Rhiannon LeBeau thought she left her past behind when her mother abandoned her and her younger brother, Rhett, after their father committed suicide fifteen years ago. But when her mother unexpectantly dies she and her brother must go back for the funeral in the haunted Louisiana Bayou. Like fifteen years ago strange things begin happening and they need to discover the secrets of their family to save their lives.

“A Dark Roux” by Blaine Daigle was absolutely perfect. I loved the story from beginning to end. The trauma was so intense and dark. Both the characters, Rhiannon and Rhett, are easy to identify with even though their personalities were so different. I felt the same feelings as Rhiannon about her parents and went through the emotional rollercoaster alongside her to understand what actually occurred to her as a child. I did not see the end coming at all and was a puddle of tears. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars and would love to read more books by Blaine Daigle.

In the Louisiana bayou, Rhiannon LeBeau returns to her family's decaying ancestral home with her brother Rhett after their mother's death, reopening a chapter of dark mysticism, superstition, and buried family secrets. Having tried to escape the haunting memories of a tragic summer fifteen years ago, the siblings are confronted by a sinister force tied to the bayou, compelling them to confront the demons of their past and present. As the bayou's secrets resurface, a malevolent entity with a long memory and a debt to collect emerges, determined to ensure they both remain entangled in its grip.

This was a fun read with a dash of spook and a hint of creep, told from alternating viewpoints of the siblings as they confront the secrets of their former family home. While the story took place in a creepy setting and had plenty of action at the end, I never really felt a sense of tension. I think if we were given more information about past events and the family's history earlier on, it would have worked out in the novel's favor. Although it struggled from some pacing issues, I did enjoy it overall.

I recommend this to anyone interested in voodoo/witchcraft, Lousiana, family secrets, or redemption stories. Blaine Daigle is certainly an author to look out for!

5 stars

I had to take a couple days to figure out this review. And it’s going to be a rambling mess I’m sure, because no matter what I write it will not do this book justice.
Now, this is one of very few 5 stars I have given this year, and this book is the reason I love to read. It is exactly what I want out of a horror novel, but more than that, out of a reading experience.

Daigle hits us immediately with his beautifully descriptive prose, and sets the atmosphere from the first paragraph. You’re instantly transported to the South, where you can feel the humidity and hear the sounds of the bayou.
This book is just too good. It has a wonderful, slow and intentional build up. The characters are flawed, but that makes them relatable. The mystery and the whispers of voodoo really made the hair on my neck stand up. And that ending…. I’m not sure it could’ve gone any other way.
Overall this is just a beautiful and wonderful reading experience.


Daigle did not come to play, he definitely came to win.

I always love Southern gothic horror novels. Something about that atmosphere sets the perfect tone for them.

"A Dark Roux" was a perfect example of that. The author set the tone masterfully and kept the anticipation going until the climax at the end.

I didn't like the ending much even though it made sense. But that's not anything against the author. That's just me being sentimental.

This is my first book by this author and I really would love to read more of his work so he better keep it coming. Lol

Thank you to Wicked House Publishing for the opportunity to review this book!

THANK YOU to NetGalley & Wicked House Publishing for my copy of this enjoyable little book in exchange for a review!

Let me start out by saying, what a little gem of a story! The general vibe set by the first few paragraphs was so descriptive and gripping I was immediately invested and fell in love with the setting. The imagery is spot on. This truly delivers on execution without copying from like-media. Dark Folklore creeps out of the seams in the floorboards of this old sugarcane farmhouse in Louisiana, and into the history & lives of the LeBeau family.

I had no idea what “A Dark Roux” meant when I saw this book. I didn’t bother to look it up, either. I let the book take me on whatever journey it had planned. There’s a very heartfelt tie in to the title I was not expecting, and it gave me all the context I needed. Very smart on the authors part & does not go unappreciated by this unfamiliar Ohioan.

The story line presented has been used time and time again (Family member dies, pulling the main character back to the estate to uncover a mystery), but the journey is uniquely realized in A Dark Roux, turning a typical family tragedy trope into something fresh. I don’t always think the logic or timing/pacing works, but my gripes are minor, and I appreciate the direction the story goes. The concepts are an original take on universal ideas in the paranormal/fantasy genre and I rarely felt bored by anything when plot was moving forward (more on that later).

I also want to commend this author for the way in which he has written his female characters. This isn’t something I usually something I focus on, but with Rhiannon being our main character (and being female) she was fully realized as a person. Sometimes it's just painfully obvious when male writers are depicting woman characters, whether its personality issues (or lack thereof) or situational issues, they’re weak at times. This character had emotion, inner dialogue, conflicts, and personality. Her body wasn’t mentioned. Her outfits weren’t mentioned. She was treated like a person, and it was perfect.

