I thought this was a really beautiful, enigmatic read. The prose was lovely and lyrical and really drew me in, in particular. There was also a really good perspective on friendship and trauma, and how those two things interconnect, as well as how time changes them—and I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge how the imperfections of the character played into my liking of this book. The worldbuilding was interesting, straddling a good line between fantasy and horror and playing into my favourite parts of both. I can't wait to see what comes out of Pearson next!

We Ate the Dark is the perfect example of less is more.

The story itself is there, however the overly long sentences are just not necessary. It often felt like it was meant to be deep and mysterious wordsmithing, but just turned into what felt like a two page essay being turned into a ten page through a generator. It turns out that this style of writing is probably not for me and I feel that the plot itself was taking a backseat to the lyrical prose.

I was left with the feeling of hoping the read was almost complete but not having a lot of story and found myself only 25% through. I knew at that point that this would be a slog. I have finished and I don't know who I would even recommend this to.

Thank you to NetGalley, 47North & Mallory Pearson for an advanced copy for review. With how long it took me to get this one finished, it is now available.

I wanted to like this one more than I did.
It is a good mystery, great friendships, interesting story, intriguing fantastical elements, a lot to love, but this was too wordy for me and really impeded my enjoyment. I dragged reading this book.
I'm not big on descriptions in general, I'm quite happy skipping paragraphs when settings get their glory moments, but here descriptions are in every sentence. And while I love atmospheric moody work, I didn't feel like it served that purpose. I think the author just likes the artistic feel of descriptions, like a rococo painting with all those decorations everywhere, which is ok, it's her style, but it's not what I like to read.

I've just noticed how this really divided the reader community as I came here to give my review. Again, I want to stress this isn't badly written, it is just taking a slower more complaisant pace than most enjoy. But I can imagine angsty new adults and Wednesday fans will like it.

I recently read a fantasy book that I found challenging to follow due to the author's descriptive language. The story revolved around the themes of light and dark, magic, friendship, and a mysterious loss, which were intriguing. However, the biggest issue I faced was the lack of a clear narrator, making it hard for me to keep track of the characters and their point of view. I also felt that some parts could have been removed, and the ending seemed a bit rushed. Despite these issues, I enjoyed the portrayal of the friendships between the characters.

This book started out with so much potential and had all the makings of a possible new favourite. But I just could not do it. The writing is extraordinarily self-indulgent and what probably started out as a plan to write in Baroque ended up becoming exhausting and distracting.

This book sounded like everything I wanted: murder mystery, ghosts, haunted house, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. I found the writing hard to grasp. It was so flowery and metaphoric, the book needed some editing and was 200 pages too long. I wasn’t interested in the characters, they read and acted very juvenile to me. Poppy, Frankie and Cass were very hard to distinguish between and all felt the same. I really had no interest in discovering what happened to Sophia and that never changed for me throughout the book. I also don’t like when there’s a romance in my horror books, it’s unnecessary. I thought aspects of this story were creepy and I would have liked more of that instead it missed the mark for me. This book might be a good read for a younger reader.

Thank you Netgalley and 47North for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

very sorry to report after months of trying i did not finish this book

im sure there are people out there who will love it but the prose was not for me

5 fucking stars bitch.

The people slandering this book are actually gonna be me homicidal.

“The descriptions are pretentious and too much” in what fucking world? Have you ever read a book before? The descriptions are beautiful and quite literally any author who’s a good writer will have similar descriptions. They’re rlly not that crazy idk why u guys r making it so dramatic. And also not knowing what the plot is/where it’s going and ur not even that far in??? Like uhhhh some books the point is the plot will build… the plot becomes extremely clear, but ig u wouldn’t know that because u dnfed. These one star reviews are just rlly getting on my nerves because this books rating has been sunk for dumb reasons. This is my favorite horror I’ve read in a LONG time.

It’s artful as shit and an amazing queer found family experience. The main characters were written amazingly I loved them all (apart from Sofia she fr screwed everyone over) and I thought they all had unique characteristics and interesting personalities.

My favorite part of this book is the worldbuilding though. I rarely find a horror book that’s this extensive with its world. It’s so fucking interesting. The mirror magic, the fissure, the god. I absolutely love this world and I hope she writes another book in it if there won’t be a second in this series.

I absolutely loved Marya and her magic was so fun to read. Her romantic tension with Frankie was so good too. I loved them together.

All in all, this book is genuinely amazing and I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it and if you’re a reader who was interested in reading this that’s now just seen all the bad reviews—don’t fucking listen. Give this book a chance it deserves it. I almost let those affect my reading experience when I read them right before I started it, but quickly I realized they were wrong. This horror was extremely well written and plotted and has some of the most relatable characters I’ve read in a while. I also loved the author’s note. The friendships she created in this story were lovely and so amazingly queer. Haunted queer girlhood at its finest.

Thank you sm Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book!

This book began with an interesting premise, then fell flat. Reading the multiple personalities is tedious. It completely detracts from the rest of the story. Tell the mystery or tell the multiple personality story - both in one book doesn’t work here.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review.

