The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel is a brutal ode to feminism.

Eve, raised by a mama who appeared to be as nurturing as a rabid dog, made a commitment to give her own daughter, Junie, a better life. As a young mother, Eve works hard to create a life completely separate from the chaos and violence her mama cultivates.

When twelve year old Junie is violently murdered, Eve commits to avenging her death, but at what cost? With secrets as warped and twisted as the undergrowth surrounding her Ozark home, Eve must return to the life she tried so hard to shed.

Consumed by grief, her life holds little value. Danger is a constant companion as she searches for answers she may not be ready to hear. Will her mama be the source of Eve's heartbreak or a balm to her wounds?

Fast-paced and compelling, The Familiar Dark will be a welcome addition to your TBR stack!

The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel is a great new dark mystery thriller. I loved the raw and claustrophobic, slow burn atmosphere of this novel. It totally suits the story, the distinct characters, and the hardscrabble world of the Ozarks that they inhabit. It isn't a fast-paced novel, but it will still totally take your breath away. It's incredibly close to earning five stars from me because it was a little more predictable than I would have preferred in a few key spots. Overall, this new release comes highly recommended from me. I need to read more from this author, especially The Roanoke Girls.

Eve is a young, single mother who lives in the poorest part of Missouri with her 12 year old daughter Junie. Eve grew up here with her meth addicted mother, Lynette, and her older brother, Cal, who is now a police officer. One morning Cal goes into Eve’s work to tell her the most devastating news, Junie and her best friend Izzy have been murdered on the playground. No one knows what has happened, but they believe it’s someone who lives in the area since they don’t get many out of towners. Eve decides to take matters into her own hands and tries to figure out what happened to her daughter.

Eve had a tough life growing up, with her meth addicted mama and never having enough food to eat and hardly getting by. Her mama didn’t treat her or her brother well when they were young, but the lessons she learned helped her today.

This was a dark, gritty book that had me hooked from the beginning. The author did a great job at making you feel so many emotions while feeling heartbroken for Eve. It’s focused on Eve and her grief, but you meet other characters along the way who really impacted the story. There are quite a few of them who you would never want to meet in real life either, which just made the story that much better.

There were also a good amount of plot twists and I didn’t see any of them coming. I love when I get to one and then everything clicks and makes perfect sense, which is what happened here. I would say this is more of an emotional, slow burn kind of mystery but it was a great read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Canders from Dutton Publicity and Amy Engel for a free electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel is a slow-burning dark and intriguing read, but also absolutely gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. This book opens with the murder of two twelve-year-old girls, Junie and Izzy, in Barren Springs, Missouri. When Eve Taggert, Junie’s mother, learns of her daughter’s death, she stops at nothing to find her daughter’s killer, even if it means that she must do the unthinkable.

What I loved so much about this book is that all of the different characters felt so real, especially Eve; you could feel her grief and pain so vividly as she tried to grapple with the events leading to her daughter’s murder. While I did not love the outcome of the events, I never saw it coming and could not figure out where the story was going (even when I thought I did!). The ending definitely surprised me, shocked me, and will stay with me.

Overall, I absolutely loved this one! It was a good murder mystery with excellent character development and a few sneaky twists!

Dark, Creepy, Unflinching!

A portrait of darkness and an exceptionally well-written novel.

Losing a loved one is the worst kind of torture. Living without them is cruel and unusual punishment. Read this book to explore the darker edges of grief in its most desperate form.

I love discovering interesting stories and new authors. This was a total surprise and a departure from what I normally read. It was refreshing, yet completely heavy. I felt immersed in Eve's grief. I really felt for this character. A mark of a good book: when you actually feel what the character is feeling. I was able to deeply relate to Eve.

Very well done. Two Thumbs Up!

I honestly wasn't looking for this book, but it kind of fell in my lap thanks to the publisher!

What would you do if your young daughter and her friend were found murdered in a local park while walking home? The Familiar Dark explores one mother's response to this unthinkable act.

Amy Engel's development of the main character was nothing short of masterful. I felt like I was walking in the mother's shoes as she takes matters into her own hands to investigate this crime against her daughter. There were so many different layers to her personality, her relationships, and the story in general that made it very enjoyable.

While there is a twist at the end, the conclusion didn't really sit well with me. I had a difficult time believing the outcome, but I understand why the author went the direction she did.

Overall, this was a good murder mystery with wonderful character development (which is always something I look for).

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Amy Engel, and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to review.-

I think I am beginning to burn out on fantasy. My mind is begging for something new. So when Dutton Books gave me the chance to review and arc of this thriller I jumped on the chance.

Eve Taggert’s daughter is found murdered and she need to find who did it. Sometimes it is better not to know the answers. Sometimes you have to face horrible truths. Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, justice is rough cut. It isn’t always left to the justice system. Eve learned that from her crude, cunning mother. Eve tried to find a life for herself outside of her mother’s trailer, but sometimes, in the face of tragedy, you return to your roots.

