The Girls Are Never Gone captures those whispers in the dark and that chilling feeling in your bones. It is the perfect read for the times as the nights grow darker and the temperature drops.

Right away, you’re hooked by the atmospheric and menacing, atmospheric opening. It clearly and effectively sets up the claustrophobic small town feel and the central mystery of what exactly happened that night. From there on, you are fully ensnared by Sarah Glenn Marsh’s exquisite writing. The whole way through you have this looming sense of dread hovering over proceedings. The tension seeps into your skin and the scares grow and grow. Very rarely have I been truly terrified by a book but this one pulled it off with one particular jump scare that was so vividly imagined.

The Girls Are Never Gone is probably best described as The Haunting of Bly Manor meets Sadie with a dash of The Conjuring. This unnerving plot meshes really well with the interludes of the podcast. It gives it that multimedia feel and carries you deeper into the story. Dare’s voice is so entrancing and seeing her edited version of events through the podcast is fascinating. The reminder of the wider world listening in adds this meta layer to the story that reminds you of the community standing behind our characters. It also allows that supernatural influence to creep in, but in a way that builds naturally and feels incredibly believable.

Dare is an excellent protagonist for this, as you follow her journey from sceptic to feeling that extra presence. In that way, she really allows the audience in and makes the story build in an incredibly believable way. I loved her as a protagonist with her intelligence, drive and passion. You can tell that she wants to do the best by both her listeners and her friends, but she is also having to untangle all her preconceptions around the supernatural. Likewise, the other central characters felt well-developed and three-dimensional. They truly felt like Dare’s found family for the summer and you end up loving them all.

Great horror novels allow your imagination to create your own nightmares and Marsh seems to intuitively understand this. A lot of the book preys upon the darker recesses of your mind, as you create your own figures lurking in the night. There’s these subtle touches of menace that only grow stronger the more you read on. This is a genuinely creepy and unnerving book. The horror slowly grows and then it almost explodes onto you with horrifying moments that feel so real. It’s incredibly immersive, precisely because you’ve been drawn in by the atmosphere and the incredible characters.

I absolutely loved the representation in this story. Dare has Type I diabetes and the way this is interwoven in the story is fantastic. It is just normalised, but at the same time, Dare is given the space to explore her disability and how it affects her everyday life. It is a realistic depiction of living with a chronic illness, highlighting both how normalised accessibility and representation should be, but also the difficulties that comes with managing your chronic condition or disability. For many people, it’s a constant balance where you’re always walking that tightrope. The central romance is also achingly gorgeous. It’s unabashedly sapphic and fills your heart with butterflies. I liked how the romance grows so naturally and lovingly. While they have these spectacular moments, they also have these beautiful quieter moments that make your heart glow. There’s shades to their romance and this adds this realism. You can practically feel the flutters and it’s so wonderful to watch.

The human touches behind the supernatural are possibly the most unnerving aspect, with aspects of jealously and an inclination towards violence. This endless cycle of new playthings for the creature to devour and feed upon has this abysmal sense of inevitability to it. The fact that they’re also always young teenage girls uncannily reflects real life examples of exploitation and violent crime. Similarly, without giving anything away, I actually liked the ambiguity and touch of despair in the ending. It is definitely not a straightforwardly happy ending with uncertainty but there is still a glimmer of hope in there.

The Girls Are Never Gone is the sapphic horror story you need if you’re looking to fill that Bly Manor shaped hole in your heart.

(Trigger Warnings: Paranormal Horror, Death, Animal Death, Drowning)

The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh is a new release young adult horror novel. It focuses on a central mystery of multiple missing girls as podcaster Dare investigates the phenomenon. I was lucky enough to receive a copy so a thank you to the author and TBR and Beyond Tours. The book’s official publish date was September 7, 2021 with the perfect time frame to qualify as a seasonal spooky read.

The opening with a podcast voiceover told by Dare, the main character, shares the initial information engagingly. From the point of view of our narrator, the book flows naturally. It's easy to get through even as you're learning chunks of necessary information. It describes the history of Arrington to the reader without it boring them to tears. Sarah Glenn Marsh lays out the mental image of a formerly glamorous house in ruin after the deaths of girls spanning generations.

