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The Whispering Dark
The Raven Boys meets Ninth House in the most exciting debut of 2022 -- a dark, atmospheric fantasy about a Deaf college student with a peculiar connection to the afterlife.
Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she's Deaf. So when she's accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she's excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won't accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman fascinated by Delaney's unusual talents.
Colton Price died when he was nine years old. Quite impossibly, he woke several weeks later at the feet of a green-eyed little girl. Now, twelve years later, Delaney Meyers-Petrov has stumbled back into his orbit, but Colton's been ordered to keep far away from the new girl... and the voices she hears calling to her from the shadows.
Delaney wants to keep her distance from Colton -- she seems to be the only person on campus who finds him more arrogant than charming -- yet after a Godbole student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of deeply buried university secrets. But Delaney and Colton discover the cost of opening the doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless, an enemy they need to destroy before it tears them -- and their forbidden partnership -- apart.
Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she's Deaf. So when she's accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she's excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won't accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman fascinated by Delaney's unusual talents.
Colton Price died when he was nine years old. Quite impossibly, he woke several weeks later at the feet of a green-eyed little girl. Now, twelve years later, Delaney Meyers-Petrov has stumbled back into his orbit, but Colton's been ordered to keep far away from the new girl... and the voices she hears calling to her from the shadows.
Delaney wants to keep her distance from Colton -- she seems to be the only person on campus who finds him more arrogant than charming -- yet after a Godbole student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of deeply buried university secrets. But Delaney and Colton discover the cost of opening the doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless, an enemy they need to destroy before it tears them -- and their forbidden partnership -- apart.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2022
429 people are currently reading
31760 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,232 reviews
October 30, 2022
a protagonist can only be compared to glass so many times before i start to go insane
January 31, 2023
a delightfully spooky story that is somewhat let down by its lack of fundamentals.
i really like the atmosphere of the school, the idea of walking between worlds, and the presence of the dead. it all lends itself perfectly to dark academia vibes. however, it gets lost in the repetitive metaphors, weak world-building, and inconsistent pacing.
so overall, a great concept but the execution just didnt quite live up to expectations.
↠ 3 stars
i really like the atmosphere of the school, the idea of walking between worlds, and the presence of the dead. it all lends itself perfectly to dark academia vibes. however, it gets lost in the repetitive metaphors, weak world-building, and inconsistent pacing.
so overall, a great concept but the execution just didnt quite live up to expectations.
↠ 3 stars
August 17, 2022
let me amend my review so it's more intelligible as i wrote the first one on no sleep (it's the same thing but with some clarification):
i sensitivity read for the hijabi muslim character in this book. i know kelly to be very sensitive and careful towards writing non-harmful rep in her books which is why i cherish her as a close friend.
so i read her book carefully-- through the lens of "will this harm hijabis? will this harm muslims and give them a bad rep? will someone who reads this get a bad opinion of muslims and ultimately lead to an increase in harmful stereotypes being seen as the norm as we have seen time and time again in books and media when muslims are shown?"
for me? the answer was no. no it won't.
i read adya as a character just like any other. she's a muslim and she wears the hijab. her religion is never used as plot point where it oppresses her. i have craved representation like that ever since i was a kid. she doesn't take off her hijab for any man. she doesn't complain how her religion is holding her back. simply, islam isn't "the issue". and that for me was a breath of fresh air. i was so happy to read about a muslim hijabi who kicks butt and isn't "oppressed". that was my main priority. there are far too many books that equate islam with oppression and i cannot deal with that anymore. and far too many that have the "i'm not like other muslims who are religious. i'm ~cool~" characters which also leads to very harmful ideas regarding islam. sadly, stories like that have no nuance and paint a very broad brush of muslims.
that being said, the book is a fantasy and while i looked at it from an "x-men world view where some people have powers", there will be readers out there, muslim readers, who won't agree with how adya's powers were written. and that is 100% their right to have that opinion. i read it as a story based on strange science that allows for universe hopping.
disclaimer: i completely agree that dark magic is haram. i agree that the occult is haram. but my interpretation of this book wasn’t that of magic because none of the characters use magic. this read to me like a group of characters with superpowers and i read it as such.
in the end, i am one muslim with one interpretation. there are 1.4 billion of us. we will all read this story through different eyes. i hope it doesn't make any of us wrong. this is up to interpretation.
i have wanted to see muslims and hijabis existing in every genre for so long because we should see ourselves represented in stories across the board. it will be a fine line to follow, and there will be mistakes made that we will learn from. And i'm not saying i am right in this; i don't know. i did my best with what i thought would be a good representation for us in a genre we don't really see ourselves in ever.
my review:
i would read kelly's grocery list and 2 am ramblings with the hunger of me after not eating chocolate cake for one whole month. kelly takes the 26 letters in the english alphabet and makes them her bitch. how does she do it? idk. though a strong rumor suggests a fairy probably kissed her forehead while she was napping in her nursery and thus blessed her with the power shakespeare yearned to have but never did.
i sensitivity read for the hijabi muslim character in this book. i know kelly to be very sensitive and careful towards writing non-harmful rep in her books which is why i cherish her as a close friend.
so i read her book carefully-- through the lens of "will this harm hijabis? will this harm muslims and give them a bad rep? will someone who reads this get a bad opinion of muslims and ultimately lead to an increase in harmful stereotypes being seen as the norm as we have seen time and time again in books and media when muslims are shown?"
for me? the answer was no. no it won't.
i read adya as a character just like any other. she's a muslim and she wears the hijab. her religion is never used as plot point where it oppresses her. i have craved representation like that ever since i was a kid. she doesn't take off her hijab for any man. she doesn't complain how her religion is holding her back. simply, islam isn't "the issue". and that for me was a breath of fresh air. i was so happy to read about a muslim hijabi who kicks butt and isn't "oppressed". that was my main priority. there are far too many books that equate islam with oppression and i cannot deal with that anymore. and far too many that have the "i'm not like other muslims who are religious. i'm ~cool~" characters which also leads to very harmful ideas regarding islam. sadly, stories like that have no nuance and paint a very broad brush of muslims.
that being said, the book is a fantasy and while i looked at it from an "x-men world view where some people have powers", there will be readers out there, muslim readers, who won't agree with how adya's powers were written. and that is 100% their right to have that opinion. i read it as a story based on strange science that allows for universe hopping.
disclaimer: i completely agree that dark magic is haram. i agree that the occult is haram. but my interpretation of this book wasn’t that of magic because none of the characters use magic. this read to me like a group of characters with superpowers and i read it as such.
in the end, i am one muslim with one interpretation. there are 1.4 billion of us. we will all read this story through different eyes. i hope it doesn't make any of us wrong. this is up to interpretation.
i have wanted to see muslims and hijabis existing in every genre for so long because we should see ourselves represented in stories across the board. it will be a fine line to follow, and there will be mistakes made that we will learn from. And i'm not saying i am right in this; i don't know. i did my best with what i thought would be a good representation for us in a genre we don't really see ourselves in ever.
my review:
i would read kelly's grocery list and 2 am ramblings with the hunger of me after not eating chocolate cake for one whole month. kelly takes the 26 letters in the english alphabet and makes them her bitch. how does she do it? idk. though a strong rumor suggests a fairy probably kissed her forehead while she was napping in her nursery and thus blessed her with the power shakespeare yearned to have but never did.
April 9, 2023
Thanks to Scholastic and Edelweiss for providing me with an eARC of this book!
Real heartbreak is when you get an ARC of your most anticipated debut of the year (and it’s your 2nd ever ARC, too!) and you end up disliking it so much you have to DNF it (despite rarely DNFing books…). 😔💔😔💔😔💔 I was so excited to read this book, and I truly thought I’d love it, but unfortunately it was so mind-numbing that I had to DNF it at 26%. I’ve been a prisoner of this book for 2 weeks (that felt like 2 MONTHS), so I’m just giving up. Perhaps I’ll come back to it at some point, but no promises, because my experience reading these 100 pages was ~pure misery~.
(This review is long. Beware.)
Let’s get the good out of the way: the disability rep is obviously amazing. There aren’t a lot of disabled characters in fiction, so having a book with a deaf MC (written by a deaf author) is truly amazing, and I hope to see more of this type of representation in the future. I also quite liked the aesthetic the author was going for here (dark academia + magic is always a great combo!).
Now for the bad…… Oh boy. 😬 Most of my problems with this book can be boiled down to this: the writing is utterly terrible. Not in an obvious way (you can’t really grab a random quote to show how poorly written this book was); more in a structural sense: poor world building, underdeveloped relationships, no explanations, missing scenes… Reading this left me confused and incredibly frustrated. I have NEVER read a book that’s in such desperate need of an editor!
Starting off with the world building: there is none . We’re just thrown into the story, and 100 pages in I still don’t know how this world works! Is magic common? Does everyone know about it? Is it used on everyday tasks? Who can perform it? Is it genetic? Are you born with it or do you learn it? Are magic schools common? What types of magic exist? Are there magical creatures? What kind of magic is Delaney even there to study? THEY NEVER EXPLAIN!!! Now, granted, I didn’t finish the book, so maybe they clarify it later, but I feel like I shouldn’t have these many questions 100+ pages into a fantasy book.
Now let’s get into my biggest problem with the book: it felt like multiple scenes were *missing*. I have never read a book that gave me this feeling. I kept having to go back to reread scenes because I was perpetually confused and I genuinely thought I’d read things wrong or accidentally skipped a scene, but the problem wasn’t me; it was the book! Nothing was explained and it felt like full scenes were simply absent, which made for an awful reading experience.
For example: Delaney’s friends. Out of nowhere, Delaney starts having a conversation with her roommate, Adya. The thing is, we never saw Delaney go into her room for the first time or meet this girl, let alone get close to her! Sure, we can assume these things happened at some point, off-page, but it’s very weird that 1) the author chose to skip the scene where the MC arrives at her dorm and meets her roommate / future friend (these are important things in stories set in university!); and 2) the 1st time we see said roommate we don’t even get an introduction – she is just thrown into the story! The only reason why I realized I hadn’t actually missed her introduction is because in this scene we get a physical description of Adya, which led me to (correctly) assume it was her 1st time on page.
Delaney’s other friend, Mackenzie, is actually introduced, but their friendship is also not developed at all. Mackenzie apparently found out her room was very close to Delaney and Adya’s, introduced herself to Adya, became friends with both girls, and actually became so close with them that she started sleeping in their bedroom… AND ALL THIS HAPPENED OFF-PAGE! Literally, at some point Delaney and Adya are talking at night and SUDDENLY Mackenzie responds? 🤨 I was like??????? When did she arrive? TURNS OUT she’d been spending nights on their room *for a WHILE* at that point?? Full on moved there!! And we never even knew about it! IMAGINE HOW CONFUSED I WAS!!! 💀 BYEEEEEEE 💀😭💀😭💀😭
Also, Adya and Mackenzie apparently know about Delaney and Colton’s “relationship” (idk how they found out – I’m guessing off-page, in another missing scene 🙄). Colton also brings up Adya and her magical mirror (once again, when did he learn so much about her?) (Also, if Adya was gonna be important, the least the author could do is include her more in the story lol – at that point she’d been in like 3 scenes total 💀).
