this story is character-driven via an omniscient third person narrative, featuring a tight-knit group of women that love each other beyond the boundaries of friendship, and in some instances sapphic relationships develop. All this in combination just sets this book up to be exactly my type of read, and I was so ready to love this, maybe even gain a favourite book.

“Their grief grew mold in different dark spaces.”

“We Ate the Dark,” by Mallory Pearson

I liked this occult horror book. It is very poetic, sometimes a little too poetic, and centered around found family and depression. The writing could be a little confusing at times with its contradictions, but I liked the horror aspect of the book and the inner depression the characters go through. I give it 4 out of 5 stars, I’m glad I read it.

Thank you for the ARC

This was just ok for me! I had a hard time feeling connected or interested in the characters and story itself. I had to dnf half way through as I wasn’t finding myself enjoying or wanting to pick this back up. The cover and the description was very promising and intriguing so I am sad it fell flat for me. The writing was very beautiful in some parts though, and I do think this will find its intended readers!

I loved reading this book, the suspense and pace kept me reading especially when there were so many different elements to explore and get immersed with.

Underwhelming experience with this book! The premise had me intrigued, but unfortunately, it didn't deliver. The story follows four friends investigating their friend's murder, but the execution fell short. The writing didn't captivate me, and I struggled to connect with the characters. The eerie atmosphere tried to make up for it, but even that wasn't enough to redeem the book for me. I'd say this one missed the mark. If you're looking for a compelling and chilling read, I'd recommend exploring other options.

I feel there’s a very niche group of people who should enjoy this book but unfortunately I was not one of them.

The cover of this book is pretty and the description promised a unique and interesting story so my expectations were high, sadly they were not met. I appreciated the attempt made at world building with the witches, death and darkness as well as the underlying them of love and family but the way this book was written meant the story was hard to follow along and therefore I was unable to fully immerse myself in the book. When I read a book where I can’t follow the plot properly I can normally overlook that if the characters are great, but in this case they lacked depth.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book.

This was on my most anticipated reads of the year, and while it wasn't quite the 5-star read I was hoping for, it was still a pretty great read. I do agree to an extent with some reviewers that the poetic language stood at odds with what seemed like a very plot-driven, propulsive premise, so that was an initial shock, but I got into the rhythm of Pearson's writing and found myself really enjoying the ride, even if it took longer to read and wasn't quite as bingeable as I'd initially anticipated.

I really wanted to like this book. It sounded so great. It was ruined in the execution, though. I would like someone else to take a stab at giving this plot the writing it deserves.

Mannnnn, I wanted this to be good. The writing is so flowery and pretentious I couldn't stand it.

The plot would be excellent....if written by someone else.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Pearson has written a beautiful, interwoven story full of promise and permeating love. It's obvious that Pearson has written her heart into 'We Ate the Dark,' and it pays off in the end as we witness a narrative persevering in the face of grief and trauma. The care with with Pearson has crafted this story of love and family and queerness as something that takes precedence over the horrors experienced by the main characters is seamless and breathtaking. By the end, each character feels tangible and completely and utterly real. Frankie's grief haunts her chapters and colors all of her reactions, thoughts, and interactions; Marya's shame is intrinsic to understanding her character and by the end we, as readers, learn to live with it alongside her; Poppy and Cass' love for each other, their friends, and Sofia reaches through their chapters and grabs the reader by the throat, forcing us to reckon with each of their grief responses in turn as Poppy turns from rage to anger to exhaustion and Cass allows her loving nature to transform into desperation; Sofia's haunting follows both the main cast of characters but the reader as well, her presence is felt physically dripping off of the page forcing the reader to never forget her. Pearson has achieved an impressive feat with this novel, refocusing what could have easily been a novel on queer trauma and the violences enacted upon queer women from young ages and placing the emphasis on community, magic, and the intrinsic adoration woven into queer female friendships. This novel will stay with me for a long time.

I really wanted to like this book, because I think I would love it for the description. I think the book was to described in a sense what made really difficult to follow up the story. The lenguaje was something I didn’t enjoy because was like to many metaphors. It just wasn’t well balanced what made I stop enjoying read it. Said this it may be not my cuppa of tea but someone may like it. The atmosphere and ambiance of the book was really good, the characters where good too and the importance in female friendship and female relations was on point in the book. So if you like satire horrors that are very descriptive and with a lenguaje a little bit elaborated and over the top with a creepy atmosphere this is your book and give it a chance.

DNF @ 30% I wanted to like it & based on the description I really thought that I would, but after only a few pages I was apprehensive about the writing and by 100 pages in I was ready to quit. I pushed on a little more but got to the point that I just couldn’t/didn’t want to keep going. I’m sure there’s an audience for this book but I am not it. It is far, far too wordy and descriptive and the characters lack any depth at all.
It’s a story about life and love and death and found family and witches.
I think there’s a possibility that with a good editing to get to the meat of the story and get rid of the fluff it could be some, but as it stands, I felt like someone kept moving my book,ark back because I wasn’t going anywhere.
Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review

This book's central theme is that family can come in many shapes and forms. The book was very wordy and the author did contradict herself at times. For example, one sentence the body was boneless, then the next the body had bones. It was difficult to discern what was even happening with the inconsistencies.

Unfortunately I didn't love this book. The language was quite flowery which made it difficult to read and distracting. I did find this spooky and think other readers might enjoy, and I love an Appalachia setting, but the purple prose was a bit difficult to swallow.

I just could not finish this. The purple prose and metaphors were too much to slog through. I'm sure there was an interesting story hidden in there somewhere, but pretentious writing is always a problem for me.

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.

I really thought I’d love this book, and it truly saddens me that not only did I not like it, I actually ended up Dnf’ing. There are a lot of things that just didn’t work for me with this one.

The character’s felt way too similar, and there were so many of them with switching POV’s that I just had no way of remembering who was who. In addition, I was really struggling with the slow progression of plot, as well as the language of the story. The sentences were long and cumbersome, that sometimes seemed to drag on forever.

There certainly is a perfect reader for this story somewhere out there, but unfortunately that was not me, but I truly hope that it’s you! If you like slowly, unsettling horror stories with thorough descriptions of the world, than you should without a doubt give this a shot!

Big thanks to Netgalley, North 47, and the author Mallory Pearson for allowing me to read an E-Arc of this novel.

I snagged this as part of Amazon First Reads in January and when I saw it on NG I thought it looked familiar and figured I’d just seen it on here before. The premise sounds so intriguing and I was curious about what secrets Sofia was hiding because that’s always a good hook for a synopsis. I got introduced to all the characters in some capacity by 7% but I don’t think I’ll be continuing because the writing isn’t really clicking for me. It’s very evocative and descriptive, but that makes it harder to keep a hold on what’s happening in the story. I think this has a lot of potential, but I’m not the right audience for this style of writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Wow. I loved this book. The detailed descriptions. The slightly odd characters. Female friendships, family and witches.
The atmosphere is creepy and just perfect. I love the descriptiveness of literally everything.
This is such a good book. And it has some mystery, horror, parallel universe and so much more in it.
This is definitely one of my new favorites.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book I could not finish. The writing was way too over descriptive and it was driving me crazy. I couldn’t get into the story or connect with the characters because of the writing style. It also felt very slow and it was hard to get through.

I hope others enjoy this book.

Please note: I selected 'no' because this title is published by an Amazon publisher, which will likely not be stocked by my independent bookstore.

That being said, I LOVED this book and will be sharing my praises online!!!