Sarah Glenn Marsh nailed the voice of a young adult in both the podcast and Dare's time at Arrington. It holds the right amount of wisdom that some authors forget exists in teenagers, but still possesses the impulsivity of them that other authors overplay. The idea of a teen paranormal investigator works in this case. It feels more mature than, say, a Nancy Drew mystery but still keeps the YA authenticity you expect.

The Girls Are Never Gone is plotted out as a fairly innocuous mystery with glimpses of horror simmering beneath the surface. There may be a spooky, horror-esque element to the story but it also follows the layout of a classic mystery novel, only in this case the culprit is from another world. Horror on its own can become a very over-done and dry genre, but this book manages to take the common concepts and add flair to them, therefore contemporizing them. Sarah Glenn Marsh takes what could have been a thin horror storyline, and adds depth. The flat scenarios come alive in waves of vibrancy that overtake the reader like the lake of Arrington might.

The book builds slowly to the climax of the mystery and horror. It layers instances like a foundation that leads upwards to its culmination. There's never a dull moment. Some mysteries can struggle with keeping up the momentum until the big reveal but this isn't one of them. The reader is left constantly on edge, not necessarily scared, but rather anticipatory. Sarah Glenn Marsh knows how to write fear-inducing scenes that elevate the mystery. She sprinkles an underlying sense of foreboding through every chapter.

Dare is the main character who serves as a likable narrator you don't resent when seeing the world from their viewpoint. She's active and constantly deciphering the clues alongside the reader. The book portrays her type 1 diabetes without a problem. It makes it very much a part of the character's life, chronically present, but it also isn't the defining quality of her. By the author portraying a character with type 1 diabetes, she dismisses the fear and misunderstanding by addressing it head-on through the main character.

The characters are set up so they feed off each other, propelling one another and the plot forward. Banter shared between friends is at the heart of the story. It doesn't feel stuffy like the halls of Arrington. The rag-tag group of girls face the brunt of the storm together during their time at the house. While they may be flawed, the characters are also brave in the face of the more sinister elements of the tale.

While the book itself is technically classified as horror, it has that meet-cute romance you don't often see in the genre. It doesn't strictly define itself as horror. It reaches out and breaks boundaries. Quinn and Dare feel like they were made to stand beside one another, no matter where their relationship takes them. They are two halves that are irrevocably linked by the events at Arrington. I rarely associate a good, well-developed romance with the mystery or horror genres, but this romance is the exception to the rule.

The inclusion of an authentic sapphic romance gives fellow queer girls nostalgia of first love. Sarah Glenn Marsh breezily captures the delicate hesitancy and yearning that anyone can relate to in regards to new love. It's almost unusual for a mystery/horror book to feature queer representation with the main character and not as a novelty side character. This story breaks that unspoken rule by giving you a couple you can cheer on throughout.

The haunting has a mystifying quality, etched into the past of Arrington. Every nook and cranny of the house exposes the decay lying in wait. I've always been a fan of the mystery genre, but horror is typically outside of my comfort zone. The Girls Are Never Gone is the perfect mingling of the two. It hooked me on the concept instantly. My favorite part of a mystery novel is how everything is interconnected, past and present, and this book does that at every turn, aligning points on a map that you couldn't possibly connect before.

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Disability Rep: 5/5

A special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

Chronic illness & disability rep! And #ownvoices at that! I was so excited to read this book—and it did not disappoint!
I’ve been reading (and watching) a handful of podcast-based mysteries/thrillers lately, and I’m loving this new trope. I could never listen to a true crime podcast (I like my mysteries and thrillers fully fictional) but reading about made up ones is quickly becoming a favorite. Our main character, Dare, is a disabled, queer, blue-haired badass who is starting her own ghost hunting podcast after breaking up with her boyfriend and podcast partner. The scene of this adventure? The Arrington estate, a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of nowhere that was the site of the suspicious drowning of Atheleen Bell a few decades back. Now, Dare might be a ghost hunter… but she doesn’t actually believe in ghosts. But something happened to Atheleen on this estate, and Dare is determined to figure out what.

