Demitria Lunetta’s "The Fade" is a solid read that really pulls you in with its unique premise and well-developed characters. The story centers around a mysterious phenomenon known as the Fade, which is intriguing from the get-go. Lunetta does a great job of creating a world where this Fade has a significant impact on society and personal relationships.

I particularly enjoyed the character development. The protagonist is relatable and complex, making their journey through the challenges presented by the Fade all the more compelling. The pacing is well-managed, with enough twists and turns to keep you hooked without feeling rushed.

The reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I felt the ending could have been a bit more impactful. While it was satisfying, I was left wanting just a bit more closure. Overall, though, "The Fade" is a thought-provoking and engaging book that I would definitely recommend to fans of sci-fi and dystopian genres

I wasn’t able to finish this book. Because of this, it is my policy not to review the book on my site or on Goodreads/Amazon. I also didn’t mark it DNF.

I really enjoyed this novel. I had written a review earlier, but I guess it never got published.

When Haley moves into a new house she feels like something else is present. As she started to explore, she uncovers secrets that tell about the murder of many girls. The girls are now haunting her basement and want to be heard. As she get to know what the ghosts want she is pulled into a series of terrible crimes and the suspect seem to be those who are the closest to her.

I tried reading this book but sadly I didn't make it very far while reading this book. I think that the different point of views made it a bit difficult to understand . I usually love this author's books and I hoped that this one would work out for me.

People who like a good ghost story may love this book. I gave it 3*** only because I am not much of a ghost person. Having said that The Fade reads exactly like it title says. You will be reading along and it will "Fade" into something you may not expect.
It's a good story I just couldn't get past the ghost aspect.

I loved the blurb of this book and was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, it archived before I could read it.

So what to say about this one. I loved the authors other stories and was totally wanting to read this one. So I dived in and then dived right back out again. I have to say that this is not the author's best work. I felt like this one was very very slow. The first half of the book was in a sense pretty boring. It felt like it was written for middle school readers vs. young adult readers and well I just wasn't scared. I wished that the last the first half of the book would have been like the last half. That it would have picked up a lot faster.

The romance really didn't need to be in this one and what we did get felt very rushed. I don't understand why young adult authors feel like every story needs a romance. Because, they don't.

I was very intrigued by the premise of The Fade, but was deterred by the pacing. The first half of the book moved far too slow and by the time I was invested in the story and the characters, it moved far too fast. Demitria Lunetta shows talent in the paranormal fantasy mixed with mystery genre and I want to stay tuned for what she writes in the future. Lunetta's main character, Haley, feels too young to be fifteen, but she also feels honestly written. This wasn't quite as scary or suspenseful as I would have hoped it to be, but perhaps it would be ideal for a younger audience.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoyed reading this. An interesting story with fun characters. Well written.

In large part, this book follows fairly standard ghost story tropes: teens who had near death experiences see the ghost s of missing girls and work to solve the case. It has some pretty serious failings. Firstly,, it very much tells more than it shows. Not a lot of feeling along with the characters, more relatively dispassionate relaying of events. Secondly, it changes the rules halfway through. The creepy neighbor kid who sees ghosts? He's lying, relaying things his brother told him. It's a bit of a cheat. As is the identity of the killer. Thirdly, the big twist doesn't really work, the explanations for it weak at best. And I didn't believe the reveal about the location of the bodies at all.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Penguin Random House and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Everyone loves ghost stories once in a while. I haven't read a lot these days, so when I saw this book, I didn't hesitate to give it a shot. The Fade by Demitria Lunetta is a paranormal slash mystery novel about an unsolved case of four missing girls.

Plotwise, the story is just fine. Whenever I read or watch a scary movie, it's easy for me to point the part or the element where it really scared hell out of me. Unfortunately, I still cannot figure out that one in this novel. Maybe because it just wasn't scary enough, or just lacked suspense. Moreover, the suspense build up too felt kind of flat. Somehow, the mystery element overwhelms the horror one. To be fair there are paranormal disturbances and freaky neighbors that are really creepy at the start of the story. But as the story went, the chilling factor just faded away.