Long story short: these characters weren’t properly introduced, they just randomly showed up as if they’d always been there. The girls’ friendship literally came out of nowhere and was never developed. They just *suddenly* were super close to Delaney, despite being in the book for a total of 5 pages. It felt like multiple scenes were missing.
Delaney’s relationship with the LI, Colton, was also very strange. We learn that they met when they were younger, and now, in present day, they have this inexplicable attraction to each other. They’re constantly thinking about each other – they’re obsessed! The author claims this book is a slow-burn, but their instant connection and the fact that they’re immediately drawn to each other begs to differ. Sure, there’s a chance it’ll be revealed later in the book that they were prophesied to get close or whatever, and that’s why they felt this attraction; and perhaps it takes them a while to *actually* get together. However, you can’t really say it’s a slow-burn when in the first 20% she’s already ~ feeling something in her belly when he looks at her ~ and he cares about her problems so much that it’s stated that “He’d never cared about anything more in his life.” … (What?? Just because she’s behind in a class? Be serious 🙄)……… 😑😑😑 Mind you, there was no development here. This all came out of nowhere.
Additionally, their dynamic is really… off. I understand that the author wanted them to be one of those couples that bicker back and forth, but it never came out right. To start off, Delaney spends *WEEKS* buying Colton coffee every single day (he literally ignores her every time) as an apology for calling him an asshole once (mind you, Colton IS an asshole!). Like, I understand doing it once as an apology, but MULTIPLE TIMES? FOR WEEKS?? Lmfaoooo couldn’t be me!!! 💀 Like, girl, get some self-respect! He’s ignoring you! You’re strangers! Pick yourself up, queen! All this for a shitty white boy, too?? Bye. 😭✋
This weird dynamic continued for a while. I feel like the author really thought the MCs were at a level where they could just bicker with each other in a cute and funny way, but I never bought it. Bickering between couples is only fun when both parties are on the same level. But here, all we saw between them was Colton being arrogant and treating her poorly, and Delaney pushing back for just 1 second, only to end up doing whatever he ordered her to, without questions, as if she was a defenseless child trying to impress a really mean teacher. 😐 It’s really not the fun bickering dynamic the author thinks it is. It was very annoying, especially because 1) the author thinks their dynamic is a funny back and forth (it isn’t – it’s very one-sided); and 2) because a man being a dick to a disabled girl who never really pushes back is uncomfortable to read about.
There’s also the fact that it’s mentioned multiple times that Colton and Delaney can’t be close, despite having this weird attraction to each other. I know that it’ll be clarified *why* they’re drawn to each other and *why* that is dangerous, but honestly, this mystery pissed me off. It was brought up every other page, yet we never got answers, so it became repetitive and tiring really quickly.
In fact, everything I read in this book felt like this: very repetitive, and it goes nowhere. This book made me question a lot of things, but not in a “Ohhh mystery!! I’m intrigued 👀” way, more like a “Nothing is being explained or developed so I’m really fucking lost” way. I never knew what was going on or where the story was headed, and in 100 pages nothing really happened. Instead of feeling like we were looking for the answer to a mystery, it felt like we were meandering with no clear goal. It’s confusing and exhausting. And I saw several other readers mention that the plot doesn’t really kick in until the last third of the book, and I really don’t want to wander even more through this story without a purpose, hence the DNF.
Another thing I didn’t like about the writing was the passage of time. Long stretches of time would pass from one paragraph to the next (for example: it would go from dawn to afternoon in 1 paragraph), and a lot of the time it was only mentioned a couple of paragraphs later, so I’d be reading it all confused like “I *think* it’s a new day????? Idk??????” . This, in addition to the “missing scenes” and unclear goal of the story, left me very confused.
There was also a lot of “telling instead of showing”. It would randomly be mentioned that several weeks had passed and in that time she had gone to certain places, felt excluded from said places, struggled with being deaf, felt lonely, went to multiple classes, studied for and took exams, received bad grades, talked with a bunch of her teachers, had multiple tutoring lessons, etc.. I would’ve really liked to see these things, instead of just being told they happened in yet another unnecessary time jump.
Other things about the writing: it’s very repetitive. As I already mentioned, every other page they brought up how drawn the MC’s were to each other, and how they couldn’t be together; there were a lot of reused phrases, like “shadows engulfing”; Delaney is compared to glass 15 times in the first 50 pages (that’s not an exaggeration, btw. I counted 💀💀💀)… I also found a couple of typos. And, lastly, I want to add that I wasn’t a fan of the unnecessarily flowery writing.
The one silver lining is that this is an ARC, so hopefully the book will be better in its final form.
(review written on 18/08/22)
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AGHFJSDKDJK I JUST GOT AN ARC OF THIS BOOK OMFG????????????? IT’S MY MOST ANTICIPATED DEBUT OF 2022 I’M SO EXCITED I CAN’T BELIEVE I GOT AN ARC AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHSADJKFDVSHJ!!!! It’s my 2nd ever ARC, too!!! Idk what I did to deserve this, but I’d like to thank the Edelweiss and Scholastic gods for this!! 😭🙏
(03/08/22)
-----
(25/01/22)
So this book has:
➼ slow burn
➼ forced proximity
➼“I don’t like people but I like you”
➼ forbidden romance
➼ last name / nickname until a pivotal moment
➼ “tell me who did this to you”
➼ “everyone knows you’re dating but you”
➼ dont read that creepy latin, maybe
I NEED IT RIGHT NOW
-----
(03/01/22)
A DEAF MAIN CHARACTER??? IN A YA URBAN FANTASY???? Plus the story sounds cool as hell???? Take my money
Real heartbreak is when you get an ARC of your most anticipated debut of the year (and it’s your 2nd ever ARC, too!) and you end up disliking it so much you have to DNF it (despite rarely DNFing books…). 😔💔😔💔😔💔 I was so excited to read this book, and I truly thought I’d love it, but unfortunately it was so mind-numbing that I had to DNF it at 26%. I’ve been a prisoner of this book for 2 weeks (that felt like 2 MONTHS), so I’m just giving up. Perhaps I’ll come back to it at some point, but no promises, because my experience reading these 100 pages was ~pure misery~.
(This review is long. Beware.)
Let’s get the good out of the way: the disability rep is obviously amazing. There aren’t a lot of disabled characters in fiction, so having a book with a deaf MC (written by a deaf author) is truly amazing, and I hope to see more of this type of representation in the future. I also quite liked the aesthetic the author was going for here (dark academia + magic is always a great combo!).
Now for the bad…… Oh boy. 😬 Most of my problems with this book can be boiled down to this: the writing is utterly terrible. Not in an obvious way (you can’t really grab a random quote to show how poorly written this book was); more in a structural sense: poor world building, underdeveloped relationships, no explanations, missing scenes… Reading this left me confused and incredibly frustrated. I have NEVER read a book that’s in such desperate need of an editor!
Starting off with the world building: there is none . We’re just thrown into the story, and 100 pages in I still don’t know how this world works! Is magic common? Does everyone know about it? Is it used on everyday tasks? Who can perform it? Is it genetic? Are you born with it or do you learn it? Are magic schools common? What types of magic exist? Are there magical creatures? What kind of magic is Delaney even there to study? THEY NEVER EXPLAIN!!! Now, granted, I didn’t finish the book, so maybe they clarify it later, but I feel like I shouldn’t have these many questions 100+ pages into a fantasy book.
Now let’s get into my biggest problem with the book: it felt like multiple scenes were *missing*. I have never read a book that gave me this feeling. I kept having to go back to reread scenes because I was perpetually confused and I genuinely thought I’d read things wrong or accidentally skipped a scene, but the problem wasn’t me; it was the book! Nothing was explained and it felt like full scenes were simply absent, which made for an awful reading experience.
For example: Delaney’s friends. Out of nowhere, Delaney starts having a conversation with her roommate, Adya. The thing is, we never saw Delaney go into her room for the first time or meet this girl, let alone get close to her! Sure, we can assume these things happened at some point, off-page, but it’s very weird that 1) the author chose to skip the scene where the MC arrives at her dorm and meets her roommate / future friend (these are important things in stories set in university!); and 2) the 1st time we see said roommate we don’t even get an introduction – she is just thrown into the story! The only reason why I realized I hadn’t actually missed her introduction is because in this scene we get a physical description of Adya, which led me to (correctly) assume it was her 1st time on page.
Delaney’s other friend, Mackenzie, is actually introduced, but their friendship is also not developed at all. Mackenzie apparently found out her room was very close to Delaney and Adya’s, introduced herself to Adya, became friends with both girls, and actually became so close with them that she started sleeping in their bedroom… AND ALL THIS HAPPENED OFF-PAGE! Literally, at some point Delaney and Adya are talking at night and SUDDENLY Mackenzie responds? 🤨 I was like??????? When did she arrive? TURNS OUT she’d been spending nights on their room *for a WHILE* at that point?? Full on moved there!! And we never even knew about it! IMAGINE HOW CONFUSED I WAS!!! 💀 BYEEEEEEE 💀😭💀😭💀😭
Also, Adya and Mackenzie apparently know about Delaney and Colton’s “relationship” (idk how they found out – I’m guessing off-page, in another missing scene 🙄). Colton also brings up Adya and her magical mirror (once again, when did he learn so much about her?) (Also, if Adya was gonna be important, the least the author could do is include her more in the story lol – at that point she’d been in like 3 scenes total 💀).
Long story short: these characters weren’t properly introduced, they just randomly showed up as if they’d always been there. The girls’ friendship literally came out of nowhere and was never developed. They just *suddenly* were super close to Delaney, despite being in the book for a total of 5 pages. It felt like multiple scenes were missing.
Delaney’s relationship with the LI, Colton, was also very strange. We learn that they met when they were younger, and now, in present day, they have this inexplicable attraction to each other. They’re constantly thinking about each other – they’re obsessed! The author claims this book is a slow-burn, but their instant connection and the fact that they’re immediately drawn to each other begs to differ. Sure, there’s a chance it’ll be revealed later in the book that they were prophesied to get close or whatever, and that’s why they felt this attraction; and perhaps it takes them a while to *actually* get together. However, you can’t really say it’s a slow-burn when in the first 20% she’s already ~ feeling something in her belly when he looks at her ~ and he cares about her problems so much that it’s stated that “He’d never cared about anything more in his life.” … (What?? Just because she’s behind in a class? Be serious 🙄)……… 😑😑😑 Mind you, there was no development here. This all came out of nowhere.
Additionally, their dynamic is really… off. I understand that the author wanted them to be one of those couples that bicker back and forth, but it never came out right. To start off, Delaney spends *WEEKS* buying Colton coffee every single day (he literally ignores her every time) as an apology for calling him an asshole once (mind you, Colton IS an asshole!). Like, I understand doing it once as an apology, but MULTIPLE TIMES? FOR WEEKS?? Lmfaoooo couldn’t be me!!! 💀 Like, girl, get some self-respect! He’s ignoring you! You’re strangers! Pick yourself up, queen! All this for a shitty white boy, too?? Bye. 😭✋
This weird dynamic continued for a while. I feel like the author really thought the MCs were at a level where they could just bicker with each other in a cute and funny way, but I never bought it. Bickering between couples is only fun when both parties are on the same level. But here, all we saw between them was Colton being arrogant and treating her poorly, and Delaney pushing back for just 1 second, only to end up doing whatever he ordered her to, without questions, as if she was a defenseless child trying to impress a really mean teacher. 😐 It’s really not the fun bickering dynamic the author thinks it is. It was very annoying, especially because 1) the author thinks their dynamic is a funny back and forth (it isn’t – it’s very one-sided); and 2) because a man being a dick to a disabled girl who never really pushes back is uncomfortable to read about.
