TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNING: suicidal ideation, gun violence, bullying, self-harm

I first read this book last year, close to its publication date. I went into it expecting a spooky scavenger hunt, but that's not the real story this book told. For whatever reason, I never got around to posting my initial review. That actually worked out well. I read it again a few days ago, when I had just meant to skim through and get clear the details. So, my reread of When The Light Went Out resulted in a different point of view. I lost someone to gun violence recently. Someone who had once meant the world to me, though I wasn't valued that way to them. Through that lense, I understand that this book is an exploration of grief, of madness, of that feeling that builds in the chest of teens, the one where they are feeling so much it seems they might explode. I still think that the book was missing a few vital pieces that would have fully fleshed it out, as well as being misrepresented by the description. This is not a mystery scavenger hunt book. It's an archeological excavation of grief, with it's many forms and myriad symptoms. 
3 stars

*I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley.*

Somehow I didn't leave a review right after reading this, and this book definitely deserves some credit!

I really enjoyed this book. I felt like I was on an adventure with all of the kids. The character development was excellent - I felt like I knew them by the end of the book.

The plotline was great and the story went places I wasn't expecting.

In the days of more predictable that not books, boring storylines with shallow characters, this book was SUCH a welcome surprise! Definitely recommend.

The premise of the book is good and I enjoyed the storyline but the characters didn't keep my attention enough, I lost interest in the middle and their wasn't enough development to keep me caring.

What a book! I'll be talking about this one for awhile Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

I didn’t want to stop reading this one and finished in a couple sittings today, which is a plus. I think I expected something a bit different and this was more... meh? I don’t know how to describe it. I knew it was a contemporary instead of a mystery but I can’t really explain my disappointment without spoilers. I love scavenger hunt-style books and this was only half that? It was intriguing throughout at least.

This book unfortunately wasn't for me. It's about a scavenger hunt that is left by a girl who dies as a result of a fatal shooting. The premise is such an interesting one; however, I found myself being bored with what was happening throughout the story.

Mysterious from start to end. Doesn't let the readers relax. My brain was working overtime trying to think everything. The pendulum of thoughts was in a constant motion betweem "how is this possible?" and "off course! thats how it is!"

I felt this would be a bit more thriller-esque, but it wasn't. It was more of a contemporary, and a pretty sad one, with a deep look at tragedy and how it impacts the people close to us. Despite the marketing being a little off, I did like this one, and the cover was really enticing to me - I'd have grabbed this from a shelf even not having read the synopsis!

The plot of this book is a very interesting one that covers important issues like mental illness. Unfortunately, the characters weren't very likeable and that took away something for me. It was still a very quick read that I recommend giving a try if it sounds interesting to you.

This book is classified as a young adult mystery novel. If you are going to read this book, I'd suggest realizing before you start, know that this is not a thriller. I felt like it should've just been classified as a contemporary young adult fiction. It's more about dealing with grief and the horrible tragedy that a group of friends had to endure. 

There was a lot going on in this book. Something for me was my inability to like the characters all that much. I feel like there were some parts where I enjoyed seeing what was going on in their mind. However, a lot of the time, I didn't really enjoy them. I think that Olivia's obsession with Marley was uncomfortable and unhealthy. 

I think that this story had a lot of meaning behind it, especially after I read the acknowledgements. There was a lot happening where people had to deal with grief in a group and dealing with it alone. The writing was just okay, but I definitely got the message the author was trying to portray. 

Overall, this book wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I'd still recommend this book to those who like young adult novels, especially those dealing with grief at a young age.

The story line takes a group of neighborhood children who are traumatized when one child shoots another in an accidental shooting.  The 15 yr old who has been shot continues to influence the thoughts and actions of the remaining children.  The story leaps to 5 years after when the children band together to finish the adventure they started the day of the shooting.  The aftermath will surprise you.

I believe the genre listing is not totally correct.  The story is somewhat complicated to follow in sections.  It requires the reader to take a few leaps in the story line that are not the norm in a YA book.  A good book overall.

I really enjoyed the writing. I was taken in right from the beginning. It's kind of a deep book and not so much a mystery. It has strong friendships, grief, hope, pain, memories, fun, forgiveness, strength, love. It's just a solid book with believable characters who are all just trying their best.

I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to get into at first but it picked up quickly after the first few chapters or so. 

Deidre is Skye’s sister. The one everyone calls creepy and weird. The one no one wants to be friends with. Skye is all Deidre has until they move and Skye wants a new life. A new start. With everything that happened at their old home she deserved to be someone new, right? 