The novel mostly relied on surprising the readers with unexpected twists and turns, which I can say was a job well done. I honestly didn't see those things coming, and this made me take the story in a new perspective. Also, I like how it is short and didn't have any boring parts. The pacing is consistent, and the writing is simple to understand. There wasn't much character building in this one. I completely understand that since it is more of a plot-driven story.

Overall, The Fade is a good mystery read. It has its ups and downs, and I wish there were more ghostly encounters that went on. However, the unexpected twists made this novel an enjoyable read.

3.5/5 stars!

I think this book is definitely for a younger audience. The writing was done very well and the story was unique and creepy, but I guess as someone who enjoys much more disturbing books, I just felt there wasn’t enough chills. If your enjoy YA creepy ghost stories with some twists, chills, and thrills this book is for you!
Will be using in a challenge and recommending to the members of chapter chatter pub!

Fifteen-year old Hayley and her family moved in from a condo in Chicago to an old house with a moldy basement in Wisconsin. Haley hated that they had to move, more so when creepy things start happening to her. Good thing she got acquainted soon with new teen friends: the mysteriously impulsive Coop, paranormal enthusiast Sera, and her cousin Josh. She later discovers that four girls went missing from their small town and one of the girls lived in their house. Some townsfolk believe that the girls are still alive and that they just ran away. Haley believes otherwise. How else would she explain their haunted house and the little boy in the neighborhood claiming that he can see the ghost of the girls?

“The Fade” is a tame ghost story. I doubt that it could scare the shizz out of a hardcore paranormal reader. The ghosts are not sinister enough. The hauntings are not frightening enough. There are a number of attempts to scare but the only scary scene that mildly disturbed me was when the ghosts made Haley drew her mom hanging from a shower rod.

I like that it’s short and quick-paced enough that there’s no chance of a reader losing patience with it. Haley hits it off instantly with her new friends. They immediately bonded over the mystery of the “Grabbed Girls of Gladwell”. They conducted their own research and investigations. They also did sessions of séance for good measure. And once Haley learned that they were murdered (not a spoiler, it’s in the blurb), she wasted no time in deciding that she wants to help them.

But because it is short, the book has not enough pages to give out characters that I will care about. Haley is a one-note character with a lackluster personality. The other characters exist to serve the plot or for the sake of shock value. I appreciate the bits of eerie supernatural PoV scattered between chapters. And I like how the book pulled a couple of neat surprises halfway and near the end. The dark bittersweet ending pleased me.

There’s a lot to like but there are also shortcomings, most notable of which is it’s tame scares. Still, this is a fairly satisfactory read for me.

*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*

So I just finished the last page of this book and all I can say is this book was weird, and I'm not even sure if it's a good weird. I don't think so because the more I reflect, the more I realize I am not satisfied at the end of the story. Things just didn't fluidly flow for this story and it resulted in confusing plots, unanswered questions, abrupt twists and overall, it was not the delightful mystery I was hoping for.

I am going to attempt to explain this without spoiling the plot. So around 50-60% into the story, Haley has a self-discovery/major change happen, and upon this giant revelation the book went topsy-turvy for me. I actually paused and was like, "wait, what?!". It kind of threw my entire reading experience off, because not only did it take away from the four girl mystery, but it added a whole slew of questions and well, it was a weird plot twist. It felt unnecessary and misplaced in the story line.

Also, there isn't really an HEA in this book, at least in my opinion. So we have a book surrounding murders and when everything is done, I am not happy. I don't have the warm fuzzy book feels or even the closure I usually experience. The story ends very abruptly and you're truly left wondering what happens to Haley and Coop. What about Chris, Shannon, literally every character that was a massive part of the story and I am left wondering how the heck that all plays out because no information is provided!

It was just a dreary read, that's the best way to describe it. No good happened in this book, it was plagued by sadness and gruesome murders. And honestly, there was nothing to balance out the story. I think that is the biggest flaw here. It's an everything is downhill type of read and there is no balance. No tender moments, no sweet whispers, no light-hearted laughs, and surely something could have been done to balance this black-cloud of a read.