There’s also the fact that it’s mentioned multiple times that Colton and Delaney can’t be close, despite having this weird attraction to each other. I know that it’ll be clarified *why* they’re drawn to each other and *why* that is dangerous, but honestly, this mystery pissed me off. It was brought up every other page, yet we never got answers, so it became repetitive and tiring really quickly.
In fact, everything I read in this book felt like this: very repetitive, and it goes nowhere. This book made me question a lot of things, but not in a “Ohhh mystery!! I’m intrigued 👀” way, more like a “Nothing is being explained or developed so I’m really fucking lost” way. I never knew what was going on or where the story was headed, and in 100 pages nothing really happened. Instead of feeling like we were looking for the answer to a mystery, it felt like we were meandering with no clear goal. It’s confusing and exhausting. And I saw several other readers mention that the plot doesn’t really kick in until the last third of the book, and I really don’t want to wander even more through this story without a purpose, hence the DNF.
Another thing I didn’t like about the writing was the passage of time. Long stretches of time would pass from one paragraph to the next (for example: it would go from dawn to afternoon in 1 paragraph), and a lot of the time it was only mentioned a couple of paragraphs later, so I’d be reading it all confused like “I *think* it’s a new day????? Idk??????” . This, in addition to the “missing scenes” and unclear goal of the story, left me very confused.
There was also a lot of “telling instead of showing”. It would randomly be mentioned that several weeks had passed and in that time she had gone to certain places, felt excluded from said places, struggled with being deaf, felt lonely, went to multiple classes, studied for and took exams, received bad grades, talked with a bunch of her teachers, had multiple tutoring lessons, etc.. I would’ve really liked to see these things, instead of just being told they happened in yet another unnecessary time jump.
Other things about the writing: it’s very repetitive. As I already mentioned, every other page they brought up how drawn the MC’s were to each other, and how they couldn’t be together; there were a lot of reused phrases, like “shadows engulfing”; Delaney is compared to glass 15 times in the first 50 pages (that’s not an exaggeration, btw. I counted 💀💀💀)… I also found a couple of typos. And, lastly, I want to add that I wasn’t a fan of the unnecessarily flowery writing.
The one silver lining is that this is an ARC, so hopefully the book will be better in its final form.
(review written on 18/08/22)
-----
AGHFJSDKDJK I JUST GOT AN ARC OF THIS BOOK OMFG????????????? IT’S MY MOST ANTICIPATED DEBUT OF 2022 I’M SO EXCITED I CAN’T BELIEVE I GOT AN ARC AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHSADJKFDVSHJ!!!! It’s my 2nd ever ARC, too!!! Idk what I did to deserve this, but I’d like to thank the Edelweiss and Scholastic gods for this!! 😭🙏
(03/08/22)
-----
(25/01/22)
So this book has:
➼ slow burn
➼ forced proximity
➼“I don’t like people but I like you”
➼ forbidden romance
➼ last name / nickname until a pivotal moment
➼ “tell me who did this to you”
➼ “everyone knows you’re dating but you”
➼ dont read that creepy latin, maybe
I NEED IT RIGHT NOW
-----
(03/01/22)
A DEAF MAIN CHARACTER??? IN A YA URBAN FANTASY???? Plus the story sounds cool as hell???? Take my money
April 14, 2022
THE WHISPERING DARK is a complex web of chilling secrets and haunting tension that lingers well after you’ve closed its pages. Kelly Andrew has beautifully crafted a paranormal thriller laced with twists and revelations that will stop your heart and make your blood run cold.
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December 2, 2022
Long sigh of...this book is why I'm falling out of love with YA. Not this book specifically, but this book as a representation of a writing trend that is becoming increasingly prominent within YA fantasy.
I wanted to like it a whole lot more than I did, but I just didn't. I loved reading about a Deaf main character who is drawn to the darkness—the concept was so cool, but. The writing. I just couldn't with the writing. It suffered from being overly repetitive. From describing the same thing two or three times to hammer the point home. From being melodramatic to the point of insufferability and over-description veering straight to purple prose. Yes, I'm doing it a touch here, but I can't help it. This book's prose broke something fundamental inside me.
I took a lot of clippings trying to capture what it was about the writing that was pulling me out of the story, and reviewing the clippings made me realize it was the sheer repetition, combined with a heaping dose of metaphors and similes with the assist. Once or twice every so often to punctuate a point: great. For every description, big or small: no thank you, not for me.
Delaney Meyers-Petrov, the little girl of glass. Delaney Meyers-Petrov, the girl who was so special, the girl who shone with a light inside her and was remarkable, stupendous, marvelous. Delaney Meyers-Petrov, whose full name was repeated so often I was getting serious Starless Sea flashbacks. And Colton Price, the boy. The boy. The boy. And her friends, who got only the amount of page time necessary to advance the plot and support Delaney, and who vanished as soon as Colton Price and his dagger smile, his knife grin, his blade mouth, stepped into the picture.
However, as much as there were elements of this book that irked me in the exact same manner that Ninth House and The Starless Sea irked me, in addition to the overwriting, I still loved seeing a Deaf character kicking ass. And I know that while it was not the book for me, it will absolutely be the book for someone else.
2.5 stars, rounded up.
I wanted to like it a whole lot more than I did, but I just didn't. I loved reading about a Deaf main character who is drawn to the darkness—the concept was so cool, but. The writing. I just couldn't with the writing. It suffered from being overly repetitive. From describing the same thing two or three times to hammer the point home. From being melodramatic to the point of insufferability and over-description veering straight to purple prose. Yes, I'm doing it a touch here, but I can't help it. This book's prose broke something fundamental inside me.
I took a lot of clippings trying to capture what it was about the writing that was pulling me out of the story, and reviewing the clippings made me realize it was the sheer repetition, combined with a heaping dose of metaphors and similes with the assist. Once or twice every so often to punctuate a point: great. For every description, big or small: no thank you, not for me.
Delaney Meyers-Petrov, the little girl of glass. Delaney Meyers-Petrov, the girl who was so special, the girl who shone with a light inside her and was remarkable, stupendous, marvelous. Delaney Meyers-Petrov, whose full name was repeated so often I was getting serious Starless Sea flashbacks. And Colton Price, the boy. The boy. The boy. And her friends, who got only the amount of page time necessary to advance the plot and support Delaney, and who vanished as soon as Colton Price and his dagger smile, his knife grin, his blade mouth, stepped into the picture.
However, as much as there were elements of this book that irked me in the exact same manner that Ninth House and The Starless Sea irked me, in addition to the overwriting, I still loved seeing a Deaf character kicking ass. And I know that while it was not the book for me, it will absolutely be the book for someone else.
2.5 stars, rounded up.
October 21, 2022
CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Good lord where do I begin. None of the characters had any depth, the MC especially. She was like a paper cut out of a person, who did absolutely ~nothing~ but dress differently, and yet somehow could effortlessly walk through worlds and became the cHoSeN oNe for some sort of demon/monster thing (was never really clarified what it was.)
This ~should~ have been a cool story. A university that teaches you how to walk into parallel worlds, and there’s a string of murders on-campus connected to it? Excellent premise. Too bad it was just that—a premise and nothing else. There is no world-building, no explanation of anything, no answers to how the magic system works (were they walking into parallel universes or the afterlife? We’ll never know.) I have no idea what the plot even was for the entire first third of the book. Something would happen, and I’d think, okay maybe the story is picking up now? Maybe this will connect to something later…? And then it didn’t. I felt like important things were barely described, or described so mysteriously, I was left reading between the lines about everything that unfolded. Large parts that seemed important were just skipped over, but then we’d get intensive, multi-paragraph descriptions of the characters walking through airport security or a recipe for Colton’s post-workout shakes. (Btw, this boy throwing back 3 cups of milk every morning before 7 am was truly the most haunting part of this entire story.)
The entire plot was a mess from start to finish. I felt like I was reading a very, very rough draft of a story where the author just had these scenes in her head for the characters to be in “romantic” situations, and then had to cobble together a plot around it. Passages of time were so weird that I kept having to go back to see if I missed something. Some scenes had the oddest settings. Like after Lane is possessed, she goes back to her parent’s house and spends days yelling at the mirror, and then suddenly her dorm mate is with her, sitting in the bathtub? It was so weird, I thought maybe Lane was imagining her dorm mate being there. Why wouldn’t this scene take place in the university? Why are her parents not concerned about their daughter abruptly coming home for university, locking herself in the bathroom for days, cutting off all her hair, and screaming at her reflection?
Once we did finally get to the “plot” it’s more like a crepe-thin piece of paper that just serves as a static background to put the two MCs into as many romance tropes as possible. Colton is continually told to stay away for Lane, but we NEVER learn why. It’s mysterious for about three chapters, then just got annoying when it was clear it was never going to be explained. Then there’s a large section of story that seems to be an excuse for the characters to share a bed in a hotel and cuddle. THEN when Delaney is possessed (again, by what we never really find out, just a bad entity I guess) instead of some kind of plot happening, it was just some weird way to have the two MCs holed up in Colton’s room together, where the demonic entity would come out every night and he’d wrestle with it in some kind of weirdly sexual way. That was it. For chapters. Then at the climax of the book, Colton has a “Plan B” to get rid of whatever is possessing Lane, but his plan B was to… take her out on a date in an alternate universe? And then have sex with her when they get back? And somehow she’s not possessed anymore because we don’t hear of the demon coming out like it does every night, but then it’s still there in her head in the climax?
Not to mention, nothing made sense about the climax. We got no concrete answers about what the hell sort of cult Colton was pledged to. The “Apostle” was the most obvious person ever and would have been better if the author just straight-up said who it was instead of making it a mystery. The whole premise is supposed to be about going into parallel universes, but it was so irrelevant to the plot it could have been cut out entirely. Oh, not to mention, Colton freaking KILLS SOMEONE and BURIES THEIR BODY in the woods and we never hear about this again.
BUT despite my criticisms, it’s been a few days after I finished it and now I’m oddly considering reading it again? Which is why it got two stars instead of one. The prose and atmosphere were great and and concept seemed like something right up my alley. I just wish the author would have focused more on the plot and world-building instead of just making it a background prop so the characters could pine. If you want a story with all ~vibes~ and nothing else, this is the book for you.
Good lord where do I begin. None of the characters had any depth, the MC especially. She was like a paper cut out of a person, who did absolutely ~nothing~ but dress differently, and yet somehow could effortlessly walk through worlds and became the cHoSeN oNe for some sort of demon/monster thing (was never really clarified what it was.)
This ~should~ have been a cool story. A university that teaches you how to walk into parallel worlds, and there’s a string of murders on-campus connected to it? Excellent premise. Too bad it was just that—a premise and nothing else. There is no world-building, no explanation of anything, no answers to how the magic system works (were they walking into parallel universes or the afterlife? We’ll never know.) I have no idea what the plot even was for the entire first third of the book. Something would happen, and I’d think, okay maybe the story is picking up now? Maybe this will connect to something later…? And then it didn’t. I felt like important things were barely described, or described so mysteriously, I was left reading between the lines about everything that unfolded. Large parts that seemed important were just skipped over, but then we’d get intensive, multi-paragraph descriptions of the characters walking through airport security or a recipe for Colton’s post-workout shakes. (Btw, this boy throwing back 3 cups of milk every morning before 7 am was truly the most haunting part of this entire story.)