This brings me to my critiques section of the review. There are a few plot points/timing issues with the story that just didn’t work for me, for one reason or another. I’ll be the first to admit, no matter what I’m reading, I always look for logical follow through on anything that happens. Even the paranormal can seem logical with the correct in-world building.

Let’s talk about timing within the story. At 43% of the way through, I realized we had no specified direction, and no answers. The language is so descriptive that you get lost in the large gaps the descriptions make in the movement of the story, and it feels like you’re inching along. The part that kept me invested was the simplicity of the setting and that I really wanted more time in the bayou itself. There’s just too much repetition in characters thoughts. It constantly goes from "everyone hates me here" to "I hate my mom" to "my poor baby brother" to "spooky house/bayou" to "I have to get out of here" to "everyone hates me", rinse, repeat through to 60%. Once or twice, and building upon the thoughts are fine, but these repetitions added nothing after the first couple times they’re mentioned. It did not build her character, or relationships. It just made them annoying and unhelpful.

I think the most frustrating part for me was being 60%+ through the book and not having any direction where we were going. We just kept talking about how scary the bayou was, but no proof of anything really happening. The same noises were circling the house, but there was no build or change to anything. The plot would have pressed forward as a slow burn easier if we had some glimpses into what is going on. What is the actual reason for holding any info back besides keeping the reader completely in the dark? This method does work. It makes it stale. We need something to feed off of, otherwise there’s no movement forward until the very end.

We finally start getting all the answers at around 70%. It hits all at once. It was almost a little too fast – it was hard to keep up with some of the revelations leading to where we are today. It felt so rushed compared to the circling inner dialogues of the characters previously, with everything happening in the last 10%. I think we as the reader need more windows into the occult/supernatural side of things as the story is progressing, so it feels like the story is progressing. There needs to be more callbacks, or context along the way to keep us guessing. It felt like it was dragged out and then all of a sudden exploded – you didn’t know what hit you. It felt as if a chunk of the book could have been discarded with no loss to the story as a result of Rhiannon’s consistent bickering points. If this was the intention, it was lost on me.

Overall, this story offers a unique vibe on bayou haunts. I consumed it within a week and found myself wanting to return to this little family every time I put it down. I love the description of the bayou and the house/land. It was a fully realized setting and I felt as if I was right there looking in on them as they struggled. My main criticism was the timing issue in plot point revelations (mostly just the circular inner monologues & low progressive story content). That aside, this was an absolute little gem of a story all the same, and I’ll be looking forward to what Blaine Daigle has for us next!

Thank you again to Wicked House Publishing and NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

TITLE: A Dark Roux
AUTHOR: Blaine Daigle
RATE: 5 Stars
POINT OF VIEW: Third Person
READING METHOD: Kindle
TRIGGERS: Unaliving, Gore
GENRE: Horror, Psychological

REVIEW/OPINION:
Spine-tingling, heart-thumping, edge-on-your-seat type of book. Reading A Dark Roux was a truly remarkable experience. Daigle has an exceptional ability to carefully craft every word in his sentences, resulting in a beautifully flowing narrative that reads like poetry. I was engrossed in the book and found it hard to put down. I wanted to savor every detail presented to me. It was sometimes nerve-racking because Daigle would give you a little bit of creepiness here and there. But just enough to make you crawl back for more on every page. I'm going to be reading more of his work in the future!

BOOK BLURB:
"The bayou watches as it sings. It is a place that hides its dead deep within the soil before the dead become living again, a part of this world enslaved to a fading memory of original creation."

Rhiannon traveled deep into the bayou to seek the River Church while her brother Rhett stayed in the old Louisiana home.

"But she had never been out this late. This hour when the world of man was driven by fear to beds of safety and comfort, while nature reclaimed what always belonged to her."

Rhett stayed behind to keep watch for once. Rhiannon was the one who did most of the protecting.

"His legs would remain unscarred and unbloodied from the sharp thwack of the leather."

However, no one could protect her brother from what he saw that night. The night that he saw their father was not alive anymore. Soon after, their mother, Miranda, sent them away. Fifteen years later, though, their old, gothic childhood home calls for them to come home. They have to lay their mother to rest. It's not just old childhood nightmares, voodoo rumors, hate crimes from their town, and the hole for their mother's grave that they'll be digging up. What happened to their dad? What secrets is Rhett hiding? Why does everyone in the town think that their mom is a witch? What is that thump, screech, thump noise in the middle of the night?

Rhiannon will need to return to the River Church, and only then will the curse be broken. All the answers she seeks will sit at the feet of the lady who holds the birdcage of bones.