This book was...different. It’s about monsters. Bones. Mud.  Swamps and make believe. A child’s game that goes horribly wrong. Who do you trust if you can’t trust yourself? 

Skye is a great character. She’s strong but also vulnerable. She’s relatable in some ways and in others you’re saying WTF. She’s a semi reliable narrator but I like it when you can question what you’re reading and she definitely makes you do that. 

The ending was what I expected. I do have some questions but not many. If you want a creepy book to read then this is it. It didn’t scare me but I was throughly disturbed by what I  was reading.

I didn’t love this book but I didn’t hate it either. I ended up giving it a 3.5/5 stars. I hope to read more from this author soon and get a better experience

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for approving my request and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.

Real rating: 3,5 stars.

So, the blurb led me to believe this was a mystery book. 
Well, it's not - not in way you would expect. 
It's a contemporary about grief and loss, mental illness and suicide. 

There was a group of kids - the kids of Albany Lane - that used to spend all their summers together getting in trouble and chasing the end of the Great Adventure their leader created. 
When tragedy happened, the eldest was fifteen and the youngest ones were eleven. 
And just the three of them were present at the moment: Marley died from a gunshot wound, Nick was dared to pull the trigger from Marley herself and Olivia witnessed her idol dying 'cause of a gun that they were told was unloaded. 

Marley's death changed everything: the way the group interacted, the way the parents let their children running around, the way the city reacted as a whole. 
After that, the group disbanded and Olivia began to carry Marley everywhere she went - she slowly forgot herself and her own personality trying to fit in what was left of Marley. 

On the fifth anniversary, Olivia sees Nick for the first time since that day and she takes it as a sign that now is the right moment for their group to reunite and finish the Adventure. 
The finding of a box of letters Marley left behind brings memories and questions about her death and what really happened that day. 


I didn't always like Olivia. 
Her grief was evident, but her obsession about Marley bordered on unhealthy and I often wondered if she suffered from a mental illness. Her actions and personality did a complete 180 on the same page and it was hard for me to undestand her though a twist clarified her actions and her motivation. 
She always carried Marley alone because her friends talked about her loss and how she was gone, not seeing Marley was still with them. She always carried Marley on her own and along the way it became an heavy weight, so now that she can "share" her Marley with the group, her personality starts to resurface. But it's not easy: she wants to be the leader, she had a vision about the way the Adventure should go but now things are out of her control and her friends constantly remind her of the "little Ollie" she was. 
Her often dramatic way of seeing things sometimes annoyed me a little. 

On the other side, I liked the way her relationship with her sister grew and matured and how the rest of group began to respect her. 
I also liked the way it alternates between the present and the past, recounting the events on that day. 

Nick was my favorite character because he had to face his pain alone, while the others had more or less support from each other. 

It wasn't always easy for me to read - sometimes I had to reread a couple of times a phrase to really catch its meaning. But still I liked the message the author wanted to deliver and I cried when I read the acknowledgments. 

Everyone deals with grief in a different way. 
Everyone is haunted by something in a way or another. 
The way we relive our memories is not the same for everyone else - we give a meaning to our memories that can change and alter the way we perceive things and life. 
Don't always believe when someone says they're okay - that could be a lie. 

You need to face grief to really heal and to find closure - and all the kids here didn't realize they had unresolved issues about the day Marley died. 
You need to voice your loss out loud and this is what Olivia forces the others to do: they needed to remember Marley the way they knew her, not the way they were supposed to for the annual memorial - Marley was a bully, Marley was a friend, Marley was a force of nature, Marley was insecure, Marley wished and Marley wished to stop wishing.

And maybe not in the absorbing way Olivia did, but everyone of us carries on the shoulders those we have lost. 
But if we carry them, have we really lost them?

When I picked this up I was expecting an adventurous mystery where a group of friends discover long-held secrets and answers as to what happened in the lead up to the day one of their friends died. While you do get somewhat of an adventure amongst friends, this ended up being less of a mystery and more of a look into how grief affects youth.

When the Albany Street kids lose their group leader Marley in an accidental shooting one summer day, they're all deeply affected but none more so than Olivia and Nick; Olivia because she idolized Marley and watched the shooting happen, and Nick because he was the one who pulled the trigger. After that day, they all drift away from Olivia and Nick is shunned in the community. But on the fifth year deathiversary, a plan is set into motion by Marley's spirit via Olivia and the group comes back together to undertake one last adventure and to understand what really happened the day Marley died.