The entire plot was a mess from start to finish. I felt like I was reading a very, very rough draft of a story where the author just had these scenes in her head for the characters to be in “romantic” situations, and then had to cobble together a plot around it. Passages of time were so weird that I kept having to go back to see if I missed something. Some scenes had the oddest settings. Like after Lane is possessed, she goes back to her parent’s house and spends days yelling at the mirror, and then suddenly her dorm mate is with her, sitting in the bathtub? It was so weird, I thought maybe Lane was imagining her dorm mate being there. Why wouldn’t this scene take place in the university? Why are her parents not concerned about their daughter abruptly coming home for university, locking herself in the bathroom for days, cutting off all her hair, and screaming at her reflection?
Once we did finally get to the “plot” it’s more like a crepe-thin piece of paper that just serves as a static background to put the two MCs into as many romance tropes as possible. Colton is continually told to stay away for Lane, but we NEVER learn why. It’s mysterious for about three chapters, then just got annoying when it was clear it was never going to be explained. Then there’s a large section of story that seems to be an excuse for the characters to share a bed in a hotel and cuddle. THEN when Delaney is possessed (again, by what we never really find out, just a bad entity I guess) instead of some kind of plot happening, it was just some weird way to have the two MCs holed up in Colton’s room together, where the demonic entity would come out every night and he’d wrestle with it in some kind of weirdly sexual way. That was it. For chapters. Then at the climax of the book, Colton has a “Plan B” to get rid of whatever is possessing Lane, but his plan B was to… take her out on a date in an alternate universe? And then have sex with her when they get back? And somehow she’s not possessed anymore because we don’t hear of the demon coming out like it does every night, but then it’s still there in her head in the climax?
Not to mention, nothing made sense about the climax. We got no concrete answers about what the hell sort of cult Colton was pledged to. The “Apostle” was the most obvious person ever and would have been better if the author just straight-up said who it was instead of making it a mystery. The whole premise is supposed to be about going into parallel universes, but it was so irrelevant to the plot it could have been cut out entirely. Oh, not to mention, Colton freaking KILLS SOMEONE and BURIES THEIR BODY in the woods and we never hear about this again.
BUT despite my criticisms, it’s been a few days after I finished it and now I’m oddly considering reading it again? Which is why it got two stars instead of one. The prose and atmosphere were great and and concept seemed like something right up my alley. I just wish the author would have focused more on the plot and world-building instead of just making it a background prop so the characters could pine. If you want a story with all ~vibes~ and nothing else, this is the book for you.
February 4, 2023
3/3.25 stars? Certain aspects of this were incredible- the dark academia vibes, the magic system, the imagery used to describe the world the way Lane experiences it being deaf with hearing aids. Now where this story let me down was unfortunately in the predictability of the mystery. Accidentally, I’d realized who the big bad was and the main sub mysteries, which left the reveals feeling anticlimactic. Also, I felt like the pacing was a bit stop a go, we’d spend tons of time on build up and the next part will have been sped through. Overall, it was a pretty good dark academia vibe and an overall fast read.
October 3, 2024
“I dragged myself out of Hell to you.”
rating: 4.5★
this was the perfect book to start october off with dark academia, shadow-hiding creatures, eeriness, yearning romance, missing students, some YA horror and a little trip thru the dimensions.
lane is tired of being treated with kid gloves her whole life after losing her hearing as a kid, and she's burning to prove what she can be. she enrolls at the elusive but selective godbole university and quickly discovers she had good reason to be afraid of the dark growing up.
i love a gothic/e-girl fmc and i loved lane's tenacity. she navigates this new academic world of paranormal with determination and refuses to back down. i really connected w her sense of climbing uphill when you feel like everyone is constantly 10 steps ahead already.
“She wanted to be defined. Not by the silence between her ears or her fear of the dark, but by the sum of her achievements. Not by what she couldn't do, but by what she could.”
colton price is the golden boy of godbole, but he wasn't always this way. after a casual death and resurrection as a kid, he has a few secrets of his own - one of them being that he's had his eye on lane ever since he came back.
i lovedddddddd colton omg. off the bat he reminded me a bit of preston from a study in drowning, and the more we dived into his character the more he became the hero of the story for me. nothing gets me in a romance like a pathetically yearning man and colton has a phd in it.
“He couldn’t help it. He went where she led, like a paper kite on a string. He was hopelessly caught, twisted in her branches. His line tangled. His spine splintered. His sail all in tatters. There was no clean way to work himself free.”
i also really enjoyed the side characters, they all felt very specific to me and real. even hayes who doesn't have the biggest part stuck out as a type of person i could pin down in my real life circles.
i think this is the first book i've read with the leading character being Deaf, so it was a very new reading experience for me. it esp hits different in OwnVoices writing bc there's details that you just know as the reader are incredibly specific experiences for the writer.
the writing was very atmospheric and the setting was exactly what i wanted to get me into the spooky halloween season, the perfect marriage of dark academia and supernatural horror.
“Howe University looked like everything Septembers were meant to embody—like bricks and books and new beginnings. It smelled like it, too. Fresh-cut grass and petrichor, coffee grounds and vanillin and the faint, autumnal smack of sour apples.”
a magic school is of course so much fun, though the focus leans more into the mystery and romance which is fine, but i always love to get more into magic system and school details. i think in this case though knowing less worked from lane's perspective of being out of the loop when she arrived, as well as the Priory group really winging it.
“It was incredibly naive of Whitehall,” he said, confessing what he could, “to think we could pass freely between worlds and not expect something uninvited to follow us home.”
there is a tiny bit of gore and body horror, but at a very chill YA level and easy to skim over if needed. as someone who's a bit more queasy when it comes to that, i was totally fine with it.
my only complaint is i want more of everything! what i would give for an epilogue novella 😭
this was my first book by kelly andrew and it did not disappoint! i'm really excited to get into her other books now.
_______________________
𖡼𖤣𖥧 currently reading 𖥧𖤣𖡼
just realized my library loan for this is almost up, so priority read it is!
rating: 4.5★
this was the perfect book to start october off with dark academia, shadow-hiding creatures, eeriness, yearning romance, missing students, some YA horror and a little trip thru the dimensions.
lane is tired of being treated with kid gloves her whole life after losing her hearing as a kid, and she's burning to prove what she can be. she enrolls at the elusive but selective godbole university and quickly discovers she had good reason to be afraid of the dark growing up.
i love a gothic/e-girl fmc and i loved lane's tenacity. she navigates this new academic world of paranormal with determination and refuses to back down. i really connected w her sense of climbing uphill when you feel like everyone is constantly 10 steps ahead already.
“She wanted to be defined. Not by the silence between her ears or her fear of the dark, but by the sum of her achievements. Not by what she couldn't do, but by what she could.”
colton price is the golden boy of godbole, but he wasn't always this way. after a casual death and resurrection as a kid, he has a few secrets of his own - one of them being that he's had his eye on lane ever since he came back.
i lovedddddddd colton omg. off the bat he reminded me a bit of preston from a study in drowning, and the more we dived into his character the more he became the hero of the story for me. nothing gets me in a romance like a pathetically yearning man and colton has a phd in it.
“He couldn’t help it. He went where she led, like a paper kite on a string. He was hopelessly caught, twisted in her branches. His line tangled. His spine splintered. His sail all in tatters. There was no clean way to work himself free.”
i also really enjoyed the side characters, they all felt very specific to me and real. even hayes who doesn't have the biggest part stuck out as a type of person i could pin down in my real life circles.
i think this is the first book i've read with the leading character being Deaf, so it was a very new reading experience for me. it esp hits different in OwnVoices writing bc there's details that you just know as the reader are incredibly specific experiences for the writer.
the writing was very atmospheric and the setting was exactly what i wanted to get me into the spooky halloween season, the perfect marriage of dark academia and supernatural horror.
“Howe University looked like everything Septembers were meant to embody—like bricks and books and new beginnings. It smelled like it, too. Fresh-cut grass and petrichor, coffee grounds and vanillin and the faint, autumnal smack of sour apples.”
a magic school is of course so much fun, though the focus leans more into the mystery and romance which is fine, but i always love to get more into magic system and school details. i think in this case though knowing less worked from lane's perspective of being out of the loop when she arrived, as well as the Priory group really winging it.
“It was incredibly naive of Whitehall,” he said, confessing what he could, “to think we could pass freely between worlds and not expect something uninvited to follow us home.”
there is a tiny bit of gore and body horror, but at a very chill YA level and easy to skim over if needed. as someone who's a bit more queasy when it comes to that, i was totally fine with it.
my only complaint is i want more of everything! what i would give for an epilogue novella 😭
this was my first book by kelly andrew and it did not disappoint! i'm really excited to get into her other books now.
_______________________
𖡼𖤣𖥧 currently reading 𖥧𖤣𖡼
just realized my library loan for this is almost up, so priority read it is!
January 21, 2023
Usually when I finish a book the words to summarize flow easily, but this book left me a bit “speechless” so to say. I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t what I read. I would say I should stop picking books by their cover, but I know I’d never listen. I do wish the main character had a little more depth to her (and to not be compared to glass so much). I also wish the love interest had been a little less awful at times (this doesn’t mean I didn’t like him, I am a sucker for a jerk in need of redemption). I think what I enjoyed most was that I felt like I was on the main characters path to trying to understand what was going on. Delaney has always seen and heard things - whispers in the dark. The dead circle around her and lay at her feet. Colton Price is able to step between worlds without effort. At a special program in a college with a supernatural flare the two meet again and it changes everything.
October 7, 2022
Oh boy! It’s not often a read makes me physically angry, but The Whispering Dark is an exception. Buckle in as I start my rant… I mean, review.
We’ll start with a positive first; it’s refreshing to have a deaf main character in a book that’s written by a deaf author. There’s a lot of lived-in experience that feels present within the narrative and it really opened my eyes to certain aspects that I had not thought of before.
I’ll start my negatives off gently and that is with the fantasy and world-building aspects of the book. This isn’t a fantasy with a romance element, it’s very much a romance with a bit of fantasy thrown in. Lane is granted a scholarship to a programme at Godbole University which teaches its students to walk through to parallel worlds. We start off seeing her first lecture where she is given a 3-minute monologue about what is expected in the course and told to get some rest to prepare. Then… that’s it. That’s the only lesson we are a part of – we know they learn Latin and calculus (for some reason), but this is the last time anything that is taught at the Uni is referenced until they have a test to see if they can walk through to another world. In this test Lane just stands in the room, listens for a minute and then slips through easily – it was hard to see what anything they were teaching them had to do with it. The world-building is also non-existent, it's difficult to understand whether this program is a secret, if parallel worlds or demons are a known thing in the world as a whole, how this university exists etc.
The plot is also paper-thin - the first half and the majority of the second half is just setting up the heavily problematic (we’ll get to that, don’t worry) romance between Lane and Colton and the rest is either confusing or predictable with no in-between. There is a mysterious villain of ‘The Apostle’ but after one chapter from his point of view I correctly guessed who it was, so the ending ‘twist’ didn’t have any impact at all.