I hate doing this because I love receiving ARCs and read for review books from here, but I absolutely struggled with this book and ended up DNFing.

My biggest issue was how disjointed everything felt. We dove in right away feeling like there should have been a prequel to understand and then the story felt all over the place.

I like the premise, the idea that friends stay together even through death, but unfortunately I could not complete this.

Four women investigating the haunting murder of their friend discover more than they ever imagined in a terrifying novel about good and evil, love and death, and the spaces between.

There is so much to love in this horror novel and a few things, that for me, let it down.
We have a good ghost story, a murder mystery, a haunted house,an alternate universe, and a LGBTQ host of woman.

In a way it may have been too much for the story itself.
The writing for the most part was beautiful and one heck of a debut novel.
But it also logged me down and made it harder to follow then it needed to be. I really struggled with this novel. I wanted it to be better than the good it was.

In the end I just think there were too many things going on tonot get lost on this particular hike.

It is worth giving it a chance. It may be just the style that speaks to you,and the story itself is strong.

Thanks to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I really thought this would be a high rating for me because I love horror and the darker the better but I just didn't gel with this book, and, the worst part I am not even sure why. It felt too slow in places and too rushed in others. I will definitely read more by the author though

Third person narrative is tricky, especially for a complex horror-ish plot. I tried really hard for this one, but it's over done. Too many descriptions, details and literal synonyms that have no business being included. It really dragged for me and I contemplated dnf several times. It really had potential to be a good mystery/horror, but unfortunately I didn't get that reading experience.

I really wanted to like this book based on the eerie cover and the intriguing description. Unfortunately, I had to DNF 30% in. I am still going to give this 2 stars as I think the plot has a lot of promise and ultimately could get better and result in a really good story IF I were able to power through the absolute sludge of descriptive writing clogging up the pacing.

A few positive points:
- The mystery element revolving around Sofia's death was really interesting and I was excited to see how Marya's role would come into play as the truth was unraveled
- The found family element with the girls was precious, and I loved that they had varying levels of trust after the five year span between Sofia going missing and being found
- The writing is so very very descriptive and at times very lyrical or poetic. It is easy to visualize some of the scenes because of the long-winded descriptions.

Reasons I DNFed (slightly unhinged and brutally honest comments ahead):
- The writing style is just too descriptive, leaving the plot to sit stagnant or move at a painfully slow pace. Like I do not need a whole page just to describe what the living room looked like during the funeral. I don't need 3 paragraphs telling me in detail about a 3-word interaction that didn't actually establish anything important.
- I spaced out so much, and that was me using an audio AND ebook to read it. I couldn't pay attention because there was nothing happening. It was all just setting the scene without the scene even happening.
- By 30% I feel like all I had learned was that Sofia was dead and Marya could see her ghost... Like I genuinely don't know the plot other than trying to figure out who killed Sofia?
- I had no distinction between the three main friends - Frankie, Cass, and Poppy. They all had the same personality and attitude, and because they all seemed to have some sort of romantic relationship or at least attraction to each other, there were times where I truly had no idea who was who. But they were also being weirdly standoffish to each other sometimes and I just couldn't figure them out.
- The chapters with Sofia and Finder had me feeling so lost and confused. Probably because the main story made no progress so having these alternating pov chapters just felt like it was throwing the pacing way out of whack.

I really wanted to like this one. Description makes it sound so good but it wasn't. Writing is tedious and I almost DNF a few times

We Ate the Dark is one of those books I am so excited to come across and even more thrilled to have read after finishing. It is an atmospheric story with love (sapphic and platonic) and grief at the heart while never sacrificing the true horror that awaits this group of friends. I found Pearson’s lyrical writing perfect for the southern gothic horror that lives in its pages. The background of small town North Carolina was a fitting backdrop for it’s magic. I was completely enamored by the characters and their own individual journeys through their grief and how to move forward while honoring the past.

We Ate the Dark is eerie and completely human.
A brilliant debut!
I hope this story continues in the future.

Not different in a bad way, just different! That being said, I was still hooked because the story and the writing were so unique!

Slow start to the book, lots and lots of character details that was hard to keep up with. Story line was interesting enough to keep up with though.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson in exchange for my honest review.


I wanted to like this book because the premise was intriguing. Unfortunately, that was not my experience. I had a hard time reading it. It was worded beautifully, but sometimes the wording didn’t make sense and I found myself having to reread paragraphs. Also, even when it was easily understood, it was very wordy and too descriptive. The plot itself was pretty good once I started to skim some of the larger paragraphs which made the story more enjoyable. I would recommend this book but only if it was re-edited first.

For a little while, Jackass feels secure, but then she notices a person lurking where she had previously seen Glasswell standing. It must be seven feet or more tall, its smokey shape almost touching the above branches of the willow tree. She freezes as she witnesses it stutter forward and forcefully hit the truck's hood with one hand.

For some reasons I had to read and re-read, the story is very engaging, it has my 4 stars.