Review: The New Dark

The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you, Netgalley and publishers, for an advanced e-book copy of this story! All opinions are still my own and are not influenced in any way.

The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson is about a dystopian/sci-fi book about a girl named Sorrel whose town gets raided by mutants. She barely escapes, but is now on an adventure to find her little brother and childhood crush. Along the way, there are many dangers. Will Sorrel ever find David and Eli?

This started and ended strangely. It dives right in, and you sort of learn about the characters through Sorrel's thoughts, but a lot of it you have to piece together yourself. You also don't get a real feel for the relationships between characters (since you learn about them in a small first chapter). This made me not as excited to go find Eli and David as I probably should have been. The ending was very abrupt. The book definitely should have been longer, as I was trying to figure out if I got a janky e-copy or if it literally ends right where it does.

The character development was great. The writing style was very plain and simple, but it didn't bother me. Even though it was pretty plain, I still feel like I was there along with Sorrel having this adventure too, which is always fun instead of feeling like just the audience.

This is a pretty good book. It was only ~180-190 pages on the nook, so it's a relatively quick read if you just sit down and read it (which I did not do). I'm definitely interested in seeing what happens next!

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Review: Bird Box

Bird Box by Josh Malerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who needs Stephen King when you have Josh Malerman?

This is the first horror book I've read that legitimately creeped me the heck out. This was crazy spooky, and I loved it so much. I got it on Halloween, hoping I could be even just the slightest bit creeped out on such a ~spooky~ night, and wow, this was amazing.

This switches off between past and present experiences of Malorie, but both timelines seem to merge together the more you read on. In the present, she's raised her kids not to see outside. She has trained them to hear very well, and finally, they make an escape to freedom. They have to row down a river blindfolded with dangers lurking about around them. In the past timeline, Malorie joins a house full of survivors trying their best to be safe from the unknown dangers around them. Over time, arguments fight and everyone starts to psychologically break down.

This is 100% a book you have to read in bed, at night, and in the dark. It had me backed up against the wall of my bed scared to look out into the dark. Every moving shadow I saw actually made me tense up. There's something about the danger lurking about here, where no one knows what it is, and that's honestly scarier than some killer clown or disease-ridden zombies.

It really messes with the characters' minds.

The writing was so amazing. It made me feel like I was right there along with everybody the whole time.

I would recommend this book to everyone looking for a good scare.

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