The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould is a paranormal thriller novel and the author’s debut. It has been a while since I’ve read a YA novel but it peaked my interest while searching for my next read. After having watched the Fear Street triple movie series on Netflix and actually enjoying it a lot, I decided why not take a chance on this one as well? Sadly, although I don’t regret having read The Dead and the Dark, I felt it didn’t really do anything for me after having finished it. I understand if the author wanted to cash in on the LGBTQ movement and I have absolutely no problem with it because a good story will always be a good story regardless of the distractions and noises. Unfortunately, I found the story here to be below subpar.

“I can only want what you want. That is my nature.”

The Dark

We follow Logan and Ashley in their adventure together around a very small town in Portland called Snakebite. Weird things have been happening as teenagers are getting kidnapped and Logan’s fathers are to be blamed. The two girls must put their differences aside and work together as Logan wants to clear both of her father’s name while Ashley wants to find her missing boyfriend. Although the story started off rather slowly, it actually got me hooked. It wasn’t until a bit later when I’ve realized that both Logan and Ashley’s characters were going to be as good as it was going to get that I started getting a bit bored. The paranormal mystery surrounding the town also fizzled out towards the later half and with that gone, there didn’t seem much to hang on to.

With all that side though, I still think this was an okay debut novel. It’s hard and rare for an author to really knock it out of the park on their first try.