I really enjoyed the author's first book <i>The Broken Places</i> and still think about some of the creepy stuff from it. I was excited when I saw his name on NetGalley. The premise didn't sound exactly up my alley but I gave it a shot - I'm glad I did since this was a great book.

The book starts in the summer of 1999 when our main character Rhiannon's father killed himself. Rhiannon had went out that night and asked her younger brother Rhett to wait up for her, so Rhett witnessed their dad's death.

Fast forward to the present - Rhiannon is a social worker who helps children who are removed from their homes. After her father's death, their mother dropped them at an aunt's house and never returned. She has nothing to do with her mother and hasn't been home in 15 years, but she's tortured by the guilt of what she caused her brother to see by asking him to wait up for her. She wakes from a nightmare to her brother calling - their mother died and he's asking her to come back.

Rhiannon goes to support her brother, but when she arrives, everything is a bit off. She feels someone watching her from the sugarcane fields (the house is situated in the middle of nowhere, next to the bayou). And that shape over there, that's just a large coyote, right? And coyotes normally stand up onto their back legs, right...?? And why is the house freezing in the middle of the summer? I'm sure it's just a bad air conditioner... sure... The town also hates them which reasons that get explained later, but is really interesting to watch unfold - what happened to turn an entire town against these poor children?

The author does an amazing job of setting the atmosphere. He gives you enough creepy stuff to draw you in but really takes his time with providing any explanation, which drove me nuts in a great way. I wasn't sure where the story was going or what the reveals were going to be. I appreciated how the story unfolded. There were a number of chapters set in the past which were done very successfully. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who's looking for a creepy, atmospheric horror story.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this advance review copy.

A Dark Roux by Blaine Daigle is a captivating dark southern gothic ghost story not to be missed. This horror gem takes readers on a journey through the chilling Southern landscape which is steeped in local culture and folklore. Daigle paints a vivid picture of this unique and eerie landscape which makes it easy to picture events unfolding, even for someone like me whose never set foot in Louisiana. This one is perfect for those looking for a quick Halloween read which mixes family tragedy with supernatural horror. The heart of this story lies in the relationship between the sibling protagonists as the author delivers complex, realistic and captivating characters. This really ramps up the tension and anxiety as you don’t want to see anything bad happen to them, but this wouldn’t be a horror novel if everyone got out unscathed. This one is a masterfully written tale which will draw you in and keep you on the hook until the chilling conclusion. Add this book to your Halloween list, you won’t regret it.

It was fine, just not for me

~This book was given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Don’t mess with the Bayou. If there’s any lesson to take from this book, that should be one of them. An incredible heartwarming bit spooky and breath holding story of a social worker dealing with her own past and a young boy recovering from a recent trauma. What do they have in common? It seems the same thing is haunting them…

This book is a fantastically creepy horror novel and I ate it up. When I saw this was available on NetGalley, I knew I had to grab it. I read Mr. Daigle's other book ,The Broken Places, and absolutely loved it. I loved this book even more.

Rhiannon LeBeau left the Louisiana bayou 15 years ago when her mother abandoned her and her brother Rhett shortly after their father's suicide. She swore to never return but upon her mother's death, she finds herself at the crumbling steps of the LeBeau house full of its secrets and ghosts. Something haunts the LeBeau house and the surrounding sugarcane. Memories begin to surface from her childhood, the creature she has seen in the sugarcane, the evil that haunts the house at night, and the time she spent traveling through the Place of Bones to get to the Old River Church. As children they heard rumors of witchcraft and voodoo and now must face their family's past if they are to escape the house that doesn't want them to leave.

This author has a great talent in setting the atmosphere in his novels. I have never been to the Louisiana bayou but I could feel the humidity, smell the decay and see the deep black water crawling with the unknown. Like his previous novel, the author also incorporates local folklore which was perfect. This was a really quick read for me as the book was full of action and there were surprises throughout.

I highly recommend this novel as well as this author's previous work. I have officially added this author to my auto read list.

Thanks NetGalley, Wicked House Publishing and Blaine Daigle for the copy of this book.

A Dark Roux is a fantastic book that hits all the right spots. Rhett and Rhiannon inherit more than a bayou mansion and sugarcane field when their mother passes. Daigle takes us on a terrifying adventure through several decades of voodoo, folk tales, mysterious deaths, creatures, and ghosts.

I did find the beginning a little difficult to get hooked into, but once I hit the 50% mark, I could not put the book down. I do have Daigle's other book on my tbr and this bumped it right up to the top. He writes with beautiful detail and makes it easy to picture the story in my head.

Thank you NetGalley, Wicked House Publishing, and Blaine Daigle for the ARC. I am happily leaving this review.