My main issue with this book is the portrayal of the relationship between Lane and Colton. From the blurb I had assumed that Colton was perhaps an older student and that would have made some of it a little better. However, he’s actually a TA and is responsible for marking her coursework and some of the grades for her Uni course. This heavily shifts the power dynamic between the two of them and makes some of the scenes seem uncomfortably like grooming which I’m sure wasn’t the intention! Added to this, the relationship is abusive, controlling and manipulative and nowhere in the narrative is this ever pointed out as a bad thing.
I’ll give you a spoiler-free example of what I mean – Lane is worried she will fail her course, so Colton seeks her out while she’s vulnerable and crying in the library to offer to provide her private tuition. She says she’ll think about it and comes back to him to accept his offer whilst one of his peers is in the room. He then says he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, puts her down and throws her out of his office. He then comes back to her to say that he will do it, but they shouldn’t tell anyone about it – ‘the fewer people who know the better’ (you see what I mean about the grooming thing now?). He then sets a condition for the favour that was his idea in the first place and says he’ll only do it if she paints something for him, she asks where and he says at his house, in the evening, after class!
Nowhere in the narrative is this presented as a sign of a bad relationship, in fact Lane apologises twice during the example I just gave! Colton is given excuses such as a bad childhood, traumatic event etc but this doesn’t excuse his behaviour at all. I think this romanticising of an abusive, controlling and manipulative relationship is unacceptable in 2022 and is really dangerous for a young adult audience in particular. I said to my partner that the only way I’d give this book more than one star was if Lane drop-kicked Colton off a volcano so perhaps this review does have one spoiler in it!
Overall, The Whispering Dark is fantasy with no world building and a paper-thin plot which romanticises a heavily problematic and dangerous relationship to its young adult audience. Thank you to NetGalley & Orion Publishing Group – Gollancz for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.
For more of my reviews check out www.kindig.co.uk
We’ll start with a positive first; it’s refreshing to have a deaf main character in a book that’s written by a deaf author. There’s a lot of lived-in experience that feels present within the narrative and it really opened my eyes to certain aspects that I had not thought of before.
I’ll start my negatives off gently and that is with the fantasy and world-building aspects of the book. This isn’t a fantasy with a romance element, it’s very much a romance with a bit of fantasy thrown in. Lane is granted a scholarship to a programme at Godbole University which teaches its students to walk through to parallel worlds. We start off seeing her first lecture where she is given a 3-minute monologue about what is expected in the course and told to get some rest to prepare. Then… that’s it. That’s the only lesson we are a part of – we know they learn Latin and calculus (for some reason), but this is the last time anything that is taught at the Uni is referenced until they have a test to see if they can walk through to another world. In this test Lane just stands in the room, listens for a minute and then slips through easily – it was hard to see what anything they were teaching them had to do with it. The world-building is also non-existent, it's difficult to understand whether this program is a secret, if parallel worlds or demons are a known thing in the world as a whole, how this university exists etc.
The plot is also paper-thin - the first half and the majority of the second half is just setting up the heavily problematic (we’ll get to that, don’t worry) romance between Lane and Colton and the rest is either confusing or predictable with no in-between. There is a mysterious villain of ‘The Apostle’ but after one chapter from his point of view I correctly guessed who it was, so the ending ‘twist’ didn’t have any impact at all.
My main issue with this book is the portrayal of the relationship between Lane and Colton. From the blurb I had assumed that Colton was perhaps an older student and that would have made some of it a little better. However, he’s actually a TA and is responsible for marking her coursework and some of the grades for her Uni course. This heavily shifts the power dynamic between the two of them and makes some of the scenes seem uncomfortably like grooming which I’m sure wasn’t the intention! Added to this, the relationship is abusive, controlling and manipulative and nowhere in the narrative is this ever pointed out as a bad thing.
I’ll give you a spoiler-free example of what I mean – Lane is worried she will fail her course, so Colton seeks her out while she’s vulnerable and crying in the library to offer to provide her private tuition. She says she’ll think about it and comes back to him to accept his offer whilst one of his peers is in the room. He then says he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, puts her down and throws her out of his office. He then comes back to her to say that he will do it, but they shouldn’t tell anyone about it – ‘the fewer people who know the better’ (you see what I mean about the grooming thing now?). He then sets a condition for the favour that was his idea in the first place and says he’ll only do it if she paints something for him, she asks where and he says at his house, in the evening, after class!
Nowhere in the narrative is this presented as a sign of a bad relationship, in fact Lane apologises twice during the example I just gave! Colton is given excuses such as a bad childhood, traumatic event etc but this doesn’t excuse his behaviour at all. I think this romanticising of an abusive, controlling and manipulative relationship is unacceptable in 2022 and is really dangerous for a young adult audience in particular. I said to my partner that the only way I’d give this book more than one star was if Lane drop-kicked Colton off a volcano so perhaps this review does have one spoiler in it!
Overall, The Whispering Dark is fantasy with no world building and a paper-thin plot which romanticises a heavily problematic and dangerous relationship to its young adult audience. Thank you to NetGalley & Orion Publishing Group – Gollancz for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.
For more of my reviews check out www.kindig.co.uk
November 6, 2022
The Raven Boys meets Ninth House with a deaf MC, a hijabi side character, and the most stunning writing you've read in your life. The Whispering Dark is incredibly immersive, I absolutely adored every aspect of it. It felt so intimate? I don't know how to explain it but I felt so much comfort every time I opened the book to continue reading.
Insanely good. One of my favourites this year no doubt
I would like to point out that I still don't know how I feel about Muslim rep in fantasy in general, but in this book we don't delve into any religion really, Adya is just a hijabi and she exists normally and I'd be lying if I said I didn't like seeing us represented
Insanely good. One of my favourites this year no doubt
I would like to point out that I still don't know how I feel about Muslim rep in fantasy in general, but in this book we don't delve into any religion really, Adya is just a hijabi and she exists normally and I'd be lying if I said I didn't like seeing us represented
September 3, 2025
Bueno… ¿por dónde empezar? Menuda historia, librazo y personajes.
Es la primera vez que leo a Kelly Andrew y debo decir que fue un auténtico placer descubrirla. Su pluma es simplemente preciosa: la forma en que escribe, narra y detalla cada suceso es hipnótica. Desarrolla a los personajes con un ritmo perfecto, en paralelo con el avance de la trama, logrando que todo se sienta vivo y vibrante. Me encanta cómo remarca ciertas palabras con pausas, casi como si nos invitara a prestar atención a cada detalle, a lo esencial, sin dejar escapar nada. Hubo momentos en que me provocó escalofríos, inquietud y hasta un poco de miedo. Una fantasía oscura y gótica a otro nivel que me fascinó por completo.
El worldbuilding es maravilloso: esa atmósfera etérea entre el cielo y el infierno, entre los vivos y los muertos. El cruce de mundos, universos y realidades paralelas se construye con simplicidad, pero con una fuerza atrapante que envuelve y hace sentir dentro del relato.
Los personajes:
💐 Delaney es esa chica en la que, de alguna manera, muchas podemos vernos reflejadas: insegura, con miedo tanto a lo que hay afuera como a lo que lleva dentro. Se preocupa más por cómo la miran los demás que por cómo se percibe a sí misma. Sin embargo, su evolución es poderosa. Con el avance de la historia, vemos a una protagonista que se enfrenta a la oscuridad con una valentía inesperada. Puede oír susurros, ver sombras y sentir cómo la persiguen en cuanto la luz desaparece. Salvó a un joven de la muerte cuando era apenas una niña, y esa decisión marcó su destino. La atracción que siente por él es inevitable, intensa y peligrosa, pero también es lo que la impulsa a descubrir su propia fuerza.
💐 Colton es el chico que volvió de entre los muertos. Vive con un pie en el mundo de los vivos y otro en el de las sombras, capaz de abrir portales hacia universos paralelos con un simple movimiento. Fue rescatado por Delaney en la infancia y la reconoció al instante cuando sus caminos se cruzaron de nuevo años después. Ella es su amor, su salvadora, pero también su condena. Por circunstancias que no puede controlar, debería mantenerse lejos de ella, aunque le resulte casi imposible. La atracción entre ambos es feroz, inevitable, como un imán que se intensifica con cada página hasta que se vuelve imposible separarlos.
Además remarco que es un libro que mezcla lo oscuro con lo poético, y que, por lo tanto, me atrapó enseguida. Me encantó muchísimo. 😍💘
Es la primera vez que leo a Kelly Andrew y debo decir que fue un auténtico placer descubrirla. Su pluma es simplemente preciosa: la forma en que escribe, narra y detalla cada suceso es hipnótica. Desarrolla a los personajes con un ritmo perfecto, en paralelo con el avance de la trama, logrando que todo se sienta vivo y vibrante. Me encanta cómo remarca ciertas palabras con pausas, casi como si nos invitara a prestar atención a cada detalle, a lo esencial, sin dejar escapar nada. Hubo momentos en que me provocó escalofríos, inquietud y hasta un poco de miedo. Una fantasía oscura y gótica a otro nivel que me fascinó por completo.
El worldbuilding es maravilloso: esa atmósfera etérea entre el cielo y el infierno, entre los vivos y los muertos. El cruce de mundos, universos y realidades paralelas se construye con simplicidad, pero con una fuerza atrapante que envuelve y hace sentir dentro del relato.
Los personajes:
💐 Delaney es esa chica en la que, de alguna manera, muchas podemos vernos reflejadas: insegura, con miedo tanto a lo que hay afuera como a lo que lleva dentro. Se preocupa más por cómo la miran los demás que por cómo se percibe a sí misma. Sin embargo, su evolución es poderosa. Con el avance de la historia, vemos a una protagonista que se enfrenta a la oscuridad con una valentía inesperada. Puede oír susurros, ver sombras y sentir cómo la persiguen en cuanto la luz desaparece. Salvó a un joven de la muerte cuando era apenas una niña, y esa decisión marcó su destino. La atracción que siente por él es inevitable, intensa y peligrosa, pero también es lo que la impulsa a descubrir su propia fuerza.
💐 Colton es el chico que volvió de entre los muertos. Vive con un pie en el mundo de los vivos y otro en el de las sombras, capaz de abrir portales hacia universos paralelos con un simple movimiento. Fue rescatado por Delaney en la infancia y la reconoció al instante cuando sus caminos se cruzaron de nuevo años después. Ella es su amor, su salvadora, pero también su condena. Por circunstancias que no puede controlar, debería mantenerse lejos de ella, aunque le resulte casi imposible. La atracción entre ambos es feroz, inevitable, como un imán que se intensifica con cada página hasta que se vuelve imposible separarlos.
Además remarco que es un libro que mezcla lo oscuro con lo poético, y que, por lo tanto, me atrapó enseguida. Me encantó muchísimo. 😍💘
May 11, 2024
~5⭐️~ 🫶🏻y'all this book🫶🏻
🤍Fav quotes🤍:
𝓗𝓮 𝓸𝓷𝓵𝔂 𝓼𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭, ＂𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮.＂
𝓢𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓭. 𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓫𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓸𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓴, 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓫𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓶 𝓸𝓯 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓼.
