, she materialized in a dark, twisted version of the night that changed her life forever: the night her older brother went missing.

Just as Hylee realizes this moment could be the key to unraveling the truth about her brother, she's yanked away from the dark place back to our world. Craving a sense of normalcy, she goes to a party with her best friend--where she meets Eilam Roads. Tall, handsome, and undeniably, inexplicably familiar, Hylee can't help the pull she feels towards him. It's a classic teen girl-meets-boy situation, until it happens again. She disappears, right in front of him.

Together, Hylee and Eilam investigate the truth about time, space, and reality, with Hylee increasingly convinced her time travel holds the key to saving her brother. But the more they learn, the more Hylee begins to see darkness lurking in her world--and in herself.

Britney S. Lewis's sophomore novel combines the quotable relatability, swoony romance, and emotional resonance of John Green with the surrealist horror imagery and razor-sharp wit of Jordan Peele. At once haunting and enchanting and entirely unforgettable.

I really enjoyed this book. It was easy to read, the chapters weren’t really long and it was well detailed. The scene was set really well and the people were described in detail. None of the characters were irritating, I liked them all.
There was so much packed into the story and I really liked it. I wasn’t expecting the time travel part of it, I was expecting more house of hollow vibes rather than time travel. But I’m not disappointed. I felt like the author had a lot of knowledge on the subject, I felt like I was learning a lot whilst reading which was nice.
The romance was great too, I didn’t get cringed out and it wasn’t over done. The two main characters had great chemistry and you can really feel that whilst reading.
I do feel like the ending was a tad rushed, most of the book was slow going then in the last 100 pages it was all crammed in. I didn’t hate it, I just wished the author spaced the story out more of that makes any sense. I also wish we got an epilogue too.
Overall, I really really did love this book, it was dark, twisty, intriguing and informative. I was fully engrossed the whole way through. Highly recommend to anyone thinking about reading this to definitely do it. It had a great uniqueness to it.

Diet horror, grief, loss, secrets.. time travel? The dark place is a great story of all these things and a great introduction to the horror side of YA. Hylee is a complex character and what I loved most about her besides her bizarre time travelling to another dimension is that when she makes a mistake she owns it, she’s not afraid to say this is why I did that but I’m sorry for how I handled it which is a great lesson to all ages. Lucia can get lost, if my best friend suddenly has what’s basically a superpower I would be low key obsessed and I’d never leave a party and go home without knowing where my friend/s are that came with me.

You're 👏🏼 gonna 👏🏼 wanna 👏🏼 read 👏🏼 this. And you're not gonna put it down til it's done.

Time travel, dimensions, universes, mysteries, grief, romance, this story has it all. If you're a YA reader/fan and enjoy a tense story with a sprinkle of love, this is for you.

This gripping, YA mild-horror/sci-fi follows Hylee; a 17-year-old in the midst of starting a brand new school following a mysterious phenomenon that left everyone- including her- shocked and unwary.

We follow her adventures with a new, yet familiar friend that holds your interest from the moment the two characters cross each other's paths. Together, with a lil ✨romance✨ they deep-dive into the possibilities of what exactly is going on.

The pacing is a bit off for my personal taste, it feels rushed in some parts, and too slow in others- but overall, my final rating is a 4/5. If you have the patience for slightly inconsistent pacing, it'll be a 5/5 for you!


**I would love to see a prequel to this book, and I hope the author considers it!**


I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review- my review is 100% honest

Another win from Britney S. Lewis!

This gave me major Butterfly Effect (starring Ashton Kutcher) vibes with Lewis’ signature fast pace and mysterious tone.

The Dark Place draws you in immediately and doesn’t let go. I couldn’t put this book down. Lewis writes in such a way that pushes you to read cover to cover with such ease.

Hylee’s teen emotions force us to recall times that we may look back on as being over dramatic but we truly felt things as teenagers and I think it is easy to relate to Hylee as she tries to understand her family and navigates her relationships with friends and a possible love interest.

I love how Lewis delivers every time in her creative, unique and dark way

I will absolutely not be shutting up about this book for the next 4 months, WOW!! Britney kept me on my toes with every turn of the page. I grieved and gasped right alongside Hylee and every time I thought I knew what was happening, my expectations were completely flipped upside down. I’m so excited to see what’s next from Britney!

After disappearing and reappearing (in a supernatural ghost sort of way), Hylee’s parents send her to live with her grandma. Hylee has no idea what’s happening to her and no one is offering any answers. Her parents seem to be afraid of her, and her grandma refuses to talk about Hylee’s disappearance. What she hoped was a weird one time thing becomes a random and uncontrollable vanishing act that leads Hylee to keep materializing in the past on the night her older brother went missing. She refers to the place she appears as the dark place. It’s her past, but a dark, twisted version of it. Hylee hopes she can find out the truth about what happened to her brother.

Hylee meets Eilam at a party, they catch each others eye and hang out a few times. Their common ground is a saving grace for both of them and anchors their blooming relationship. A relationship that feels somewhat like deja vu. It’s their connection that allows Hylee to get the answers she’s been looking for.

