Adult, Urban Fantasy, Thriller, Folk Horror

eBook, Paperback, Audiobook, 380 pages

October 6, 2025 by Cabins Press LLC

“Doctor Sleep” meets “Sharp Objects” in this fast-paced Appalachian dark fantasy about a series of mysterious disappearances that lead to a small, isolated town in West Virginia.

Nellie, a 23-year-old college dropout, is scrambling to rebuild her life two years after her boyfriend went missing. Now at a standstill, she’s preparing to move back in with her mother, a prospect that fills her with dread. When two strangers approach her, claiming their sister vanished under similar circumstances, Nellie grasps a last connection to the love she once knew and a chance to find answers. She joins their search, following a fragile trail of clues into the heart of the Appalachian wilderness.

The further these desperate allies venture, the more the lines between reality and the unexplainable blur. The same shadows that stalked those before them now track their every step. The woods are hungry, and this time, Nellie could be next.

As they become entangled in generations of buried small-town secrets, Nellie questions whether they are closing in on the truth or being lured deeper into the dark.

Just in time for the spooky season, Into the Dark, We Go is the perfect read for those who love stories with atmospheric settings, strangers who take a trip to unravel a mystery, and supernatural elements.

Two years before the start of the story Nellie’s boyfriend vanished without a trace after a college football game. After being betrayed by her best friend, investigated by the police, and had her life turned upside down by the media, Nellie has dropped out of college, working two jobs to stay afloat while resisting her mother’s demands that she move home from Minneapolis to Cleveland, and just trying to stay under the radar when a brother and sister show up at the coffee shop where she works telling her their sister disappeared under mysterious circumstances similar to those that Nellie’s boyfriend did – in the same small West Virginia town where her boyfriend grew up. Together with the son of a psychic who also had ties to the town and who died there under mysterious circumstances Nellie agrees to accompany the siblings to her boyfriend’s small Appalachia town – a town founded by witches who massacred themselves not long after the town’s founding. 

When the quartet arrive in Black Water, West Virginia they can tell something is off. The locals are guarded and wary as they begin asking questions about their missing loved ones and the local sheriff wants nothing more than to drive them out of town. Sensing they’re onto something the group continues to dig – but they might have unearthed more than they bargained for as legends of witches, the occult, missing persons, and strange things in the woods lead them down a darker path – and if they’re not careful, one of them could end up being the next one staring back from a missing poster. 

I really enjoyed this book! It grabbed me right from the beginning as we alternate back and forth between events leading up to Lucas’s disappearance to Nellie’s journey to get answers. Black Water is eerie and atmospheric, its people eclectic and closed off. The characters are each beautifully flawed and you can feel the tension of strangers thrown together in close quarters for a common goal simmering right off the page. 

I found this to be a fast read – I finished it in a weekend. Some of the forest scenes reminded me of the Blair Witch Project which I loved and for some reason the road trip element gave me Supernatural vibes which made the experience even more enjoyable. 

I did feel the resolution wrapped itself up a little quickly but overall I really liked this book and would definitely read more by this author! 

4.5 of 5 Knives (Rounded Up)

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