A thing I noticed that I found different than most thrillers is that it actually deeply discussed grief. Grief will completely change your life and this does a great job depicting that. We watch Eve spiral into her grief. She lost everything that she had worked hard for and she wants to make the person responsible pay for it.

Eve digs up the town’s dirty little secrets, but the truth shatters what is left of her world. I did guess the person behind the murders, but I did not guess how it would end. It left me speechless. I read this in a day. If you love thrillers you need to read this!

Eve has grown up poor in the roughest part of town. With only her brother, Cal, as support all her life she has learned to survive with him by her side. Their mother treated their rank trailer as a stop n go for men, drug deals and there was only the toughest of tough love growing up.

Now as single mother of 12 yr old Junie, Eve still struggles, but she has brother Cal who is the town Deputy. When Junie and best friend Izzy are found brutally murdered Eve turns to her roots and cold hearted ways to find vengeance in the most feral way on a mother could.

The murderer may wish they never met Eve....

I couldn't put this book down! It's not the mother/daughter story you would expect. I always love books with the gritty Ozark setting, and this novel is indeed riveting. Trigger warning that the content matter may not be for everyone, especially parents. Amy Engel is definitely one to watch, and I for one will be eager to read whatever she comes up with next.

Thanks, Netgalley, for this arc.

Eve has always been poor but she’s always done everything she could to raise her daughter well. Junie is a sweet and smart twelve-year old girl. When Eve receives the news that her beloved daughter was murdered while she was at the park with her best friend, her world falls apart.

They live in a very poor area in a city where everyone knows about the shady things that happen everywhere. Eve’s brother Cal is a police officer and he tells her not to do anything crazy because he’ll do his best to catch whoever did that to Junie. But Eve has nothing else to lose and she cannot let it go.

She finds out Junie’s best friend was seeing an older man and he immediately becomes a suspect. But who would have any romantic interest in a twelve-year-old child?

There’s a lot of filthy bribery going on in this case. Eve hides the secret of who Junie’s father is; this was a good plot twist in the story. Eve’s ex-boyfriend, Jimmy, is a guy that owns a strip club and is the head of the drug business in town. When Eve talks to him to see if he knows anything about it, he tells Eve that everything she needs to find out who did it, is right in front of her. And the truth will make her world fall apart even more.

There are so many plot twists and I was surprised every time a secret was revealed! That hasn't happened to me in a long time.

This was a very quick read because of all the plot twists that got me hooked. I couldn’t put it down until I found out who the murderer was.

Thank you to Emily at Dutton Books and NetGalley for this copy! Emily gave me the synopsis for this book coming off of a request for Riley Sager's newest, and it sounded like something right up my alley.
I was hooked from the first chapter, and lost sleep trying to finish it and understand what was happening. All of the characters felt so real, and I felt the intense heartbreak, sadness, and anger that Eve felt while trying to comprehend her daughter's murder and find the person who did it. I honestly never saw the ending coming, and even when I thought I knew what was going on, everything went in a completely different direction. I have never read any of Amy Engel's other books but I want to now, because this was the definition of a thriller, of a murder mystery - one that grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. I loved that it was set in the Ozarks and felt that Engel captured it well: how the small towns operate and how different they are from the bigger cities that surround them. This book is about so much more than finding out who the murderer is; its about the bond between families, between women who didn't think they had much in common but by the end are more alike than they knew, and how far a mother is willing to go for revenge.

Not too many books start the way The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel does. It startes with the death of two young preteen girls and it is haunting. We experience the grief of the parents throughout the book, and it is as heavy as you would expect. But we also experience class and social differences in the inhabitants of this small town. Really though, this story is about family. Family comes in many forms and they connect in different ways. It also shows struggles of not wanting to be like your family, and I think many can relate.
There were several twists in this book, one of which is about half way through. This one shocked me, in a totally fantastic way. I love it when I don't see it coming.
The author is so descriptive of the environment, describing growing up poor, and also about grieving. I felt like I could see, smell, and taste their grief. Not a book to be taken lightly, and not for everyone. However, I feel like we can all gain some wisdom from it. It is definitely a book that will stay with me a long time.

My favorite authors: Donald Ray Pollock, David Joy, Ron Rash, and John Hart....and now I can add Amy Engel to that list. The Familiar Dark is the story of a mother navigating her grief while fighting for the only thing she ever loved completely; her daughter. Having lost her only daughter to a gruesomely brutal murder, Eve Taggert is lost. And lost is a dangerous place for a hurt mother to be, especially for those around her. As Eve takes the murder investigation into her own hands, we are introduced to a wild cast of characters. These characters include her cop brother, her drug-addicted, cold-hearted mother, and a range of ex lovers, ex friends, and co-workers. They also include the parents of the other murdered girl. Maybe, just maybe, this violent crime was committed because of the family from the right side of the tracks and not because of her and her family. But who is she kidding really? This was always going to be about it, for she lives in the familiar dark.