Hints of horror is accurate way to describe this story. I enjoy Brittany’s sensory descriptions that helped paint horrifying imagery. Heavy on the science fiction since time travel is a big part of the story. And a splash of teen…I can’t think of a fitting word. Naturally romance comes to mind, but I also don’t think that’s accurate. Nor would I say teen love because they didn’t fall in love. More so a strong like.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for the eARC!

All I can say is WOW! Britney’s ability to write characters that are relatable, multi-dimensional, and evoke every emotion in you is amazing and not something I see often at all from a lot of authors. I was so looking forward to her sophomore novel and she did not disappoint. That plot twist!! Did not see it coming. My jaw was on the ground. The pacing of the story was perfect. It picked up speed in all the right places. The dark place was so vivid and easy to imagine because of how it was described and written. I also like how the ending was not a “perfect” ending but still a relatively happy one with that tinge of sadness. But there was healing. Overall I couldn’t get enough of it and have already recommended it to multiple people.

~~Thank you to Britney Lewis and Disney-Hyperion for granting me an e-ARC!~~

I was so excited to have received this ARC from the author herself (She had a form for reviewers to apply; I thought I'd shoot my shot and got my copy less than 24 hours later!) because I loved her debut when I read it last year. Unfortunately, I thought The Dark Place was just okay.

The pace was agonizing. I have enjoyed many slow-paced books in the past, but I couldn't enjoy it here because a lot of it was repetitive and describing mundane things in such a dry manner. The horror imagery were really good, as I come to expect from Lewis, but I found myself skipping through when it wasn't creepy. Then when things start picking up in the climax, things got so rushed and left me thinking, "That's it?" when I finally reached the last page.

I found Hylee sympathetic, with the conflict with her family (Who were so insufferable and [the closure at the end was so rushed. Instead of the brother disappearing without a trace like he did in the original timeline, Hylee brought him from the titular dark place and back to robbery, which lead to him being killed. That, in turn, lead to the family gradually healing from the trauma together rather than being distant, uncooperative, and negligent of Hylee. It was explained all in a page and it was so annoying, especially after enduring a whole book of them being so terrible. The closure didn't feel earned to me.) and determination to get answers out of them, but I didn't like Eilam. He told her she wasn't "like other girls" and that she was the main character, all of which made me put my phone down so I could collect myself. He was too good to be true, [his only flaw seemingly that he lied to Hylee about him having time-travel powers, too. His reasoning was that it made other people freak out when he told people, but it's so dumb. Hylee points this out, too, when they talk about it. It can be excusable considering they're both just 17, literal teens, but what isn't for me is Eilam's lack of any other flaws. The romance, their banter and relationship, as a whole, was so lackluster for me.

As for the time-travel portion, relating to my pace problems, it took way too long for that plot thread to kick up and ran through it too fast in the end. Additionally, I don't like how it was just chalked up to genetics and nothing more. What in the genetic code can make one defy the laws of space and time? This question is never explained, which isn't necessarily a problem in itself. Magic/science systems don't need to be overly explained (I actually hate whenever that's the case in fantasy and sci-fi), but Eilam's grandpa was a scientist. Surely, he could've given some explanation more than, "Oh, it's all in the genes."

Although Lewis' sophomore didn't work for me, I still plan to pick up any work she puts out in the future. She does really well with horror imagery; I wanna see what other ideas she will pursue in the future.

Britney Lewis’s The Dark Place was an engaging teen read, which although it is quite tricky to categorise, will hold the attention of dark fiction fans, particularly those who enjoy a strong element of romance. The story is told in two timelines, primarily today’s ‘present’ when seventeen-year-old Hylee Williams is sent to live with her grandmother in Kansas. Why might you ask? Her behaviour has been erratic and unpredictable by her mother and it is clear she has some emotional problems which are connected to some years earlier when Hylee was eight. In this earlier timeline there is a violent incident in the family home after which her elder brother disappears and is never seen again. Lacking closure, a body to mourn, or any answers Hylee struggles with both grief and trauma and is is not handled very well by her family. But this is because they have secrets and a lot of them. I read this book relatively blind and I would be very interested to see how genuine teen readers take to it, as it develops into a dark thriller which is spliced with teen drama, science fiction (time travel) and the type of concepts explored in the Oscar winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once.

It is also worth pointing out that Hylee is Black but that race does not play a significant part of the story beyond the family being financially poor. The romance storyline plays a big part in The Dark Place and after Hylee connects with the very cute (and really nice guy) Eliam Roads you’ll see why. Initially the reader things Hylee suffers from blackouts, faints or loses her memory but quickly realise it is something much stranger, she physical disappears and the novel explores how this happens and its connection to the horrific events when she was eight. Time travel and romance are quirky bedfellows and even if it (beyond) highly convenient that another major character Hylee meets had the same gift I was happy enough to overlook it. Also, even though there was very little explanation into how this worked it was more than made up for by Hylee’s great character and commitment to bringing her family back together. The Dark Place also had a really great ending and if you do not mind the frequent f-bombs then any young teen might enjoy it. AGE RANGE 12/13+