~𝑜𝑚𝑔 𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑦
𝓢𝓱𝓮'𝓭 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓱𝓲𝓼. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓼.
"𝓘 𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓰𝓮𝓭 𝓶𝔂𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯 𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾."
𝓗𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓬𝓻𝓪𝔀𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓬𝓻𝓸𝓼𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓸 𝓱𝓮𝓻, 𝓲𝓯 𝓼𝓱𝓮'𝓭 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓽.
"𝓡𝓮𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓲𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓼 ℰ𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭 𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓯𝓪𝓲𝓵𝓾𝓻𝓮."(...) "𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓯𝓪𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼."(...) "𝓘'𝓿𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓬𝓬𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓯𝓾𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴."
🫶🏻😫And my personal favorite:
＂𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓭𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓮,＂𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓲𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭.
𝓗𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓰𝓪𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪 𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓶𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓽. 𝓑𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓽 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓾𝓶. 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮. 𝓣𝔀𝓲𝓬𝓮. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓰𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮.
𝓗𝓮𝓻 𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽. 𝓛𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓷 𝓬𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓮, 𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓭 𝓪 𝓴𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓾𝓵𝓼𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓪𝓻.
(„ಡωಡ„) ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡
Like boi, don't play with me right now🥹
Read: March 23rd 2023 (it's the end of August and I still think about this book)
🖤Why you should pick this awesome book up:
🏹forbidden romance
🏹dislike to love
🏹mutual pinning
🏹he calls her Wednesday🥹
🏹dark academia in a College setting
🏹creepy atmosphere
🏹beautiful writing
🏹smart, charismatic, obsessed(in a good way), grumpy, curly, dark haired, know-it-all love interest
🏹touch her and I'll kill you (if u know u know🤭)
🏹dual POV
🏹time travel
🏹deaf character represented by a deaf author
🏹lovable characters
🏹a main character that you wish you could hug (or have a really cool handshake with)
🏹murder mystery
🏹ghosts(or are they)(¬‿¬)
🏹wtf moments( ◐ o ◑ )
🏹Edgar Allan Poe vibes
This is pitched as "Ninth House" meets "The Raven Boys" meets "The Atlas Six". Let me tell you how true that is. I've read all of them and I can CONFIRM. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅𝒕
Listen. This, in my opinion, feels a lot more like a New Adult than a Young Adult. Like, y'all, it scared the shit out of me in some parts. I had my wig 𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗗 (⚆ᗝ⚆) AND I LOVED THAT ASPECT
If you compare it to "Ninth House", which is one of my favorite books of all time along with its sequel, yes, it's a YA version of it. When you compare it to "The Raven Boys", it feels like the NA version of it and with "The Atlas Six" it matches perfectly~•~
Idk, for me, this makes sense:)))🧍🏻♀️
Anyway, pick this book up guys. It deserves more hype.
I didn't have it physically since I read it on my phone, but after I read it, the next day it was already in my shopping cart ꒡ꆚ꒡
Edit: I have it physically now🤭
Edit:it's been a year since I read it and I still think about it
TW:
~violence
~death
~gore
~body horror
~suicide mentions
~jump-scares
🤍Fav quotes🤍:
𝓗𝓮 𝓸𝓷𝓵𝔂 𝓼𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭, ＂𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮.＂
𝓢𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓭. 𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓫𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓸𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓴, 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓫𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓶 𝓸𝓯 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓼.
~𝑜𝑚𝑔 𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑦
𝓢𝓱𝓮'𝓭 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓱𝓲𝓼. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓼.
"𝓘 𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓰𝓮𝓭 𝓶𝔂𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯 𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾."
𝓗𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓬𝓻𝓪𝔀𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓬𝓻𝓸𝓼𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓸 𝓱𝓮𝓻, 𝓲𝓯 𝓼𝓱𝓮'𝓭 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓽.
"𝓡𝓮𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓲𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓼 ℰ𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭 𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓯𝓪𝓲𝓵𝓾𝓻𝓮."(...) "𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓯𝓪𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼."(...) "𝓘'𝓿𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓬𝓬𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓯𝓾𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴."
🫶🏻😫And my personal favorite:
＂𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓭𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓮,＂𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓲𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭.
𝓗𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓰𝓪𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪 𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓶𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓽. 𝓑𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓽 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓾𝓶. 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮. 𝓣𝔀𝓲𝓬𝓮. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓰𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮.
𝓗𝓮𝓻 𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽. 𝓛𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓷 𝓬𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓮, 𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓭 𝓪 𝓴𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓾𝓵𝓼𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓪𝓻.
(„ಡωಡ„) ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡
Like boi, don't play with me right now🥹
Read: March 23rd 2023 (it's the end of August and I still think about this book)
🖤Why you should pick this awesome book up:
🏹forbidden romance
🏹dislike to love
🏹mutual pinning
🏹he calls her Wednesday🥹
🏹dark academia in a College setting
🏹creepy atmosphere
🏹beautiful writing
🏹smart, charismatic, obsessed(in a good way), grumpy, curly, dark haired, know-it-all love interest
🏹touch her and I'll kill you (if u know u know🤭)
🏹dual POV
🏹time travel
🏹deaf character represented by a deaf author
🏹lovable characters
🏹a main character that you wish you could hug (or have a really cool handshake with)
🏹murder mystery
🏹ghosts(or are they)(¬‿¬)
🏹wtf moments( ◐ o ◑ )
🏹Edgar Allan Poe vibes
This is pitched as "Ninth House" meets "The Raven Boys" meets "The Atlas Six". Let me tell you how true that is. I've read all of them and I can CONFIRM. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅𝒕
Listen. This, in my opinion, feels a lot more like a New Adult than a Young Adult. Like, y'all, it scared the shit out of me in some parts. I had my wig 𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗗 (⚆ᗝ⚆) AND I LOVED THAT ASPECT
If you compare it to "Ninth House", which is one of my favorite books of all time along with its sequel, yes, it's a YA version of it. When you compare it to "The Raven Boys", it feels like the NA version of it and with "The Atlas Six" it matches perfectly~•~
Idk, for me, this makes sense:)))🧍🏻♀️
Anyway, pick this book up guys. It deserves more hype.
I didn't have it physically since I read it on my phone, but after I read it, the next day it was already in my shopping cart ꒡ꆚ꒡
Edit: I have it physically now🤭
Edit:it's been a year since I read it and I still think about it
TW:
~violence
~death
~gore
~body horror
~suicide mentions
~jump-scares
August 21, 2022
Where was the content I was promised? Where was the travelling to different worlds, the darkness, the tortured heroine, the slow burn enemies to lovers, the dark academia romance?
Let’s start with what I loved- the writing OHMYGOD IT WAS GORGEOUS, and also the only thing that kept me going. The concept sounded so good and I loved the vibes, but it just wasn’t enough.
Characters: I didn’t like the characters, or the plot for that matter. Our main character is deaf and I’m glad it wasn’t something that held her back. But she had no depth. She just dressed differently and could hear a voice in her head, thus the whispering dark. She hardly had any interactions with the other characters and her roommates. It felt like the focus of the story was more concentrated on the writing and the vibes rather than what was happening in the moment, and therefore every chapter was slower than the last. The romance was bland- I didn’t feel any chemistry between the two characters. They just had a shared experience and their romance and attraction was built on that.
Writing: As I said, it was beautiful, but it was also not great at a lot of points, when the scenes shifted. One second we were being told she’s in her room and literally the next sentence is her having a conversation with someone in her class. In that aspect I think this book needed an editor, or maybe the final form of this book might be different as I read it as an e-arc? I don’t know.
The pacing was super slow. There was nothing exciting, and I just wish it was different because this story had SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Nothing remotely interesting happened until the last 10% or so. The beginning was very strong and hooked me, so I was ready for a wild ride, but ultimately the whole plot is a mess. The author was trying to mix a lot of very different and interesting concepts, and it just didn’t work. Can the mc talk to the dead or the dark? They travel between worlds, but how? How did it come about? What is this institute that they go to study and how are you chosen except that you’ve had a near death experience?
I believe the advertising for this book made me have very high expectations. But if you want pure vibes with lyrical dialogue, then this is the book for you. Not for me, but maybe you’ll love all the things mentioned! I will still read more by this author :)
Let’s start with what I loved- the writing OHMYGOD IT WAS GORGEOUS, and also the only thing that kept me going. The concept sounded so good and I loved the vibes, but it just wasn’t enough.
Characters: I didn’t like the characters, or the plot for that matter. Our main character is deaf and I’m glad it wasn’t something that held her back. But she had no depth. She just dressed differently and could hear a voice in her head, thus the whispering dark. She hardly had any interactions with the other characters and her roommates. It felt like the focus of the story was more concentrated on the writing and the vibes rather than what was happening in the moment, and therefore every chapter was slower than the last. The romance was bland- I didn’t feel any chemistry between the two characters. They just had a shared experience and their romance and attraction was built on that.
Writing: As I said, it was beautiful, but it was also not great at a lot of points, when the scenes shifted. One second we were being told she’s in her room and literally the next sentence is her having a conversation with someone in her class. In that aspect I think this book needed an editor, or maybe the final form of this book might be different as I read it as an e-arc? I don’t know.
The pacing was super slow. There was nothing exciting, and I just wish it was different because this story had SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Nothing remotely interesting happened until the last 10% or so. The beginning was very strong and hooked me, so I was ready for a wild ride, but ultimately the whole plot is a mess. The author was trying to mix a lot of very different and interesting concepts, and it just didn’t work. Can the mc talk to the dead or the dark? They travel between worlds, but how? How did it come about? What is this institute that they go to study and how are you chosen except that you’ve had a near death experience?
I believe the advertising for this book made me have very high expectations. But if you want pure vibes with lyrical dialogue, then this is the book for you. Not for me, but maybe you’ll love all the things mentioned! I will still read more by this author :)
July 23, 2023
This was a bit more horror-y and spooky than the books I tend to pick up, but I’m glad I decided to read it because it was pretty great! The plot was creepy yet fun, and while the characters ultimately weren’t the most memorable, I enjoyed reading about them. Loved the greek mythology references, too. I’ll definitely pick up whatever this author writes next!
my carrd ❦
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
my carrd ❦
August 13, 2021
There aren’t words able to do justice to this breathtaking story. The Whispering Dark is one of those books that simultaneously creeps up on you and nettles its way under your skin and hooks you from the very beginning.
If the enemies to lovers, dark academia, and paranormal vibes didn’t already convince you to read this, the prose is completely and utterly gobsmacking (I will read anything kelly writes because my god she spins words to magic), the characters come off the page and feel so very alive, the atmosphere is hauntingly immaculate, and my god the plot twists…THE PLOT TWISTS AND THE ROMANCE are just chef’s kiss* !!
Basically I need everyone to please read this book so I can finally have people to scream about it with, because the world is oh so ready for this book and not at all prepared for the emotional wreckage
If the enemies to lovers, dark academia, and paranormal vibes didn’t already convince you to read this, the prose is completely and utterly gobsmacking (I will read anything kelly writes because my god she spins words to magic), the characters come off the page and feel so very alive, the atmosphere is hauntingly immaculate, and my god the plot twists…THE PLOT TWISTS AND THE ROMANCE are just chef’s kiss* !!
