I can't believe I never reviewed this! This book still sticks with me after I read it because I love me a small town horror novel. With the creepy atmosphere that builds up and a mystery that keeps the book going, I found my interest lied even more in the family and romantic relationships--which is how I like my horror!

This was a pretty solid read for me, but I found that it meandered quite a bit near the beginning, which led to the ending being too rushed for me. In this book, we follow Logan, who is moving to the small town of Snakebite, the place where her dads both grew up. Since her dad got there, the town has felt off and a high school student has gone missing. The town has turned its backs on Logan's family, but they are there to find out what has happened and stop other high school students from going missing or turning up dead.

This was a super atmospheric YA horror/thriller book. Logan's dads host a paranormal show and bring those vibes to Snakebit while they are there and the creepy small-town atmosphere was great. There were definitely parts of the book that creeped me out. Our main characters were interesting as well. We had Ashley, your typical small-town girl, who has no plans of leaving and whose boyfriend has gone missing. Then we have Logan, the rebellious teen who angers all the townspeople for daring to be herself. And while they did develop further throughout the book, Ashley especially, I wish we saw more character development from them. I wish the same of all the side characters, who felt one note and stereotypical the whole time. The romance was super cute and really helped change my perception of Ashley.

My main problem with this book was the rushed ending. We had a lot of time skips with little plot development throughout the story, and the ending action takes place in the last 10% of the book. I just wished the mystery revealed itself little by little instead of all at once at the end via flashbacks. I also wished it leaned into the horror aspect a bit more.

Overall, this was a solid paranormal book with an interesting mystery. It just left me wanting a little bit more.

This was fun! It took me a long time to get around to reading it and now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long. It's so creepy and engaging! A quick read.

While I don't think I'll be teaching this in my college-level courses, I will absolutely use excerpts from the text to discuss how to write more chilling narratives.

Did not realize this was sapphic when I picked it up. Bonus!

I would love this book for one thing in particular, even if everything else wasn't to my liking. That thing? The main character calls herself a lesbian, actually uses the word!

Thankfully, I also loved everything about the novel.

The Dead and the Dark is atmospheric, it's creepy in the most delicious of ways, It has ghosts, it has secrets, it has interesting family dynamics. It truly is a little bit of a perfect book, especially given how beautiful the prose is.

I just can't help myself, I love any storyline that has an intertextual element like a tv show or podcast or movie.

Great spooky character study with an unsettling pitch black mystery at it's heart.

This is the first Gould story I've read but I can't wait to read more.

3.5 rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an arc of this title.

im on a roll with my reviews!!! i really liked the atmosphere with this book!!! the setting was great and i liked the storyline as well. very fast paced and easy to read!

The description of this book on NetGalley piqued my interest and I just had to request it in both e-book and audiobook and I am so glad that I had access to both. This book is a debut novel written by Courtney Gould and I have to give her kudos for her well-written supernatural mystery.
The setting is Snakebite, a name that grabs my interest immediately, and eerie town name. When I first read “Snakebite” I immediately felt like it was foreshadowing of what was to come. Logan lives there with her fathers, Brandon Woodley and Alejo Ortiz. They are not only ghost hunters, but famous on TV for their ghost hunting.

What is a good mystery without someone going missing or being murdered? Not much for me, but Gould didn’t leave me hanging. Ashley Barton’s boyfriend, Tristan, is missing and she’ll do just about anything to find him. The suspense builds more and more as other teens go missing, and the fun/intrigue really starts with Logan and Ashley decide to team up and look for Tristan.
Much of the mystery, at least to townspeople, is centered around the ghost hunters who many believe might be the culprits of missing teens. There are some unforeseen twists which I always enjoy, especially when they add to the plot and don’t seem unrealistic.

I loved the narrator of the audiobook, Soneela Nankani. Her voice inflections and eerie tones at the appropriate times really added to my enjoyment of the story. I was mesmerized at times by her narration and will definitely read other audiobooks that she narrated.

I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for a free e-ARC and audiobook in exchange for my opinion.

