Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

A thriller full of mystery and twists. This is a fast paced book which I like when reading a suspense novel. It follows a mother who loses her daughter. I appreciated the main character unrelenting need to find answers to what happened to her daughter. Well enjoyed!

Dark and disturbing, this book takes places in The Ozarks in Missouri. Fantastic and gritty writing, such troubled characters and so many shocking secrets. This book was so, so good!

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

The Familiar Dark was a story about a mother's grief after the tragic loss of her daughter. For some reason it gave me Lovely Bones vibes throughout. This plot driven book sucked me in from the beginning, but started to lose me a little towards the middle. I feel like it came back around to redeem itself at the end though. It did make for a wonderful poolside summer thriller!

First, let me thank netgalley and the publishers for approving my request for an early release of this book. All reviews of my netgalley books can be found on goodreads and youtube. Please be sure to check out the links attached.

Within the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks lies a small town filled with big secrets. Eve Taggert’s daughter Junie and her best friend, Izzy, have just been found murdered. The girls were only twelve-years-old and had their whole lives ahead of them. Who would want to kill them? That’s the question that Eve can’t get from her mind. Eve will risk bringing back old memories and reuniting with shady individuals from her past on a quest for justice for her daughter.

I have said it a million times and I’ll say it again, I love mysteries set in small towns! There is something so intriguing about a town filled with secrets and everyone in everyone else’s business. Amy Engel has gifted readers with a thrilling journey into Eve’s small town deep within the hollers of the Missouri Ozarks. This is one of those towns that people drive through on their way to bigger and better locations. A town filled with secrets about drugs and money. A town that Eve tried desperately to shield her daughter from the darkest parts of, but still ended up losing her.

Our main character Eve is the type of person you want in your corner in times of need. She’s willing to do anything in order to discover who killed her daughter. The reader watches as Eve steps into one risky situation after another pushing her way towards the truth. I loved Eve’s take charge attitude, but it was the vulnerable side of Eve that Engel gave us, which truly allowed me to connect with her character. I could feel how hard Eve had worked over the years to correct her mistakes for her daughter Junie to have a better life and the desperation she’s experiencing trying to find out who took her daughter from her.

THE FAMILIAR DARK is one of those books that draws a reader into the story within the first few pages. When a book opens with murder, you tend to pay attention! There are plenty of heart-pounding moments within the pages of this book, which drive the story forward and keep the reader hooked. I absolutely loved the bingeablity of this book and highly recommend adding it to your TBR!

Dark, twisted, what's not to love? Not a set-in-a-mansion story but rather in poor American town. A much more familiar setting for many.

I love this author and look forward to many more books from her. I highly recommend this one. It eats at you.

Thanks #Netgalley

I was able to read this book thanks to NetGalley. What can I say? I loved this book. It was dark, creepy, and twisted. I am a huge fan of this author and I will continue to follow her work. Thanks again to NetGalley.

There are parts of this book that were so vivid that they will stick with me for a very long time to come.

After reading a fair number of thrillers lately that feature wealthy millennials living the high life while sipping craft cocktails in NYC (not really my thing), it was refreshing to read a gritty, real story about a tough-as-nails woman trying to scrape by in poor, small town America (my thing).

Eve grew up with a drug-addicted mother who was unstable and frequently cruel. The only thing that saves her from emulating her mother is the birth of her daughter after an accidental pregnancy at a young age. But twelve years later, while Eve is just trying to eke out a meager existence by working at a local diner, her daughter is murdered. Eve vows to find out who took her girl’s life and get justice, no matter what it takes. Even if it means tapping into those dangerous parts of herself that she tucked away when her daughter was born.

The setting of this book is harsh and dark and desolate. The same could be said for many of the characters. The main character, Eve, is so flawed yet strong and likable. I especially love the relationship between Eve and her meth-addicted mother. This is an unflinching look at what life is like for people who are born without means and become trapped in the small town where they grew up, saddled with a lack of opportunity and no promise of a better life.

This book reads a bit like a Coen brothers movie to me. There’s brilliance in it, and some good truths, but it’s dark and bleak and hard and definitely NOT for the faint of heart.