Basically I need everyone to please read this book so I can finally have people to scream about it with, because the world is oh so ready for this book and not at all prepared for the emotional wreckage
March 16, 2025
yeah so this is my second book from this author, and it’s another banger. i don’t understand the low reviews for it! beautiful prose, haunting atmosphere, dark academia gothic horror romance ???! so basically pretty much everything i want from a book.
this was giving “once upon a dream” lana del rey vibes just like your blood, my bones. i think this author is becoming a favorite of mine. gothic romance with a tinge of horror is such a good combo and so hard for me to find. i read this in preparation of i am made of death and am now even more excited for it!!
colton price🫦 mhm. yep. he’s the exact kind of mmc i like. tortured soul, broody, kinda of cold and a little mean but also absolutely obsessed with his girl.
this was giving “once upon a dream” lana del rey vibes just like your blood, my bones. i think this author is becoming a favorite of mine. gothic romance with a tinge of horror is such a good combo and so hard for me to find. i read this in preparation of i am made of death and am now even more excited for it!!
colton price🫦 mhm. yep. he’s the exact kind of mmc i like. tortured soul, broody, kinda of cold and a little mean but also absolutely obsessed with his girl.
November 2, 2022
I give up. DNF 50% through.
This must be the most boring book I've ever read in my life. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Every scene is just the MC and her bland ass, rude ass love interest chatting about nothing. And why is this grown ass man obsessed with this girl he met when she was A CHILD?! I do not stan. In fact, I hate. I'm a hater.
I don't know if the second half of the book suddenly picks up and turns this snooze fest into an interesting plot, and honestly I don’t care. The romance is cringe, the world building is as vague as it can get, and the setting feels completely bare since almost every single scene is just the MC and her love interest alone in a room.
1.5 poke it with a stick hoping something happens/5
This must be the most boring book I've ever read in my life. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Every scene is just the MC and her bland ass, rude ass love interest chatting about nothing. And why is this grown ass man obsessed with this girl he met when she was A CHILD?! I do not stan. In fact, I hate. I'm a hater.
I don't know if the second half of the book suddenly picks up and turns this snooze fest into an interesting plot, and honestly I don’t care. The romance is cringe, the world building is as vague as it can get, and the setting feels completely bare since almost every single scene is just the MC and her love interest alone in a room.
1.5 poke it with a stick hoping something happens/5
December 13, 2023
A very well written piece of supernatural thriller about people with the ability to walk between parallel earths.
An unconventional and deep story on love, loneliness, overcoming handicaps to excell in life, love and finding a purpose with deep meaning. A bit creepy and atmospheric (for young adults mostly, though).
Recommended.
An unconventional and deep story on love, loneliness, overcoming handicaps to excell in life, love and finding a purpose with deep meaning. A bit creepy and atmospheric (for young adults mostly, though).
Recommended.
June 16, 2024
3.75⭐️
me 🤝 weird paranormal dark academia books that feel like a fever dream
me 🤝 weird paranormal dark academia books that feel like a fever dream
November 21, 2025
I really enjoy paranormal books that give mystery vibes! Some ideas reminded me of The Subtle Knife. I like that disabilities are portrayed in books, and also when the author changes the narrative so instead of a disability it can be something powerful and unique. Beautiful writing as well. I have my special edition copy from OwlCrate and I love it! 😍
March 8, 2023
2.5/5 stars
darlingstern's dupes with not enough development for it to be exciting, a mid plotline, and a way too repetitive choices of words. but the vibes are still there ig
darlingstern's dupes with not enough development for it to be exciting, a mid plotline, and a way too repetitive choices of words. but the vibes are still there ig
Read
March 24, 2024I swear I tried! I was anticipating this one all year, but something just didn't click. It felt like I was stuck in a loop of the first three chapters of a high fantasy novel where you know ~what~ is happening yet you feel completely out of it. It reminded me of those clips from Girl Meets World where you understand the words said by the actors but you have absolutely no idea what their point is.
Want to read
June 25, 2022THE RAVEN BOYS MEETS NINTH HOUSE???!!!!
WITH DISABILITY REP???!!!!
GOD IS REAL????
WITH DISABILITY REP???!!!!
GOD IS REAL????
June 24, 2023
"I am deeply, sickeningly, alarmingly obsessed with you". HELLO???
ok wow this book!! I'm gonna try to keep this coherent but I also love this book so much there's not a chance thats gonna happen,, here goes:
WOW!! Let me start by saying how much I freaking ADORE Delaney. From the very first chapter I was hanging onto her every word (thought?), eyes peeled for the next description of her (guaranteed) cute as hell outfit - no pun intended :) I mean, she's an icon, and she is the moment. Stunning. Her development from "glass girl" to someone who literally commands the dead??? growing into herself and her role, discovering who she is and who she's always been??? I ate that UPPPPP!! it was so good, so beautifully written, there were a few specific chapters/scenes that were particularly pivotal in her development and they truly have some of the most eloquently communicated feelings I've ever read about. Seriously, the writing in this book is so distinctly brilliant I have not stopped thinking about it for a week. I really loved how, as we learnt more about the world and what was happening, Laney's part in all of it, we revisited those moments from her childhood and got closure on them!! This book has a special place in my heart for the way I can relate to and felt connected to her, be it her desire for academic achievement, feeling overwhelmed/imposter syndrome, not being able to voice her own needs and boundaries for fear it would make others uncomfortable, and then to see her shed that version of herself and become the person she is at the end (and tbh the one shes always been, she just didn't know it at the start) was v cathartic.
Colton, love of my whole life, I spent the entire book wanting to give him the biggest hug, esp with the scenes when we see him crossing the worlds (literally crossing through hell over and over) to his brother. I can't- that hurt. I LOVED, how seamlessly integrated the afterlife/mythology aspects were, the mention of the river, purgatory, the Hades/Persephone allusions with the flowers UGHHH I was eating it up, I love that stuff so much and idk how to properly credit how brilliantly it was woven into this reality. Just, you had to be there. Him naming the butterfly might be one of my fave things to ever happen in a book, and the bit where he says we'll repaint it???? sir- I had to shut the book. The physical aspect of his connection to her/the bone shard was suuuuuper cool I don't think I've read anything like that before. It was an added layer to their dynamic that worked SO well, as the story progressed and things shifted from person to person etc. The bit where the shard is in her tights?? That scene is INGRAINED in my brain it- the tension??? These two had chemistry THROUGH THE ROOF im literally grinning so hard typing this. The trust it took for him to ask that of her?? romance was invented in that scene. I think the physical pain was a 10/10 way to illustrate the lengths that he was going through to be near her, his whole pinkie popping out?? Grossly romantic. It was just such a good detail, and we love a love interest who's going to literally go through hell and back for the MC. I also love the trope where they've kinda always been linked, fate drew them together, two sides of the same coin, the demon boy and commander of death,, ugh it was so good, the dynamic was just, GOLD. I gobbled it uPPPPP. OH and their first kiss scene?? don't get me started I'll never stop talking about it. And when she buries the shard??? I did cry. I did. The bit where he literally RUNS when she calls?? at the lamppost???? and she stays on the phone w him when he can't sleep I just- I love them so much. "I dragged myself out of Hell to you". AHHHHHHH
Also, Wednesday is officially my fave nickname to ever be used by a love interest, EVER. It's just, so simple but so perfect.
The atmosphere in this book, lemme try to properly explain: comfort, warm, spooky, feels like coming home, but home is a lil deserted and kinda creepy and there's a weird draft coming through an ajar door, this book feels like the warmest hug, wrapped in autumnal goodness, hot drinks and gloves, boots and crunchy leaves, but also frosty night air, can't feel your toes in the snow, eyes watering from the wind, and you keep looking left and right because the shadows look weird. OH AND THE PLAYLIST THAT GOES WITH THIS??? I'm still listening to it, a week later!! So good I love when playlists match perfectly.
The magic is subtle, the science is freaky and borderline 'mad-scientist', the Frankenstein-ness of the secret lil club was so freaking cool I mean, SO gross but so bloody cool. The hospital scene??? shut up I was gripping the book so hard.
The concept of mental doors being left open, things creeping in,, and converging spaces housing creepy undead things, I can't- this book is creative genius. It simultaneously was the most comforting and so bloody spooky I was side-eyeing the corners of my room all night. OH and the way we didn't know she was possessed?? inhabited?? roommates with the thing?? the bit in the motel -with the radio, when we find out she set it? no because I GASPEDDDD,, and it attacking Colton every night, idk he was really fighting for his life and sTILL STUCK BY HER!! THE WHOLE TIME!! he is the blueprint.
There's also brilliantly done representation in the characters, they're not defined by their demographic tick boxes, it was so nicely done.
Now, the writing. I wouldn't believe that this is a debut if I didn't already know. You're telling me there's not a huge backlog of books by this author that I can go binge....?? a CRIME!!
Ok here's a list some of my fave quotes (doesn't even cover half of them but this is already getting so long):
"This close, the nearness of her sank into him like teeth. That preternatural pain whittled at his bones. understanding lit like a wick. He'd take it, he realised. He'd break the rules. He'd welcome this slow, impossible unraveling over the alternative. Over never knowing her at all"
"He couldn't help it. He went where she led, like a paper kite on a string. He was hopelessly caught, twisted in her branches. His line tangled. His spine splintered. His sail all in tatters. There was no clean way to work himself free".
"Slowly, Lane brought a hand to his cheek. He sucked in a breath, willing himself still. He'd never felt more like a tragedy. 'I guess what i'm saying' he whispered 'is that i've decided asphodels would be far better suited to you than roses'."
"The kiss was a surprise, immediate and immolating. There was nothing sweet about it. Nothing soft. Only the clash of mouths, the scrap of teeth. They collided the way they always did. Like they were going to war".
"He'd tell her everything, in time [...] About nine-year-old Colton, who'd thrashed his way through the frozen Cocytus itself to lay himself at her feet. Drawn to her, drawn to her, the way every other dead thing drew in close. A winter's queen. A graveyard's queen".
"His name slipped out of her like a supplication. He wanted to tell her he was the last person to the bear the weight of benediction". I SCREAMEDDDDD
"Colton Price, who had always seemed so cold. Colton Price, who reminded her of something seraphic. Mars, god of war, resplendent and undying. Indomitable, impossible Colton".
I wish I could give this book infinity stars, I do. I will be rereading the moment the paperback is out so I can aggressively annotate <33333
ok wow this book!! I'm gonna try to keep this coherent but I also love this book so much there's not a chance thats gonna happen,, here goes:
WOW!! Let me start by saying how much I freaking ADORE Delaney. From the very first chapter I was hanging onto her every word (thought?), eyes peeled for the next description of her (guaranteed) cute as hell outfit - no pun intended :) I mean, she's an icon, and she is the moment. Stunning. Her development from "glass girl" to someone who literally commands the dead??? growing into herself and her role, discovering who she is and who she's always been??? I ate that UPPPPP!! it was so good, so beautifully written, there were a few specific chapters/scenes that were particularly pivotal in her development and they truly have some of the most eloquently communicated feelings I've ever read about. Seriously, the writing in this book is so distinctly brilliant I have not stopped thinking about it for a week. I really loved how, as we learnt more about the world and what was happening, Laney's part in all of it, we revisited those moments from her childhood and got closure on them!! This book has a special place in my heart for the way I can relate to and felt connected to her, be it her desire for academic achievement, feeling overwhelmed/imposter syndrome, not being able to voice her own needs and boundaries for fear it would make others uncomfortable, and then to see her shed that version of herself and become the person she is at the end (and tbh the one shes always been, she just didn't know it at the start) was v cathartic.
Colton, love of my whole life, I spent the entire book wanting to give him the biggest hug, esp with the scenes when we see him crossing the worlds (literally crossing through hell over and over) to his brother. I can't- that hurt. I LOVED, how seamlessly integrated the afterlife/mythology aspects were, the mention of the river, purgatory, the Hades/Persephone allusions with the flowers UGHHH I was eating it up, I love that stuff so much and idk how to properly credit how brilliantly it was woven into this reality. Just, you had to be there. Him naming the butterfly might be one of my fave things to ever happen in a book, and the bit where he says we'll repaint it???? sir- I had to shut the book. The physical aspect of his connection to her/the bone shard was suuuuuper cool I don't think I've read anything like that before. It was an added layer to their dynamic that worked SO well, as the story progressed and things shifted from person to person etc. The bit where the shard is in her tights?? That scene is INGRAINED in my brain it- the tension??? These two had chemistry THROUGH THE ROOF im literally grinning so hard typing this. The trust it took for him to ask that of her?? romance was invented in that scene. I think the physical pain was a 10/10 way to illustrate the lengths that he was going through to be near her, his whole pinkie popping out?? Grossly romantic. It was just such a good detail, and we love a love interest who's going to literally go through hell and back for the MC. I also love the trope where they've kinda always been linked, fate drew them together, two sides of the same coin, the demon boy and commander of death,, ugh it was so good, the dynamic was just, GOLD. I gobbled it uPPPPP. OH and their first kiss scene?? don't get me started I'll never stop talking about it. And when she buries the shard??? I did cry. I did. The bit where he literally RUNS when she calls?? at the lamppost???? and she stays on the phone w him when he can't sleep I just- I love them so much. "I dragged myself out of Hell to you". AHHHHHHH
Also, Wednesday is officially my fave nickname to ever be used by a love interest, EVER. It's just, so simple but so perfect.
The atmosphere in this book, lemme try to properly explain: comfort, warm, spooky, feels like coming home, but home is a lil deserted and kinda creepy and there's a weird draft coming through an ajar door, this book feels like the warmest hug, wrapped in autumnal goodness, hot drinks and gloves, boots and crunchy leaves, but also frosty night air, can't feel your toes in the snow, eyes watering from the wind, and you keep looking left and right because the shadows look weird. OH AND THE PLAYLIST THAT GOES WITH THIS??? I'm still listening to it, a week later!! So good I love when playlists match perfectly.
The magic is subtle, the science is freaky and borderline 'mad-scientist', the Frankenstein-ness of the secret lil club was so freaking cool I mean, SO gross but so bloody cool. The hospital scene??? shut up I was gripping the book so hard.
The concept of mental doors being left open, things creeping in,, and converging spaces housing creepy undead things, I can't- this book is creative genius. It simultaneously was the most comforting and so bloody spooky I was side-eyeing the corners of my room all night. OH and the way we didn't know she was possessed?? inhabited?? roommates with the thing?? the bit in the motel -with the radio, when we find out she set it? no because I GASPEDDDD,, and it attacking Colton every night, idk he was really fighting for his life and sTILL STUCK BY HER!! THE WHOLE TIME!! he is the blueprint.
There's also brilliantly done representation in the characters, they're not defined by their demographic tick boxes, it was so nicely done.
Now, the writing. I wouldn't believe that this is a debut if I didn't already know. You're telling me there's not a huge backlog of books by this author that I can go binge....?? a CRIME!!
Ok here's a list some of my fave quotes (doesn't even cover half of them but this is already getting so long):
"This close, the nearness of her sank into him like teeth. That preternatural pain whittled at his bones. understanding lit like a wick. He'd take it, he realised. He'd break the rules. He'd welcome this slow, impossible unraveling over the alternative. Over never knowing her at all"
"He couldn't help it. He went where she led, like a paper kite on a string. He was hopelessly caught, twisted in her branches. His line tangled. His spine splintered. His sail all in tatters. There was no clean way to work himself free".
"Slowly, Lane brought a hand to his cheek. He sucked in a breath, willing himself still. He'd never felt more like a tragedy. 'I guess what i'm saying' he whispered 'is that i've decided asphodels would be far better suited to you than roses'."
"The kiss was a surprise, immediate and immolating. There was nothing sweet about it. Nothing soft. Only the clash of mouths, the scrap of teeth. They collided the way they always did. Like they were going to war".
"He'd tell her everything, in time [...] About nine-year-old Colton, who'd thrashed his way through the frozen Cocytus itself to lay himself at her feet. Drawn to her, drawn to her, the way every other dead thing drew in close. A winter's queen. A graveyard's queen".
"His name slipped out of her like a supplication. He wanted to tell her he was the last person to the bear the weight of benediction". I SCREAMEDDDDD
"Colton Price, who had always seemed so cold. Colton Price, who reminded her of something seraphic. Mars, god of war, resplendent and undying. Indomitable, impossible Colton".
I wish I could give this book infinity stars, I do. I will be rereading the moment the paperback is out so I can aggressively annotate <33333
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2025
3.5🌟 Es la segunda ocasión que leo a Kelly Andrew y he confirmado que es una autora cuya obra quiero seguir de cerca.
Después de leer hace unos meses "Tu sangre, mis huesos", quedé muy interesada en volver a su pluma y lo he hecho con este libro que se publicó con anterioridad, de hecho creo que fue su debut si no me equivoco. Y si bien el otro me parece mejor logrado en varios aspectos, "Susurros en la oscuridad" tiene muchas cosas buenas, por lo menos a mis ojos.
Andrew vuelve a entregarnos una historia envuelta en sombras que acechan, que murmuran. Una historia que reúne muerte, mundos paralelos, posesiones, seres sin nombre, arrogancia humana y la liminalidad en un contexto sobrenatural, cuyo peso recae casi en su totalidad en Delaney y Colton, el resto de personajes son meros satélites de escasa construcción.
Lane es una chica perdida, confusa, por ratos incomprensible, cuya falta de audición la ha marcado de muchas maneras. Por su parte, Colton es trágico, dulce, peligroso y lleno de secretos. Ambas existencias convergen en un pasado que continúa golpeando y un presente que destruye. Ella, entre el sonido y el silencio; él, entre la vida y la muerte.
No me gusta la Lane que culpa sin admitir lo propio o que parece perder el sentido común en momentos inconvenientes. Ni el Colton que oculta más de lo que muestra, que insiste en omisiones que causan males mayores. No son perfectos, sin embargo, son mucho más que sus errores y el recuerdo que guardaré de ellos será favorable. Y admito que he sentido debilidad por Colton.
La atmósfera es, de nuevo, un elemento que la autora consigue conjurar con gran habilidad, quizá no con la contundencia poderosa que encontramos en "Tu sangre, mis huesos", pero sí con la capacidad de inquietar, de provocar esa sensación constante de que algo malo va a ocurrir en cualquier momento.
Hay romance, sí. Uno lento, tenso, prohibido, dañino quizá y, a un mismo tiempo, poderoso; que por momentos rebosa dulzura y, por otros, se ahoga en la frialdad de las mentiras y las amenazas externas. Aunque en este punto me faltó fervor, más pasión.
Confieso que, aunque me gustan los romances que se dan de a poco, en este caso me dio cierta ansiedad, causada por esa sensación de peligro inminente que comentaba, yo quería que aprovecharan mientras pudieran, por si acaso. Y es que la autora ya ha demostrado que no tiene ningún problema en destrozar corazones, por mucho que éstos sean los de sus lectores. En efecto Andrew, me traumaste.
"Susurros en la oscuridad" es una fantasía oscura juvenil que no será para todos, pero sí que puede ser una buena opción para quien guste de atmósferas sombrías, prosa descriptiva y romances algo extraños. Un libro muy en la línea de otros como "La casa de las grietas" de Krystal Sutherland, "La novena casa" de Leigh Bardugo o, como ya mencionaba, "Tu sangre, mis huesos" de esta misma autora.
Después de leer hace unos meses "Tu sangre, mis huesos", quedé muy interesada en volver a su pluma y lo he hecho con este libro que se publicó con anterioridad, de hecho creo que fue su debut si no me equivoco. Y si bien el otro me parece mejor logrado en varios aspectos, "Susurros en la oscuridad" tiene muchas cosas buenas, por lo menos a mis ojos.
Andrew vuelve a entregarnos una historia envuelta en sombras que acechan, que murmuran. Una historia que reúne muerte, mundos paralelos, posesiones, seres sin nombre, arrogancia humana y la liminalidad en un contexto sobrenatural, cuyo peso recae casi en su totalidad en Delaney y Colton, el resto de personajes son meros satélites de escasa construcción.
Lane es una chica perdida, confusa, por ratos incomprensible, cuya falta de audición la ha marcado de muchas maneras. Por su parte, Colton es trágico, dulce, peligroso y lleno de secretos. Ambas existencias convergen en un pasado que continúa golpeando y un presente que destruye. Ella, entre el sonido y el silencio; él, entre la vida y la muerte.
No me gusta la Lane que culpa sin admitir lo propio o que parece perder el sentido común en momentos inconvenientes. Ni el Colton que oculta más de lo que muestra, que insiste en omisiones que causan males mayores. No son perfectos, sin embargo, son mucho más que sus errores y el recuerdo que guardaré de ellos será favorable. Y admito que he sentido debilidad por Colton.
La atmósfera es, de nuevo, un elemento que la autora consigue conjurar con gran habilidad, quizá no con la contundencia poderosa que encontramos en "Tu sangre, mis huesos", pero sí con la capacidad de inquietar, de provocar esa sensación constante de que algo malo va a ocurrir en cualquier momento.
Hay romance, sí. Uno lento, tenso, prohibido, dañino quizá y, a un mismo tiempo, poderoso; que por momentos rebosa dulzura y, por otros, se ahoga en la frialdad de las mentiras y las amenazas externas. Aunque en este punto me faltó fervor, más pasión.
Confieso que, aunque me gustan los romances que se dan de a poco, en este caso me dio cierta ansiedad, causada por esa sensación de peligro inminente que comentaba, yo quería que aprovecharan mientras pudieran, por si acaso. Y es que la autora ya ha demostrado que no tiene ningún problema en destrozar corazones, por mucho que éstos sean los de sus lectores. En efecto Andrew, me traumaste.
"Susurros en la oscuridad" es una fantasía oscura juvenil que no será para todos, pero sí que puede ser una buena opción para quien guste de atmósferas sombrías, prosa descriptiva y romances algo extraños. Un libro muy en la línea de otros como "La casa de las grietas" de Krystal Sutherland, "La novena casa" de Leigh Bardugo o, como ya mencionaba, "Tu sangre, mis huesos" de esta misma autora.
May 30, 2023
➵ 4.5 ⭐️
this was good, I love it so much 🥲
CHAPTER 41 LIVES FOREVER RENT FREE IN MY HEAD
ma babies 🥺🖤
this was good, I love it so much 🥲
CHAPTER 41 LIVES FOREVER RENT FREE IN MY HEAD
ma babies 🥺🖤
Want to read
January 31, 2022i hate this cover lol
March 28, 2025
I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much as the other novel set in this world that I’ve read from this author, but I can see how much she’s grown as a writer since this first book, and I will definitely continue to pick up her books in the future. RTC
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