Really great. It’s dark, atmospheric and has a really great protagonist in the siblings. I think this book deals with family trauma really well. It’s also very vivid and descriptive of its environment. Great stuff

Beneath the black waters of the Louisiana bayou hides a world of dark mysticism. A world steeped in superstition and the decay of family legacies. A world Rhiannon LeBeau thought she’d left behind fifteen years ago after a summer of tragedy and horror.

This book had great atmosphere. I loved the tension and the characters and the overall vibe. Highly recommended.

This one was not a favorite for me. I enjoyed the premise but I found that the plot and character arcs left very much to be desired. I would consider trying this author again in the future.

Rating: 3.5⭐️

As a Southern Louisiana, a Cajun, & a Daigle descendant, as soon as I saw “roux” and “Daigle,” I knew I had to read this ASAP, especially since I’m in my spooky & horror era.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The imagery that the author created from the very beginning is incredible; it made me feel like I was right back in Louisiana. This novel was a perfect combo of possession, spirits, a haunted house, rougarous, voodoo, & curses. The twists were jaw-dropping, & plot was different and scary. I did notice that there were inconsistencies with the time that lapsed since the event, sometimes it’s fifteen, while other times, it’s twenty. I’m guessing that these will be fixed before it’s officially published, but it was a bit confusing at first. While I appreciate getting backstories & like dual timelines, I don’t think it worked here. There were strange mentions of things that could have been quickly explained either during the time it was mentioned to not cause confusion, from the character remembering it more in detail later, or during a specific part at the end of the book. The backstory chapters interrupted the flow of the narrative, particularly towards the end. Additionally, the book dragged from 40-60%.
Overall, this book is perfect for spooky season, & I’m going to check out his other novels.

Thank you to Wicked House Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC of Blaine Daigle's 'A Dark Roux.'

I enjoyed Blaine Daigle's 'The Broken Places' so was looking forward to reading 'A Dark Roux.'

The setting couldn't be more different, from the frozen North to the hot and steam bayous of Louisiana but we're met with a similar ancient evil embedded in the landscape surrounding an isolated home. Just like with 'The Broken Places' the author evokes landscapes well.

Two adults forced to revisit their tragic and haunted family home to confront the events that saw them driven away years before. On that point, unless I seriously misunderstood something. one thing I found very distracting is that author keeps switching between having those events 15 years before in some places and 20 years before in others. I think an editor needs to run through the novel to correct all of those to read 15 years since that seems to be the actual correct period of time based on Rhiannon being 12 when all of this happened and then being 27 when she returned.

Not too much happens in the first half of the book and I feel like this could've been reduced by half and it would've been a tighter and more enjoyable read. The story and events really pick up in the second half and, for me, becomes a much more enjoyable and better-paced read.

Absolutely love a spooky, spine-tingling, southern style read, and A Dark Roux fit that just perfectly! Daigle did a fantastic job of embodying the deep heart of the bayou throughout this book and how dark magic can linger in places that have been long forgotten about and left behind by time.

I intensely absorbed the first 80% of the book - the pacing was swift and the scenes were riveting. But as I got to the final parts and answers began being revealed, I felt the pace slowed significantly to where too much "explaining" was being done and not enough action was taking place. I absolutely welcome an enchanting, dark backstory, but I feel too much emphasis was placed on the backstory towards the end of the book that it took away from the real danger of the present.

But overall, still a total engrossing read and perfect for any reader who loves to be spooked out of their minds :)

This story was just perfection! It's a fast-paced and suspenseful story with interesting characters. The siblings duo was really fun to read and follow.
The book is about a haunted house but isn't just another haunted house book. It explores the horrors that happened years ago while the things happening in the present begin to take over. There are lots of secrets that the house holds, and you only get bits and pieces as the story progresses further and further. There are creatures in the sugarcane fields and there is an evil presence in the house itself that reveals itself at night. There were lots of sacrifices being made, and a lot of dark secrets being withheld. It was beautifully creepy!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

“But she had never been out this late. This hour when the world of man was driven by fear to beds of safety and comfort, while nature reclaimed what always belonged to her.”

“The place had a weight to it, and that weight had finally become too much for her to bear. The nights had become nightmares, surreal destructions of her sanity cooked in the black waters that waited just beyond the property line.”

I don’t know if the sugarcane field scared me more or was it the house itself that gave me the chills. Either way, the location where our story is based, are very interesting and you’re immediately drawn to it.

There are lots of secrets the house holds, and you only get bits and pieces as the story progress further. The momentum was smooth, and you don’t feel anxious about the missing pieces because the author’s got you.

The siblings duo was fun to follow. There were lots of sacrifices being made, a lot of dark secrets being withheld. But that doesn’t stop you from rooting for them.

Miranda’s character was very intriguing to me.

The best part of this book was the writing. It flowed so naturally and almost lyrically. The description was so detailed, it all feels like watching a movie.