Honestly, I was deeply confused for a majority of the book, especially at the start. The writing felt very jumbled up and to me it read like stream of consciousness, without any clear demarcation of where one thought ended and another began. I don't know if there was meant to be any magical realism elements in the story as well, especially when Marley was referred to in basically everything -- in the sky, the wind, the ground, the air-- and since I'm not such a big fan of magical realism, this only served to add to my confusion. The story started to get a bit more clear for me at about the 80% mark, and the last 20% of the book is the reason why I'm giving this book a 3.5 star rating because it resolves a lot of the irritation I felt while reading. Olivia was so young when Marley died in front of her, and the abandonment by her friends, and the rigid structure that the parents' enforced after her death, only served to isolate Olivia and make her retreat into her own world, one where Marley was guiding her every move; one where she embraced and became Marley. There was a twist towards the end of the book that was a bit of an "aha!" moment when you realized just how affected Olivia has been all these years. I thought this story painted a poignant picture of how grief can really affect a person when they experience it at such a young age.

While I actually didn't like many of the characters at the start of the novel, some of them really did grow on me, while others remained somewhat side characters (even though they were part of the friendship group) because they didn't get a lot of 'page time' or growth. I have to say that my least favorite character was actually Olivia. She was always acting so competitive and felt this desperate need to always be seen as the person who comes up with great ideas and who's the leader and it just came off as very irritating and immature. Yes, she's only 16 in the present day, but I found this part of her personality very annoying. I really liked Nick, although I wish that we had learned more about him throughout the novel, and not as just the person who accidentally fired the gun all those years ago, and not as the boy who Olivia had a crush on. I think it would have been interesting to have some chapters from his PoV seeing as how his presence essentially played such a big role in what happened.

Overall, this wasn't what I was expecting, and although the narrative was confusing for the most part, it was a fairly easy read (I finished it in 1.5 days). Thanks to NetGalley, author Bridget Morrissey and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

While I really enjoyed this, I agree with other reviewers that the synopsis is a bit misleading. It's not so much a mystery/thriller, but more of a contemporary. Overall, I enjoyed the characters, but didn't love the ending.

3 for neutral.  I had tried on multiple occasions to get into this book, but could not.  It was not at all what I expected by the synopsis. It’s more of a drama, with heartache than a mystery/thriller.  I am a moody reader and will update at a later time, if able to get into and enjoy it.

I feel like the blurb and the marketing of this book was very misleading. I went into this thinking it was a thriller/ mystery and actually it was a contemporary.

I really couldn't get into the story or the writing. I think the plot was promising and could have been done really well but I don't know, I just feel like there was something lacking in this book.

I was incredibly bored while reading and started to loss interest quite quickly. It's not the worst book I've ever read but it certainly isn't the best.

I thought the characters were pretty bland and it took a while for anything to get going. 

If I knew this wasn't a thriller going in, I might of enjoyed it more but it definitely didn't capture my attention or interest. I was quite disappointed in this one

A story about grief, losing and rebuilding friendship and coming to terms with their past and the secrets between them.

The book follows 16-year-old Olivia as she lies to bring her childhood friends back together five years after their friend, Marley died. But when the lies start to unravel, it threatens to break all the trust they had in one another.

The book was slow, but the suspense made it a page turner. The writing was descriptive providing a clear imagery of the settings but not so much about the characters. From page one, there’s Marley’s ghost everywhere in the story. The presence is so consistent that at a point I had to look back at the summary to see if this was a horror suspense, but it wasn’t. With the story progressing, Marley’s ghost faded leaving me wondering if there was ever even a need for her to exist at all throughout the story. The book doesn’t even tie it up in the end.

Since the story follows eight characters in two timelines, it’s longer but Morrissey does an incredible job at keeping their character arcs separate and giving them all character development to go through. Still, in the end, it all seemed to be a part of MC Olivia’s character development instead of the story. Olivia was a little narcissistic from the beginning, but instead of realizing it, the story made her narcissism stronger. The story wasn’t about Marley or friendship or secrets, rather about everyone liking Olivia in the end.

Morrissey also forgets to change voices when Olivia’s PoV switches between timelines. It was hard to tell apart eleven-year-old Olivia and sixteen-year-old Olivia, even though the story arc should have forced her to mature over the five years.

The ending fell flat. The story was unable to tie up all the loose ends. It suddenly took an unexpected turn close to the end, but not in an intriguing way. It was as if the ending were forced. And the book ends at 85% and the rest is just dragging on for nothing.

Overall, I think it is brilliantly crafted with vivid imagery, but it doesn’t have suspense elements.