Dark, Gritty, and Disturbing

“The world was ugly, especially for girls. There was no escaping it. You either fought back or you surrendered.”

The Familiar Dark is a suspenseful, intense psychological thriller about a grieving mother’s quest for vengeance.

Eve, a young single mother, has led a hard life. She grew up in an area in the Ozarks where the poor are separated from the poorer. It’s a fine line to survive and Eve grew up with an abusive, drug-addicted mother. Eve could have fallen into a similar life, but she managed to stay on the straight and narrow for her daughter, Junie. However, when 12-year-old Junie and her best friend, Izzy, are found with their throats slit on a playground, something is unleashed in Eve. Determined to find her daughter’s killer at any cost, she will have to choose to live in the light or find comfort in the darkness.

Eve’s voice is raw and real. Her grief, as much as she tries to keep it tamped down, permeates the pages. She shares a very open story of her life and covers her abusive childhood and relationships. She doesn’t sugarcoat her behavior, nor does she blame others for her mistakes. Having nothing left to live for after Junie’s death, she doesn’t blink when putting herself in danger and finally can face the evilest of all, her mother. She has fought her whole life to not become her mother’s daughter, but now without Junie, she finds that she is more like her mother than she wants to admit.

This is a fast-paced tense page-turner, and as dark as it was, I enjoyed Eve’s voice. The Familiar Dark explores the relationships between mothers and daughters, family, love, and trauma. This is not a pretty story and some parts are uncomfortable to read. I didn’t love how the events played out, but in the end, they make sense. The ending stunned me and left me shaken.

This is a tautly written story that explores class and relationship dynamics. Eve is a strong female lead with a compelling voice. This isn’t a book for everyone: it’s intense, harsh, and unsettling. Despite its disturbing nature, I found The Familiar Dark to be a worthwhile read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me review this book! It picks up on page one and is super intense, so much so that I couldn't put the book down! The author also provided a lot detail for the setting and the characters which made me love Eve so much. I loved the plot twist and learning about all the characters, even the emotional scenes because it really shattered your heart. Overall I would definitely recommend this book.

The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel is a dark and disturbing story that will burrow into you and hold on tight until the very last page. Eve is a powerful character and an excellent depiction of the strength of a mother's love and her unrelenting persistence to find justice for her murdered daughter. The setting is gritty and atmospheric and was so well-described that I felt like I was in the Missouri Ozarks right alongside Eve. There are some unexpected twists that I probably should have seen coming but the author was able to lull me into a false sense of security about certain characters. A captivating and gritty story that I couldn't stop reading.

When Eve’s brother, Cal, shows up to the diner she works at, she instantly knows something is wrong. Her world comes crashing down when she learns her 12 year old daughter, Junie and her friend Izzie, were murdered at the playground. With nothing left to lose, Eve is determined to get justice for her daughter. In the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, with a town full of secrets, Eve must tap into her tough upbringing and channel the harsh lessons her mama taught her. It only makes sense that brings her back to where it all started, her mother’s house, for one final lesson.
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Right from the start, this book pulls in you in and grabs you by the heart strings. Opening with a mother’s worst nightmare, you instantly feel for Eve. You understand the deep feeling and need for revenge and justice against the person who took her daughter. While there weren’t any major twist in this, I still felt an urge to keep reading to find out who did it and if Eve gets her justice in the end. I wasn’t too thrilled with the killer and why they did what they did. It kind of fell flat for me in that aspect. I wouldn’t recommend this off the top of my head, but I definitely wouldn’t discourage others from reading it.

Eva lives in the middle of practically no where, where everyone knows everyone. Her mom is a cold hearted, drug addict with zero regard for the law. Her brother Cal, who just to prove he could do better becomes a cop. Her twelve year old daughter Junie and best friend Izzy are murdered in the middle of park and no one sees it and if they did they aren't talking. Eva is determined to figure out what happened to her girl and why someone would do something so horrendous. My only peeve about this book is all the build up and you think it's building to this epic ending and it just like "light bulb" and its over.

The opening chapter of this book sets you up with so many questions about the murder of two young girls. Set in a rural and poor part of the Missouri Ozarks, one of the girl’s mother has nothing left to lose as she seeks revenge for her daughter’s killer. This is a dark and twisty book that hits on themes of systemic poverty and family brokenness. It brings up grief, pain, and what actions are worth the consequences. I flew through this book in a day. It is a page turner for sure.

An excellent mother/daughter addition to the domestic noir space. A first purchase title for most general fiction collections.