The idea of a ghost hunter who doesn’t believe in ghosts was really interesting to me, especially in the way that Marsh writes it. Dare hunts ghosts, not because she believes in them, not to trick others into believing them for clout, and not even solely to disprove them. She hunts ghosts because she wants to find one, even if she doesn’t actually believe she will. Marsh masterfully expresses the way that chronic illness can force you to face your own mortality at a young age, and the ways that can change you. That added undercurrent to the story, and to Dare’s motivations, sets The Girls Are Never Gone apart from other paranormal mysteries and ghost hunting book. Especially for me, a disabled teen.

The mystery itself was great. It was definitely more on the thriller side of mystery, but in a way that was good for YA and not too scary for me (a certified wimp). More than a sense of whodunnit, the plot was driven by suspense and strange happenings, although, there was of course a mystery to be solved. There was no list of suspects or red yarn maps. I wasn’t focused on trying to figure out the perpetrator, I was simply along for the ride. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book, but if you’re looking for a traditional whodunnit mystery, you won’t find that here. There was some twists at the end that required some suspension of disbelief and kind of felt a little out of place to me, compared to the themes and tone of the plot prior, and that’s the main reason I didn’t rate the book 5 stars. However, it wasn’t a severely whip-lashy, just a little bit “meh”.

The only other “complaint” was Waffles (and I put that in quotes because I’m not sure how I feel and also, I’m not a service dog owner/handler). Now, I loved Waffles as a character and, like, a dog. But as service dog representation I felt like he perpetuated some pretty damn harmful stereotypes. Waffles was bad at his job. It’s acknowledged in the text, like, immediately. Dare brought him because he’s her dog, but basically admits that he isn’t actually all that helpful when it comes to alerting her about low blood sugar. In fact, if Waffles were a real service dog… well. He wouldn’t be. He has an accident, he doesn’t come when called or listen to commands, he runs off whenever he feels like it, and he doesn’t even reliably alert. He wouldn’t have passed the certification process to become a SD.
Having Waffles in the story, written the way he was, adds to the idea that service dogs are just pets that can do some extra tricks. Which is not true at all. Service dogs are medical equipment (and pets, of course). They are necessary to the lives of their handlers, and they are well trained, highly specialized, and unobtrusive when they are on the job. Not any dog can be a service dog, and many people and establishments are already unhappy to allow service dogs in because they think they’ll have an accident, or run off, or get in the way—which are all behaviors that Waffles exhibits—but a real service dog wouldn’t do any of those things, and the idea that they’re “just regular pets that people get certified so they can take them places” is an incredibly harmful (not to mention ableist) mindset that Waffle’s portrayal only adds to.
Now, Waffles could have been a regular pet who had been taught to alert at home. He could have played the exact roles he did without using the title “service dog” and simply specified that he wasn’t a real service dog, and there wouldn’t have been an issue. It’s just quite harmful to call Waffles a service dog, when, in reality, he would never have been able to become a service dog, and therefore giving the idea of service dogs a bad name.

All in all,
chronic illness rep? Incredible. Perfection. Spectacular.
The plot, story, romance, etc? Amazing. Enticing. Must read.
Waffles as a service dog? No. Just no.
Regardless, I really hope you read and love this book, just please keep in mind that Waffles is NOT good service dog rep.

This book was absolutely spooky! It hooked me from the beginning, and I was not expecting some of the events to happen the way they did in the book but I was highly intrigued! This is the start of more to come! I loved it!

"Just as I've done so many times before, I'll reach out into the darkness, safe in knowing nothing ever reaches back."

The Story: Dare Chase is the voice of Attachments, a brand new paranormal investigation podcast. She is a supernatural skeptic and to keep her listeners keep tuning in, she decides to investigate the Arrington Estate which is rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Atheleen Bell. Dare wants to prove that there are logical explanations for the strange incidents in the house. But will the house change her mind?

My thoughts: What an entertainingly spooky YA horror/mystery! I absolutely loved the spooky house setting and the strange happenings in the house give me all the chills!

The mystery was good too with unexpected twists along the way. I enjoyed following Dare and her friends solving the mystery. It was really interesting to see how Dare trying to explain away all the strange things while she herself is experiencing some supernatural things too!

I am a podcast addict and I loved the podcast aspect in this story! It was really fun to read!

Overall, I enjoyed this book! It has the right mix of mystery and horror, and great characters that you will love!

