Title: Dark Is When the Devil Comes
Author: Daisy Pearce
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Format: Audiobook (eARC)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3★)
Synopsis
After returning to her small hometown following a difficult divorce, Hazel plans to quietly rebuild her life and reconnect with her sister Cathy. But when she fails to show up, something feels off.
As whispers about the woods begin to surface, a place where people don’t come back from, it becomes clear that something is wrong and the deeper you look, the darker it gets.
My Thoughts
I’m not going to lie, but I am a bit conflicted with this one.
It started off really strong. The setup pulled me in right away, Hazel returning home after a divorce, trying to reconnect with her sister, with that underlying feeling that something isn’t quite right. And then when she doesn’t show up, I was fully invested. It really felt like the story was building toward something gripping.
But somewhere along the way, it kind of lost me.
The book brings together a lot of elements, family trauma, strained relationships, small town secrets, and paranormal undertones. While each of these could have worked really well on its own, together they started to feel overcrowded. Instead of blending into a cohesive story, it sometimes felt like too many ideas competing at once, which made it harder to stay fully engaged.
There is definitely a strong eerie atmosphere throughout. The town, the woods, and that constant sense that something is off all add to a quiet, unsettling tension. I could clearly see what the author was going for, but for me, it didn’t fully come together in a satisfying way.
As the story unfolds, it leans more into darker themes like trauma, past events, and something possibly supernatural, but the focus felt a bit scattered. At times, it was hard to tell what was really driving the story versus what was just adding to the overall chaos.
The pacing also slowed down quite a bit in places and some parts felt repetitive, which made it easier to lose focus.
That said, the audiobook narrator did a really good job and honestly made the experience more engaging. It definitely helped keep me invested when the story itself started to drift.
Final Thoughts
Overall, not a bad book, it just didn’t fully work for me.
It has a strong premise, an eerie atmosphere, and some interesting ideas, but the execution felt uneven. I think it might have worked better if it focused a bit more and committed to one direction.
Still, if you enjoy slower, layered horror with a strong sense of mood and underlying tension, this might be worth picking up.
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance listening copy. All opinions are my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment