Dark Across the Bay

by Ania Ahlborn

In the vein of John MacDonald’s Cape Fear, Ahlborn takes the classic stalker tale and updates it for the modern era.

The house sits stoic and slightly askew off the coast of Raven’s Head. Its off-kilter windows are both charming and disorienting, its walls of overstuffed bookshelves both comforting and claustrophobic. When Leo and Lark Parrish arrive at their vacation home with their parents, their mother’s idea of a quintessential Maine getaway seems like both a blessing and a curse. Lark—a novice novelist—can’t wait to find inspiration at the end of a fog-entombed pier. She’ll forgive her mother for forcing her into this non-negotiable holiday, but only if she can find her muse among a lapping, rocky shore. And while being trapped in a house with no means of escape is the last thing Leo would consider a good time—especially with parents on the precipice of divorce—he can’t help but wonder if maybe the change of scenery will help him shake off the chains of sadness brought on by the death of his closest friend.

But what starts off as a relatively benign family trip quickly turns menacing. Leo finds himself face-to-face with what feels like his best friend reaching out from beyond the grave, and only hours after they arrive, Lark begins to receive sinister texts. And then they both see it: someone lurking in the shadows of their rental home. Someone who has been expecting them despite the Parrishes being a thousand miles from home.

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Suspense

248 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2021

About the author

Born in Ciechanow Poland, Ania has always been drawn to the darker, mysterious, and sometimes morbid sides of life. Her earliest childhood memory is of crawling through a hole in the chain link fence that separated her family home from the large wooded cemetery next door. She’d spend hours among the headstones, breaking up bouquets of silk flowers so that everyone had their equal share.

Author of nine novels, Ania's books have been lauded by the likes of Publisher's Weekly, The New York Daily News, and The New York Times. Some titles have been optioned for film.

Hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ania currently lives in Greenville, South Carolina.


For more from Ania, visit her site, or connect via social media on Facebook and Twitter.

Web: http://www.aniaahlborn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aniaahlborn
Twitter: @aniaahlborn

Reviews

[Misty Marie Harms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poppy notices an Air B&B on Facebook that looks perfect for a weekend getaway. It is her last chance to save her marriage and reform a bond with her kids, Lark and Leo. Leo's best friend laid in a coma for months before dying. While Lark has turned emo and sullen. The house sits alone on an isolated island, miles from shore. Upon their arrival, strange things start happening. Lark starts to get strange texts. Leo swears someone in lurking around in the house at night. Someone is out for revenge and a storm is coming.

This started off with so much promise. Four dead bodies at an isolated house on an island. Then, less than halfway through, I figured it out. Which I could have dealt with if I didn't have to deal with the parents being useless and the teenagers having to be the heroes. So I call this a draw and give it 3 stars.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Polly tries to strengthen her family relationship (husband, two children) by booking a remote cabin on an island near Maine (Polly loves Stephen King books). You hear a lot about the well drawn characters Leo (son), Lark (daughter), Ezra (husband) and Polly herself. Lark seems to have a social life only in social networks, Leo is very distant since his best friend Julian died after a car accident. But suddenly the atmosphere becomes very uncanny and haunting. Someone seems to stalk them on the island. Who is it and what is it about? The author is slowly building up tension and leads you into a web of allusions and allegations. Was Polly's husband always faithful (main question). The ending comes up with a killer twist in the truest sense of the word. Really enjoyed this intriguing and twisty thriller with many horror elements. It was tight and full of surprises. Highly recommended!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Across the Bay reminds me of Ahlborn's The Shuddering because they both possessed:

1) Outstanding writing
2) Plots that kept me reading late into the night
3) Exciting and unpredictable villains
4) Protagonists so painfully annoying that I could NEVER root for them

I like flawed characters, but the Parrish family is not flawed. They are vapid, stereotypical, and moronic. I couldn't help wanting them to all die in the end because that is what they deserved--to buried facedown in a shallow grave where they can never grace another page again.

But somehow, just like with the Shuddering, when I finished the book I could only remember the good parts. The creepy house, the isolated landscape, the incredible visuals Ania Alhborn so talentedly weaves.

[Brandon Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in about 3 hours!! Dark Across The Bay is exactly the kind of thriller I’d expect from Ania Ahlborn; bloody, twisty, and dark as hell. My one caveat is that now I’m kinda depressed after that ending 😅 It’s definitely not as bleak as some of Anias other endings, but it still hit me a little hard.

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Across The Bay is a creepy, slow-burning, thriller about one family’s secrets and past catching up with them, haunting them. I love Ania Alhborn’s writing style, I found myself making so many notes and highlights throughout reading it. The writing style felt as though it was almost begging me to take my time with it. The final twist was so good though! Really closed out the story well.

Siblings, Lark and Leo Parrish have gone to a holiday home at the coast of Raven’s Head with their parents, Poppy and Ezra.
Lark is an introvert, the only friends she appears to have are online ones. She had an online boyfriend, Daniel, who appears to have ghosted her. But she had fallen in love with him behind her computer/phone screens. Leo is haunted by the death of his best friend Julian. He sees Julian in his dreams, comatose and dying from his car accident. Ezra isn’t exactly the picture perfect husband. He has his own secret that he doesn’t want his wife to find out about. Slowly, the tension builds up as Leo can feel Julian’s presence creeping up on him, almost like it’s from beyond the grave… Lark receives sinister text message that let her know that they’re being watched. Everything bad happening to this family feels interconnected somehow. Something is lurking in the shadows, and it feels like whatever is going on here could tear the Parrishes apart…

”Every family is also a ghost story. Did you know?”

4 Stars 🖤

[Deeksha Bhardwaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars⭐

“𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑳𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏…𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒍𝒖𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒔, 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇.”

𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛
Dark Across the Bay follows the Parrish family as they arrive at Raven’s Head for a three-day getaway — a final attempt to hold their fraying bond together, each of them is battling their own demons. Hoping for peace, they spend their days on the secluded island, watching pink-purple sunsets and trying to reconnect. But what they don’t know is… they’re not alone. Something — or someone — is here, lurking in the shadows.

𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
With multiple POVs from the Parrish family members, the book had a promising premise. It opened strong with a gruesome crime scene, and I was immediately intrigued and excited to see where it would go.

Slowly, the suspense and creepy events began to build — shadows moving in the dark, bells ringing on their own. It felt like a mix of supernatural and thriller, and I kept wondering: is it a ghost…or a person?

And I loved that aspect — the way it kept me guessing, constantly questioning the mystery behind it all.

Each member of the family was dealing with something heavy — from grief and loss to old wounds and quiet disappointments. This story had everything and those emotional layers were portrayed beautifully.

Lark, being the teenager — hurting from a breakup. Leo, the older brother — dealing with grief. Poppy and Ezra, the parents — trying to hold together a crumbling relationship. The emotions were strong and really well done.

But I think around the halfway mark, the plot started to unpack too easily. It became predictable and lost some of the excitement. And the parents? I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where the parents felt so… inactive when it came to their kids’ safety. Their choices were honestly very questionable to me.

The ending was okay — not bad, but not something that left a big impact on me either. There were a few things I didn’t really like, especially some character decisions that didn’t quite make sense. It wrapped up fine, but I was hoping for something a bit more intense.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐓𝐋;𝐃𝐑)
Overall, it’s a decent thriller with an intense start, oscillating between the supernatural and suspense. It delivers some genuinely creepy moments and gruesome events, but becomes predictable too soon and loses its charm by the end. The ending felt just okay.

[Janelle Janson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ania Ahlborn is one of my favorite authors, so I am honored to review her latest creation, DARK ACROSS THE BAY. It’s only available through Earthling Publications as a deluxe hardcover, but it is worth every bit of the $50 price tag. Josh Malerman writes the introduction and he starts off with a grand segue into how, in the hands of Ania Ahlborn, family dynamics are not always as they seem. Not even close, as by the end, and in Malerman’s own words, Ania gives us readers a bird’s eye view of “who got what they deserved, who got screwed, and who made it out alive.” I think he nails it.

“Or maybe Felix had never been there at all, Leo thought. Maybe you made him up as you slipped into madness. Maybe that’s why you keep smelling that scent...the one nobody else seems to smell.”

The title alone, Dark Across the Bay, has an ominous feel to it. As I opened the book and read the first chapter, all I read was fear, and all I visioned was blood. I was immediately hooked. I don’t want to spoil the experience by revealing too much of the plot, so I’ll be brief. Poppy and Ezra Parrish decide to go on a family vacation with their teenage daughter, Lark, and her brother, Leo, who recently graduated high school. Taking place on a remote island off the coastal town of Raven’s Head, the setting is as thick as the fog, and the isolation is palpable. The view of the water’s edge is breathtaking, but the vacation house itself is eerie and claustrophobic. It has too many hallways, tiny nooks, random doors, and the kitschy decor runs rampant.

The chapters switch perspectives with each family member, where each chapter reads like a piece to a puzzle. It starts off slow with a tiny clue here and a tiny bit of information there, and then midway in the story amps up drastically. And in true Ania Ahlborn fashion, there are twists right up to the very end. Just when I thought it was over, she impressed me one last time, and I smiled on that last page. It’s difficult to categorize DARK ACROSS THE BAY as a single genre, as some chapters read as a whodunnit, some as a thriller, and some as horror, but mark my words, you most certainly need to read this book.

[Gareth Is Haunted · Rating 3 out of 5]

The worst Ania Ahlborn novel I have read so far. Annoying characters who are so wrapped up in themselves that they don't communicate with each other. A poor showing all around. I think I lost interest after about 40 pages, so getting this finished was a triumph in itself.
The story itself was okay, as were the writing and narrative style. These weren't enough to overshadow the detestable characters.
I'm torn between a two or three-star rating for this.

I'll come back and rewrite this. Sorry if my initial comments are harsh, they're true though.

[Ethan’s Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 stars.

This is hard for me to rate because the writing was good, but the story wasn’t exactly for me

For instance the beginning of the book was great, very engaging, and kept me interested.

By the 40% mark I was bored but had hope that the story would pick back up. That never happened. Instead, I got so annoyed with the characters and all of their whining that I didn’t care if they died or lived.

Instead, I became so bored that I started to skim pages. For instance, I read a sentence on one page, “who is Felix?” I skim 10-15 pages and right in the middle of my kindle, it says “who is Felix?” AGAIN.

Good gosh, you still haven’t cleared the Felix question up?

It just became tedious and by the end I was more relieved to be done vs not wanting the story to end.

Just sucks because I really like her other books

-Brother
-Seed

I purchased Within These Walls which I was excited to read next but I might put that one on the back burner for now.

[John Wiltshire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh. This is one of those books where no one talks to anyone else. You rent a house for a holiday and discover someone has set up a small campsite in the attic? Don't mention it to anyone else in the family. You hear someone in the walls and your curtains are opened while you're in the bathroom? Don't mention it to anyone else in the family. The caretaker mentions 'your friends who asked after you' when you don't have anyone expected. Don't mention it to anyone else in the family. You hear someone ...
You get the picture.
Teens. Sheesh. A fifteen year old is told to limit use of her phone on a three day holiday. Just to limit. For three days. She contemplates suicide. A boy loses his best friend in a car accident. He can't recover from the grief. Really? I'm hoping the author is setting these people up to be deliberately unlikable so they can exert themselves and be redeemed, but it's not looking hopeful.
On the plus side, the house chosen for this three day holiday is making up for the awful people who have rented it. On an isolated island off the coast of Maine, hidden nooks and crannies...I'm there.
As ever, I'll update when done...
Uggh. This was painful to 'finish'. I skim read it. I really did not enjoy this book. The entire thing reads like its hyperventilating. Everything COULD BE WRITTEN IN CAPS SHOUTING AT YOU LIKE THIS IF IT COULD. No one acts like real people do. The psychology is very odd. The action/violence is bizarre and doesn't work either.
Ack, what a waste of a great house.
Not recommended at all.

[Chandra Claypool (WhereTheReaderGrows) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well hello there my dark thriller/horror loving friends - and to those who are curious. 😈 Come on in, the blood is still warm and gooey and the atmosphere thick with anticipation. The Parrish family is waiting for you and they have quite the story to share. Poppy and Ezra lead this family but are on the brink of divorce. Their two teenage kids, Lark and Leo, are dealing with their own personal traumas so a getaway to a secluded house on a small island is an attempt at family unity. Surely their time alone as a family will lead to bonding and gluing them back together.... right?

Soon an escalation of weird happenings gets them all on edge. Oh how the secrets that they all hold start coming to light. What is up with this weird licorice smell and ghostly figures? While they all start to internally blame themselves, their tormentors silently continue their terror. Getting the POVs of each characters helps keep the reader just as off balance as the characters. What's fantastic is that we feel the slow build at the beginning and your heart starts racing faster as the suspense ramps up. Just when I think I have a handle on it, Ahlborn slaps me in the face with one last tidbit and I ain't mad about it!

The introduction by Josh Malerman is fantastic and he is 100000% correct is saying "every family is a horror story". If you don't agree, you will after reading this novel. Also make sure to read Ahlbotn's acknowledgements where she mentions our very own bookstagrammers Ashley Sawyers, Johann Trotter, Sadie Hartmann and Kallie Weisgarber.

Ania Ahlborn is one of my all time favorite horror authors and continues to hold the top spot for female horror writers. If you've read any of her works I'm sure you understand why. Her ability to weave a story together, keep you invested from cover to cover and the always ominous and creepy atmosphere is quite impressive and I have read every single book she has put out. DARK ACROSS THE BAY is a slow burn psychological dark horror thriller suspenseful family drama of a read and like with all her other books, I would highly recommend.

[Priskah · Rating 2 out of 5]

1, 5 ✨✨✨

( Audiobook)

That was a no for me. The plot was weak, the dialogues were annoying and it was painfully predictable.

[Sydney Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was *exactly* what I needed. Dark, creepy, twisty, un-put-down-able. I flew through it and I enjoyed every minute, even if the characters were so infuriating at times I wanted to scream 😅 Definitely glad I decided to try out this author, it won’t be my last!

[Holl Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always get excited when I see a new book from Ania Ahlborn, but sadly, this one was a major disappointment. It read like a first draft—repetitive language, errors and typos, continuity issues. There were a few parts where it seemed like a section had been removed without anyone bothering to smooth over what was left.

The story, too, was lackluster. A Lifetime-movie thriller, and not one of the better ones. Its short length means it moves at a break-neck pace without giving the reader any chance to get invested in the characters. I literally did not care who lived or died and felt no sense of tension even in the most high-stakes moments.

Also, it was weirdly moralistic about cell phones and social media? A stale, ice-cold take.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The temperatures finally became Autumn-ish so I immediately switched gears and went searching for something a little creepier. When this popped up on the library’s “recommended to you” feature I instantly remembered how good she can be – and also . . . .



Have ANY of us who read Brother ever really recovered? I don’t think so.

Anyway, I snagged this right away and set out walking without reading a blip or a blurb or nada. Annnnnnnnd . . . well they all can’t be winners. This starts out as home owners coming to their vacation house which they rent out and finding a whole mess of dead folks up in there. Then we backtrack to the renters arriving and discovering the whos, whens, whys and hows of it all. I just now saw the comparison to Cape Fear when I was logging this on Goodreads and I will say that’s what came to mind for me too once something FINALLY started happening. But alas it was too little too late and then it just went on and on forever and while the ending could have been clever ACTUAL SPOILER SO DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW stealing the BFF who was on record as being dead instead of the brother you killed/left in the house? While obviously both are far-fetched, that decision was just plain dumb and infuriated me for some reason LOL. Maybe this would have worked better for me as a novella had it trimmed all the fat? The world will never know.

[Emily Kestrel]

DNF at 15%. Normally I like Ania Ahlborn, but I can’t get into this. Too much bouncing from one POV to another.

I guess I am officially in a book slump.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

DARK ACROSS THE BAY, by Ania Alhborn, is a dark thriller with many horror elements. The pacing was fast--helped along by shorter chapters, each from a different character's POV. The characterization was phenomenal.

As events unfolded, and pieces of the puzzle start coming together, the tension remains as high as ever. This one may even have you looking over your shoulder at that noise behind you, just out of sight....


"But revenge was a sort of caring, too . . .
Because when grief putrefied, all that was left was the black sludge of vengeance."

A fantastic read to start your "Spooky Season" off!

Recommended!

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 1 out of 5]

After we both read and enjoyed BROTHER by this author, Nenia and I decided to BR this one. It had been on my wishlist forever, and I jumped at the chance to read it.

Unfortunately, I really didn't like this one. The writing was very precise and descriptive, but other than that, I can't think of anything to recommend this. Oh, there's the weird house. But I don't know why it had to be so weird because it really had nothing to do with anything.

The plot of this book is really thin, with zero twists, but I probably wouldn't have minded if the characters hadn't been so damn unlikable. I don't always need to like characters, but these ones were just so annoying, and nothing was fun about hating them. The dad was a weak shit, the mom was too anxious for her own good, the son was OBSESSED with his best friend's death (get your own identity, child, I'm begging you), and the daughter was probably the most likeable, but she was very naive. I couldn't really root for any of them.

Even though the writing was good, it was actually too much toward the end. During the final confrontation we're STILL getting all these detailed memories and back story. It sucked what little tension there was right out of everything. Of course, the quick and frequent switching of the four POVs would have done that anyway.

I thought the ending was pretty dumb. This book bummed me out from being so annoyed with it. And I swear, why did the author think it was a good idea to menace the characters with Twinkies, of all things? You're telling me Twinkies hold such significance to these people that they're going to be freaked out by a box of them showing up in their groceries? Because the stalker knows exactly what Twinkies mean to these people and therefore decides to use them as part of the dastardly plan? COME ON. I'd also like to know why the dad's affair details had to be included. Like, what was the point of his affair partner being wild in bed and liking to be pinched and bitten a little? Wow, so crazy. It's like sexual = bad.

I normally round up on my star rating if the writing is good, but I just didn't like this book at all, and I'm still annoyed by it hours after finishing.

[Philip Fracassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A top-notch thriller from Ahlborn. I've read several of her books and this was by far my personal favorite. Taut, dark, mean as a jagged scythe. Wonderful work. I blew through it in two sittings and went late into the night to see what happened on the next page. Ahlborn pulls no punches. Highly recommended.

[Lubana's life in between pages · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here comes my first 1 star book of 2023.
This book is just a slow burning, creepy stalkerish tale. I got into this book assuming it to be some kind of thriller but after I started reading, I knew the slow paced writing style was not going to work for me. It was not that thrilling but had a mystery element to it.

[Sadie Hartmann]

Beta read/Review soon.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Naw

[Alli · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half 5 stars, the second half 2

Dark across the bay – But it started off so well…
I feel like I start a lot of my reviews this way lately, But I was so here for this book. I loved the premise it was deliciously creepy. We all love to rent vacation homes, or at least I do. Thinking about one by itself on an island in Maine in fall was very tantalizing. I found myself drawn in quickly to the story about a family who was renting this island house. I loved at first, reading about each member of the family it’s set up the mystery nicely. Again, at first. BUT THEN, MY GOD, the amount of self talk that went on and on was probably the most I have ever read in a book. I am talking more than Joe Goldberg here. Like on a level that the characters pretty much only thought things in their mind repetitively and barely ever spoke anything to advance the story in anyway. Infuriating.
Now the whole plot device of telling a story, the same story, through multiple characters can work out really well, unfortunately for this book it did not. All it did was have the characters repeat themselves over and over. I almost feel like the author needed to make the book bigger so she constantly was having each character do self talk about the same situation over and over. For some reason it just did not work at all. Ok, I finally get a scene where something was explained, like for example the mom would scream and the next person would run in and we would find out why the mom screamed, then it would start back all over with a new character when she heard the scream outside and then what she thought about the scream, who might be screaming and why they were screaming and her thoughts walking into the house about the scream, when we already know who screamed and why but we then had to go back over it with each character it was just maddening. Also, I figured out what was going on very quickly so that might have also had something to do with it. The second half of the book I found myself skimming pages just for some plot advancement. The characters just kept self talking all the way up to the end. The last two pages they actually did some thing but by then I was just so frustrated I no longer cared. This book could have really been some thing, in fact in the middle of the book I left a midpoint review stating how enwrapped I was in the story and was so happy to be reading it. Big miss for me.

[Gatorman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing tale from Ahlborn about a family that spends a weekend at a vacation home on the bay to try to rekindle some family spark but ends up battling against unknown assailants. It takes way too long to get going and, once it does, ends up not ringing all that true. It's well-written for the most part, and the ending is rather dark, but overall it just didn't work for me the way it should have. Ahlborn has been a let down of late, not up to her previous excellent standards set by Seed and Brother. Here's hoping she finds her form again. 2.5 stars.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fifth five star book of the year! Reading this alone while the power was out was…intense. If you love thrillers, trying to figure out twists, and don’t mind a bit of gore, add this to your list.

[Tara Losacano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not put this book down! It was so suspenseful and mysterious. I loved the secluded setting, a strange house on a small island with a storm on the way. Overall, Dark Across the Bay was a great, intense read.. 4/5 skulls 💀

[Cheyenne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was boring and repetitive. So much time is dedicated to a character’s internal monologue that it starts to get unrealistic. Imagining a character staring at a stranger for the length it takes to read an entire paragraph of their thoughts is an unintentionally funny visual, but it happens constantly. Instead of this family talking to one another, we read an overabundance of their POVs as they think about what’s happening to them, their pasts, and other filler thoughts that end up being irrelevant. When the plot does slowly inch forward, it is immediately halted so that we can read a page dedicated to what the character thinks about it, and then are treated to another character’s POV recapping what just happened and their thoughts on it, etc. etc.

The writing is way too dramatic for the events happening around them. There’s no need for a painstaking description of a character’s heart dropping/blood running cold/breath catching in their chest/etc. as a response to something as innocuous as seeing a box of twinkies. Every single character is consistently being startled by the most mundane things. A phone rings? Heart stops. A boat thumps against a dock? Our character is now frozen in fear. All of this happens before anything actually creepy starts happening. Everyone in this family needs to go to therapy.


All of the characters are annoying, and increasingly so as the book goes on. I was rooting for the killer to hurry up and finish the job so the book would end sooner.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of respect to my good friend who passed this book to me this review will contain no spoilers.i first just like to say Ania ahlborn is a true force to be reckoned with.she has such a command of the English language and a incredible knack for penning characters that you the reader can just resonate with.my favorite thing about reading her novels is that everything and I mean everything is on the table.her characters are never ever safe and even when you sense trouble is brewing your still completely shocked when things spiral out of control.the story of both families in this book is one that is incredibly beautiful and all together upsetting at the same time.from the opening chapter that sets the tone to the climatic events that transpire at stories end you are on a complete and total emotional rollercoaster.this is physiological terror at its finest.all of the nuisances of the story just blend together so damn well.the only bad thing I can say about what I just read is im heartbroken it's over.lol.ania ahlborn im in awe of your talent and pledge myself as a constant reader of yours for life!

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOLY MOTHER OF A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE.

What a read. I have always loved Ania, and this was a different vibe than the rest of her books. And it was BRILLIANT. I loved it. All of it. Everything pieced together so amazingly. It was heartbreaking and full of sorrow and rage. The lies within the lies. The misplaced guilt, and the guiltless to blame. Trippy and achingly real.

What would you do? That's the question this book makes you ask yourself when you're done.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, a fun quick read, a mix of horror and thriller, worth a read if you need something quick.