> The line between bravery and foolishness is a blurry. <

What the hell was that? I was so confused by this book.

The start of this story was very abrupt without any explanations of the seeting or background which instantly made me being confused since there were some really strange creatures on the setting. But as the story goes on there is still not much information that the reader gets that can help understand the story. For my part I kind of understood what was happening while at the same time I was very confused.
Unfortunately, I was not a big fan of the story :(

This was definitely a quick read. I did not like Dana, her reactions and her actions. I end up rooting for Al and his friends. Al's companions definitely stole the show.

Thank you NetGalley for this advance reader copy..

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.
I requested this book as i was drawn in by the cover and thought it looked interesting.
This book was very unique and interesting, but i felt like the story was too short, could have been longer and went into more detail.

Thanks for letting me read.
3/5 stars

Deep Down Inside has great potential, however it is severely unpolished. The characters are underdeveloped, the story is confusing and lacking structure. Speech used is coming across as juvenile and forced, but it ended up just leaving me feeling really irritated. For myself, 90 odd pages is a normal one sitting read, this one took a few days though of going over and over trying to make sense of things.
Sadly, a miss for me. There is potential here and maybe with some extra polish it could be a nice little readable novella.
Thanks for the opportunity to read.

Unfortunately this is one of the most poorly written books I have ever read. I was given access to this book online by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
When I first saw that the book was not very long (90 pages?) I figured I’d breeze right through it, but my experience was quite the opposite. It took me several days to read what should’ve taken me no time.

The characters are flat and uninteresting, they offer you no connection and do not get you committed to them or their story.
The text is badly in need of editing and the story structure is severely lacking.
Plot/idea-wise there is some potential with the “other realm” and the creatures/characters of the story. But none of the potential is reached. Unfortunately.

When I saw the cover of the book and read the description it had vibes of Melissa Albert’s “The Hazel Wood” but it is honestly an insult to Albert to even mention her book in relation to this book.

I wanted so badly to not finish this book, but for the sake of this review I felt I must finish it.

This was an Interesting story. I would have liked a lot more details and background story. I feel like it was an dark fairytale that did not explain enough. Left me wanting to know more about the characters. I really wish the book was longer and had to details. Overall a nice short read.

Deep Down Inside for me was a good read. I enjoyed the mishmash of “otherworld” characters. I felt like the story could have done with a little more editing. Of course if it had left out the vampire club this would have definitely been for teen audiences. I did feel this was a little more psychological story line than originally portrayed as Dana delves into her own fantasies, fears etc. That said to me it was definitely a 3 star read.

This novella was a bizarre mash up of dark/urban fantasy, horror and fairy tales. The beginning was very vague and confusing, not rally giving enough details to explain who the characters were or what were their motivations. By the second half of the tale many of the missing pieces were filled in, which made for better reading that the early parts, But still there lacked a cohesive explanation for what happened. I think if this had been fleshed out into a longer book the narrative might have flowed better and made for a more enjoyable read. 2.5 rounded to 3*

I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book had great potential concerning the spooky underworld-like setting. However, it lacked in creating compelling characters. Dana mentions working on her thesis, and I was baffled. I assumed from the voice of the character that Dana had yet to graduate high school. The language used was repetitive. For example, Ombie picks pieces of his brains and eats them with little variation in the way the readers are being informed that he has returned to his anxious habit. Al's introductory speech when Dana appears at his door made me do a double take. The speech felt so out of place in the story. Additionally, Al's characterization relies on swearwords for a majority of the book. The 'old' language is too wordy and overexplained. Run-on sentences were frequent. I had to reread sections to understand the 'texting language' that was sprinkled throughout the text. The language often came across as extremely informal to the point of seeming juvenile. The informality in the text felt forced and caused irritation while reading, despite the feeling that the author was trying to be relatable. The use of the word 'thingy' significantly aged-down the characters in my mind. Redundant language was used often. Ombie's character is developed using two examples of allusion. The first calls to the creation of Dr. Frankenstein's monster when Dana envisions lightening bringing Ombie to life. The second allusion I picked up was Ombie's mental state being similar to Lenny from "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. Finally, Dana's ability to suddenly defeat the zombies at the end of the novel came out of nowhere. There was zero setup to Dana being more than an extremely flat character.

Do you ever read a book that just screams that it has potential? This book was that for me. The story itself could be marked for a younger audience if select scenes were removed but if developed into a deeper story it could be an amazing read. The characters scream potential and many of the scenes have the base of a great story. I'd market this book as more of a fantasy book than a thriller. My rating is due to the lacking complexity in the language and storytelling of the book as a whole. All and all it has great potential but reads closer to an early middle-school level.

Really unique and interesting premise. I do wish it had been longer with maybe a bit more detail, but overall, it was a nice short story.