So, of course, I flippin’ LOVED it!!

I recommend this for thriller or mystery lovers who like grit, vigilante justice, tough themes and rough women.

Book description:
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened.

Thank you #netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the ARC of #thefamiliardark

#TheFamiliarDark is exactly the kind of book I love: seedy, well-developed characters in an isolated, insular setting. Barren Springs is just that setting, and Eve Taggert, despite her efforts to pull herself out of an impoverished and criminal lifestyle, is a force to be reckoned with when her daughter is brutally murdered. The inter-connectedness of small town life feels authentic and adds layers of complications to the plot.

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This was almost a 5 ⭐️ read for me, but I found the motive for the murders lacking & unbelievable. 4/5 stars.

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Thank you to @DuttonBooks for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads: @TheWyseLibrarian
Instagram: @TheWyseLibrarian

I have to say that the author draws you in right away. I couldn't put this down or stop thinking about it. For a short book it was great. This book is only 256 pages and a page turner. I gave it 5 stars.
This book starts out sad because it opens with the murder of two 12 year old girls.
The first girl is from a single mom home who struggles to raise her. The other girl is from a traditional home with both parents.
Why are they murder we don't know and this book goes through that.
The single mom wants to know why her daughter is killed and who did it. Yes the couple also wants to know but is willing to have the police do all the work which single mom will not.
There is some back ground on all and you get to know the the small town. I was guessing the whole time but didn't get who the killer was until just before the single mom figured it out. You will be surprised how this book ends. I highly recommend that you give this book a read.

In line with the title, this is a dark read. Yes, it starts with the murders of two 12 year olds, but the darkness runs deep. The author does a great job of making you feel the dark, gritty, hopelessness of the family and town. It’s a darkness Eve has been trying to escape for 30 years, but it’s engrained in her bones. Overall a good read, even if it’s terribly sad and dreary.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy.

3.5 stars
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The Familiar Dark opens up with a double murder of two little girls - and from that moment I was hooked.

Eve Taggert just lost her daughter Junie and is learning how to cope without her ray of sun. This was such a beautifully written book, it's set in a small town that has copious secrets. The town is filled with people who are up to no good and going nowhere. Eve takes things into her own hands to get to the bottom of her daughter and best friend's murder. While doing so, Eve puts her own life at risk - I admire the love that this mom had for her daughter and will stop at nothing to figure out what happened.

I enjoyed this book it was beautifully written and had a good mystery aspect to it. I was really rooting for Eve, and I was just as curious to know who would slash two girls throats. The characters were well-rounded; some I loved, most I hated. Overall I really enjoyed the whole "small-town" vibes, and all the secrets we got.

However, the thriller just felt "meh" to me, I guessed the big "twist" very early on so it was a little bit of a letdown to me. I did find myself turning the pages just because I wanted to get to the end to see what happened, but I wouldn't classify this as a true page-turner.
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I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All ideas and opinions are my own!

I fell in love with Engel when I read Roanoke Girls. I loved the Southern-gothic, twisted V.C. Andrews vibes of her compulsively readable domestic thriller. Engel continues the thread of family secrets in The Familiar Dark, but there’s nothing familiar about this one, and the darkness is a little tedious. The Familiar Dark is about murder and motherhood and vengeance, but it stars a cast of characters I couldn’t care about. Scrappy though the protagonist is, Eve feels hollow and one note. Which is shocking, because the entire book is about her and her (bad) relationship with her mom—Eve’s murdered daughter Junie is used to propel the sparing plot forward, but she gets lost so easily in between Eve’s “smart mouth” and the repetition of the town’s smallness, poorness, and “trashy” whiteness. The book ends with the murderer revealed, but it’s an unsatisfying shrug of an ending, a book too short to really sink into. I would read Engel again, but if you only read one of her books, let it be Roanoke Girls.

This book is dark, gritty and full of suspense. I liked it! Thanks to Netgalley and Dutton publishing for sending me this book to read.

Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, this book opens with a murder. Eve Taggert's twelve year old daughter Junie and her friend Izzy were brutally murdered one day at the park. Struck with grief, Eve takes it upon herself to try to get answers as to what happened to her daughter. Eve was no stranger to darkness in life, having grown up in a trailer park with little food and a mother who was more interested in drugs and strange men. She was determined for her daughter to not have that kind of life and feels it necessary to find the answers as to why her life was taken.

There were a lot of shady characters in this story which made me think about the theories I had forming in my mind a few times. Some parts of it were a little predictable and I had the ending figured out at one point, but I still really enjoyed this book. It had mystery and moved along at a quick pace. It was entertaining, thrilling and kept me turning the pages which is all I can ask for in a book! Overall, a good read!

This is not a feel good read. There are many things that are hard to read about (dm for warnings) and if you read The Roanoke Girls, this probably won’t surprise you. The feelings I get when I read Engel’s books kind of remind me of how I feel when I read Karin Slaughter books.  They are unsettling and super gritty.  The Familiar Dark is set in a poor, small town and it begins with Eve’s daughter and her friend being murdered. The rest of the book is Eve’s journey for justice. And that ending!  😳 Highly recommend this one for fans of Slaughter & dark, shocking thrillers. It came out in March so it’s available to you now! Thank you to Netgalley for my ecopy.

3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4.

First, I should specify that thrillers aren't really my genre. I try to love them, but I find it hard to connect with them and I find that it takes a lot for me to truly enjoy a thriller. I'm trying to look at this one not so much as how much I personally enjoyed it, but more as how it compares to other thrillers for me, how well it's written, etc.

The book starts with the murders of two young girls. We are placed right on the scene as they take their last breaths, but we have no idea who is doing the killing. Flash forward to Eve learning about her daughter's murder. Raised by a not-so-great single mother in a very poor area of the Ozarks, Eve has always strived to do better for her daughter, despite the fact she was never able to leave the area she was raised in. She's obviously hit hard by the death of her daughter and vows to do whatever it takes to find her killer.

As she hunts for her daughter's murderer, Eve is forced back into areas of her life she'd rather not return to, including visiting her mother, connecting with an abusive ex-boyfriend, and communicating with the wealthier parents of the other girl who was murdered.

The Familiar Dark has a lot of sadness to it. It's that age-old story of not being able to break away from how you're raised. Eve's brother (who's also her closest friend) becomes a cop to be on the "good" side of the law and though it's clear Eve is a much better mother to her daughter than her own mother was to her, the worst still happens. There are definitely some twists that I didn't totally see coming and I felt like the author did a good job with the resolution of the novel.

Overall, the book is a little too dark for me, but I think that's the point and obviously what the author is going for. If you like dark, slightly depressing, and want a couple twists and turns, you'll probably enjoy this one!

The Familiar Dark is a heavy, dark, and depressing read but written in a way that keeps you reading late into the night to find out what happens next. Following the story of Eve, a mother grieving the murder of her young daughter in a very small town. Eve was brought up in the same small town but raised very differently by her poor, drug addicted mother and the only person she had on her side was her brother, Cal. I won't give any spoilers but I definitely did not guess the twist at the end, I had some inklings but I thought there is no way that person is the murderer. Amy Engel definitely took some risks in this book, being that is is so dark and triggering for some people to read, due to domestic violence, but all in all I think it was a great book.

Thank you netgalley and publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

This was a very dark story from start to finish. It had a lot of great plot twists, and the author did a remarkable job of confusing the reader with an array of characters that could have been that “ it” person.
The story begins with two dead young girls. The rest of the novel revolves around figuring out who killed them and why. The twist the author provides is a doozy. I really didn’t see it coming. There is so much good description with the pages, that the reader is transported to this run down small town and almost, just almost feels like they could be a part of the case.
Bravo!

The setting for this book is very similar to Kristen Arnett's Mostly Dead Things (another book I loved) as it takes place in a very rural area. The characters depicted are also similar in both stories. However, The Familiar Dark is more sinister and dramatic when compared to Arnett's novel. I do not recommend this one to those who are trying out the thriller genre for the first time as there is some very graphic violence present. Fellow thriller connoisseurs will probably really enjoy it though!