First... look at that cover. Drawn right in. Had to read t just for the cover and title alone. Then add in YA sapphic horror and I was in.

The entire story was intriguing. I loved that one of the main characters comes from a family of paranormal hunters. It felt kitschy that they do that for a living and then come home to Snakebite to possibly film more for their show.

There is so much more than meets the eye since there are disappearances happening, weird things happening and so many secrets.

I enjoyed the two main characters POV and hiw their relationship unravels.

The creep factor is definitely there with this writing and so many unusual things hapen that I found the story very engaging and not a cookie cutter story.

I'll be checking out more from this author soon.

The Dead and the Dark is author Courtney Gould debut book. I would like to thanks first Netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this book.

Something is wrong in the small town of Snakebite in Oregon. Teens are disappearing, or turning dead. And even the weather is not acting normal. All the town seems to blame Logan, daughter of TV's ParaSpectors, a really popular ghosts hunter.

Ashley boyfriend, who was the first of the teen that went missing, will team up with Logan, when she will start seeing his ghost. Logan who she think the only person in town she can trust with this. They will try to figure what is really hauting Snakebite.

Heart-stoppingly good, full of spooks and frights, and deeply emotional, The Dead and The Dark is highly recommended for teen collections.

The Dead and the Dark is a wonderfully creepy book. It is filled with many twists, and has ghosts, romance, and an excellent family dynamic. Well worth reading.

I can't even begin to explain to you what I just read. Just know that it was really good, really gay and REALLY amazing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the paranormal aspects of this book and would love to read more of that from this author with less of the romance thrown in. I felt like it didn’t add very much to the story that already had so much going on.

This is my first Courtney Gould novel and I really enjoyed it! This book is perfect for lovers of horror and paranormal and is the perfect spooky season read, especially if you love ghosts and ghost hunting tv shows. In addition to being a paranormal mystery, it is a sapphic young adult novel. I'm pretty sure you could throw any sapphic fantasy novel at me right now and I would enjoy it, and this was no exception. The Dead and the Dark is an enjoyable read and does a great job at depicting how hate and prejudice can truly fester and be malevolent. I also really loved the depiction of queer love and family in this book. I am looking forward to seeing what Courtney Gould writes next!

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

dark and creepy, this book crawled under my skin and stayed there. while it was great for a debut, i am excited to see what Gould has up their sleeves next

This book is quite outside my comfort zone when it comes to genre but I really wanted to give it a go. I found the pacing of this book to be quite slow which meant reading it took me a lot longer than I anticipated. I just wish that the twists had been a bit more shocking to me and the characters had been more well-rounded. Still, this book has a diverse cast, shocks along the way and was fun to read. I’m sure this one will be perfect for horror and paranormal fans out there. Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for this free ARC! I am honestly sad that I didn't get to it until now because it's so amazing. There are actual ghosts and supernatural phenomenons in this book and it was so well done. Plus, the queer representation was great. I would totally read another book about what happens next!

Let me start by saying that I was thoroughly surprised by this book. The journey that Courtney Gould was able to take me on was stunning. The amount of twists and turns in the plot line, coupled with the atmospheric prose and buildup of relationships between characters, made for a fast paced, thrilling adventure of a read.

The Dead and the Dark is a darkly compelling YA Paranormal Thriller. A perfect mixture of mystery, horror, ghost and romance. I really enjoyed diving into this story.

This book was an intense sensory experience! At first I wasn't sure that I was liking it. The author describes the smells of emotions (examples taken directly from the book: "the morning smelled like soil and hurt." or, "It smells like peril."--what??) as well as many claustrophobic visual descriptions (if you're afraid of the dark, watch out) but in the end, the effect is extremely spooky and very compelling. I admit, I had to fire up an episode of Ghost Adventures. The twists kept coming and kept me reading and I absolutely underestimated this book.

What a darkly amazing, epic queer book! I really needed some more queer horror stories in my life and this did not disappoint. The mystery, the epicness, THE CHARACTERS! I loved every minute of this read! Looking forward to more books by this author.