The Fade starts out pretty straight forward, when a girl moves into the house of one of four girls who went missing ~five years ago and begins to see and feel ghosts with a connection to her basement that need help getting their story told. While the first two thirds of the book were used to build up characters and atmosphere, after a surprising set of twists the last third was surprisingly unique, fast paced and really got to me emotionally. I found Haley and her family to be easy to relate to and likeable, which allowed me to easily connect to the story. Overall, this was a very quick, well written read that left me emotionally rung out by the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book for my review.

This book was given to me by netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have been very impressed with Lunetta as a writer. I absolutely adored her "In the After" duology and jumped at the opportunity to read more from her.

I read this all in one sitting, (didn't have much choice, I was reading it while getting tattooed xD)
and boy, was this book really good. I honestly didn't see two of the twisty bits coming and i was stunned and saddened. There wasn't much depth to some of the background characters, which wasn't a huge deal to me, but might be to others.

Haley moves into a house that just "feels" wrong to her, soon after she meets a little boy that seems even more off. She befriends him and others around the town, and together they begin to look into the odd happenings around her house, and just what happened to those 4 girls.

Now - on to my small gripes with the book.
The murders were a bit unrealistic, i know i know, I'm complaining about realism in a book full of ghosts; but, the fact that the FBI and the local police force couldn't find a SINGLE clue as to the girls whereabouts is completely impossible imo. And here's why I think so - (view spoiler)

Even with that, the book was highly entertaining and kept me thoroughly engrossed. I would definitely recommend this to any and all of my friends.

The Fade
by Demitria Lunetta

What an interesting twist on the haunted house story. A young girl moves to a new town because of financial hardships that happen to her previously strong middle class family. In hopes of continued unity of her family they choose a to move to a small town closer to her older sisters new college. The housing market in the town has hit a slump, allowing the family to afford a new house. But this windfall comes with more than the family bargained for. Their youngest daughter immediately notices a problem with her new house. Her internal argument that she does not like the house because she did not want to move and what she is seeing before her eyes. The author takes the reader on a crazy tale of haunting, serial murder and mystery, with the twist at the end bringing the reader to a shocking revelation. Demitria Luneatta has created the Halloween classic for the young readers of the day.

This is a well written book that I think kids would enjoy. It was creepy and held my attention till the end. If you like a creepy story you will love this book. Thank you Random House Children's Delacorte Press via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book.

Creepy haunted house in a small town? Check. Missing girls that are possibly dead and haunting said house? Check. Creepy little boy that sees dead people? Check. Basically, this book has all the things that a good ghost story murder mystery should have. I liked that the book started right off the bat with creepy events, it wasn't a slow burn. And I like that some of the minor characters were right on board with the belief of ghosts, cause sometimes it gets kinda taxing to have characters go back and forth about whether or not the existence of ghosts is possible.

The mystery of what happened to the missing girls is what had me hooked, to be honest. I really wanted to know what happened to the girls, how they were murdered, where, and why. I also wanted to know who had murdered them. That mystery was the most interesting aspect of the book. I also enjoyed that the book didn't try to force romantic relationships, or rather they were more casual, rather than insta-love. There are some events that take you by surprise, so it isn't one of those predictable books, instead it keeps you wanting to read because I really had no idea where it was going to take me. But it was a fun, yet creepy ride!

The writing flowed very well, and if you're a fan of YA and ghost stories, then this book will be right up your alley.

This book follows Haley, a girl who just moved in with her family in what seems like a haunted house. From the beginning, she feels there is something off about it and it's not just because she moved away from Chicago against her will.

Haley meets the local teenagers and she learns that four girls have been missing for a while now and nobody knows what happened to them. The police and FBI stopped looking and now Haley has to live with ghosts that doesn't want to leave her alone.

This was a creepy tale and a quick read. It was okay, I didn't particularly care about the characters but I don't have anything bad to say about this book either. Maybe ghosts stories are not my favorites to read. However, if you think this might be something you will enjoy, go for it! :)

(I received an advance copy from the publisher via Netgalley)