An incredibly vivid and beautifully written tale. The imagery and writing style in this story were absolutely astonishing. A dark twisted tale about loss and the things we will do for love.

Karina is lost after a tragedy takes her loves from her. Forced to be alone with her thoughts and her loss she starts to see a shadowy figure in the corner of her eye. Her daydreams have always been dark but now they seem to be coming true. Could the same darkness that lived in her father now be residing in her?

I’ve read Lagoe’s short fiction collections, so I sort of knew what to expect, but she went darker with this novella. Also, pronouncedly more literary, though at times that just read as overdone.
The plot her involves a woman who finds that her nightmares are coming true … and killing people, through no intent of her own. She can’t help it, she simply have an excess of dark with her.
You get to follow her journey as she struggles to reign in her terrible and unwanted powers and perhaps even use them to her advantage. Unsurprisingly, Eric LaRocca who specializes in the dark and terrible underbelly of humanity sort of stories put up the cover blurb for it. If you like his work, you’ll likely enjoy this one. It’s pronouncedly less queer and not quite as good but it’s much in the same vein.
The story often bogged down under the weight of the author’s ambition but managed to come through rather nicely at the end. A quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

"That's the thing about parenting-by the time you figure out what you've done wrong, it's too late."

This quote resonated with me most as a parent. The most intriguing thing about this story is the tether between Karina and Xander.

TW: suicidal thoughts, grief, depression

If you're looking for a quick, creepy, gory read, this is a good start.

Karina is a wife and a mother trying to be diligent in those roles by ignoring the darkness that is within her. She imagines dark things and they seem to come true for her because she wills them to. Everyone around her sees her darkness by tries to pretend it's not there.

This book is a great introduction to the darker, more gorier types of stories. There are a few scenes that are quite mild but others, not so much. (IYKYK)

Karina is facing some dark stuff and I empathized with her. I also liked her friend, Clara, who did her best to support her through her darkest moments. Clara, who is Black and queer, was written well and I appreciated that a lot!

I think this works great as a short story and could've been a few pages shorter. There were some moments where things were repeated or scenes that seemed added in/drawn out unnecessarily that don't add to the overall story. I would've appreciated more depth in Xander and Gavin's characters just to give more insight into the dynamics between them and Karina.

Overall, I thought this was a great story to highlight things like grief and depression and how it can be a looming force that slowly creeps in and takes over our lives.

(I'd give it 3.5 if we could do halfsies!)

This is a fantastically creepy novella about depression, grief, and sadness expressing themselves in a unique and frightening manner.

Karina has a morbid sense of imagination. She envisions horrible things happening to others, even those people she loves. But her scenarios happen just as she imagined in the real world. After losing her father, a tragic accident takes the lives of her husband and son. She blames herself because she had thoughts of these things happening and they came true.

She sees a dark shape everywhere and soon realizes that this form is her depression and grief come to "life" and making her dreadful thoughts happen.

The subject of grief is nothing new in the horror landscape but I've never read grief horror with this twist. It's well written, engrossing, and oozes tension on every page.

This novella is dark and brooding and fully encases you in unease as you're reading. As things escalate, Karina is going to make choices for herself but these choices are nothing good. The author has done a great job at expressing her feelings in a real and tangible way and you'll feel Karina's anguish.

I highly recommend this book.

Sometimes the darkness takes over.

Karina has a "gift" which makes some of her daydreams come true. Or maybe she's just losing her mind.

As I was reading I thought perhaps it was going to be a story about depression and it partially was. But then it took a turn I was definitely not expecting. I was thinking; "Ah ok ,this is gonna be a heavy metaphorical story about......wait......what?? WTF!!" And I mean that in the best way!

I was really sympathetic to Karina's struggles as she tried to navigate through her grief, but I felt that a few parts of the story were a bit rushed and perhaps should have been expanded upon. All in all I found this to be a fast solid read.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thanks to the publisher and author for an ARC in return for an honest review

Went into this probably expecting too much and just got middle of the road horror from it. Nothing too exciting but also nothing that kept me completely hating it. At least it's a quick read.

Thanks to NetGalley and DarkLit Press for allowing access to an ARC of this novel.

In Excess of Dark is about a woman who goes on a camping trip with her family. She suffers from severe depression, and because she hasn't found a way to really cope with it, her depression manifests itself as a shadow-like entity...and her dark thoughts start coming true.

Although terrifying at a surface level (this woman is actually manifesting the deaths of people around her because she doesn't know how to deal with her depression and grief) it was also a very deep commentary about severe depression, grief, and even anxiety. Anyone who has suffered from depression and anxiety (depending on the severity) has likely had dark thoughts and fears. When you think the worst and it happens, you may have this guilt and think things are your fault (thanks to anxiety). This woman bottles up these feelings and dwells on them so much she actually manifests these horrible things because she never learned how to cope with them at a younger age. As terrifying as this story was, it was also extremely sad and bleak, especially for someone who doesn't know how to pull themself out of the darkness. It's also partly a cautionary tale. If you have depression and anxiety, be sure to see the trigger warnings before reading, however for me this one hit at a personal level and it was haunting and beautiful and terrible all at once..very well done crafting such a deep story with such a terrifying premise.

This is one of the best stories I have read in many years. I am finding this one to be hard to review.

I am speechless and the simple words I can give, would not give this one the acclaim it deserves.
The writing is just phenomenal. There are so many quotes that resonate with me. The story moved me in ways very few authors can do. The depth Lagoe goes to describe the scenes and the emotions is just amazing.


Have you ever had terrible thoughts about deep, dark scenes that play out in the most depressing way? There were many times when I had to sit back and just think about what was written. It is a dark, bleak, and enlightening story. I can’t imagine all the terrible thoughts we have that end up playing in our minds, and we expand on those thoughts, and then it comes true. Your biggest fears are not nightmares anymore, they are reality.


If you have never read anything by Red Lagoe, change that immediately. She has stories in anthologies and collections, as well as novellas.


If I could give a million stars for this story, I would not hesitate.

I was given an advance copy by Darklit Press in exchange for my unbiased review. I went into the book book completely blind, which was recommended. My review does not reveal spoilers beyond the blurb.

Have you ever wished you could will something into existence? Longed for the return of a loved one? Secretly had dark thoughts about someone you know? This book dives into the darkest parts of our psyche and forces us to explore the places we rarely dare to dwell.

We take a journey into grief, loss, broken relationships, regrets, and unthinkable outcomes. The book is a very fast read due in part to the number of pages, but mostly due to my inability to put it down. The ending was both satisfying and haunting.

Highly recommend checking this one out.

Decent read about grief and dark thoughts. Dark thoughts come true and cannot seem to be stopped. Interesting concept but ending became slightly scatterbrained.