Pub. Date: Sep 7, 2021

***Thank you Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group, Razorbill, author Sarah Glenn Marsh and NetGalley for this gifted review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

***ARC Review***

I want this ghost story scrawled on bloodstained pages and bound up in leather, but I could do without the drama.

When I started this book I wanted to DNF it almost immediately, I’ve read this story before too many times. Girl has a podcast/show/whatever else about ghosts so girl goes somewhere haunted and encounters ghosts. There is drama, there is romance, there is a happy ending, I’m bored.

I decided to give it a chance and kept reading. Girl encounters ghosts. This ghost story is SO GOOD. There are rotting deer floating in a lake that drags girls down by their ankles and ghosts entering through taps and leaving bruises on shoulders. It’s truly haunting and I love it. The mystery is absolutely insane and the history and personality present in it really make it an incredible story. The atmosphere makes it feel as though this should be an old classic and it’s written so beautifully that it’s jarring to be yanked out of this tale and brought back to podcasts and crushes and beach parties.

As much as I appreciate a kissing book, it just feels like that doesn’t belong in this story and it drags the book out more than it needed to be dragged out. I do love the education on diabetes and the queer rep, but it feels as though these are two different books meshed into one and I was really looking for a horror story, not a contemporary drama.

I think the characters are interesting and I really like the girls supporting girls aspect of this book. I can’t say I felt particularly connected to any of the characters but they were all fairly realistic, which is often hard to find in a YA book. I also really like how the romance is never considered “perfect.” Some of the shifts in beliefs and personalities were confusing or seemed illogical, but I generally think the characters were pretty solid.

Actually, one of my favorite things about this book was how nothing was truly perfect. I wouldn’t call the ending happy, though it wasn’t tragic either, and it gave me chills for sure.

Despite some clichés, The Girls are Never Gone ended up really surprising me, as it turned out to be realistic (if you suspend reality a bit), creepy, and all-around a very enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher and then bought my own ebook copy. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Girls Are Never Gone

Author: Sarah Glenn Marsh

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: T1 Diabetes bisexual MC, Service dog, Puerto Rican lesbian side character, F/f romance

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, paranormal, mystery, thriller

Genre: YA Paranormal Mystery

Publication Date: September 7, 2021

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 336

Recommended Age: 14+ (romance, slight animal gore, death, Underage alcohol consumption, Slight religion talk)

Explanation of CWs: Just an FYI, the animal gore seen in this book is just from the skeletal remains of other, long-dead animals. The religion talk is also very slight and in passing.

Synopsis: Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts.

Privately, she’s a supernatural skeptic. But publicly, she’s keeping her doubts to herself—because she’s the voice of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, and she needs her ghost-loving listeners to tune in.

That’s what brings her to Arrington Estate. Thirty years ago, teenager Atheleen Bell drowned in Arrington’s lake, and legend says her spirit haunts the estate. Dare’s more interested in the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death—circumstances that she believes point to a living culprit, not the supernatural. Still, she’s vowed to keep an open mind as she investigates, even if she’s pretty sure what she’ll find.

But Arrington is full of surprises. Good ones like Quinn, the cute daughter of the house’s new owner. And baffling ones like the threatening messages left scrawled in paint on Quinn’s walls, the ghastly face that appears behind Dare’s own in the mirror, and the unnatural current that nearly drowns their friend Holly in the lake. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of Arrington, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

Review: I really liked this book. I thought that the story of all was very entertaining and it definitely provided the Spooks I needed to get into the Halloween spirit. I also liked the bond between all of the girls and I really liked the sapphic romance. I thought that the World building and character development were really well done and the writing was marvelous, although I might be a bit biased because this is one of my favorite authors.

The only real issues I had with the book is that there or two distinct monsters that I felt needed a little bit more development on the page but also the ending was a little abstract in what happened. We don't have the real motives behind the monsters, which you can argue makes for a really good monster, but we also don't have a clear cut ending to the story which is kind of giving me hope that maybe in the future there will be a sequel because I need to know. And if you have read this book then you know what I need to know.

Verdict: It was so good.

At times it felt like this was two books rolled into one. I wasn't connected to the characters, and it just dragged through the middle. I wish we would've gotten to the haunting quicker and the book was a little bit shorter.

I read Sarah's other YA series, Reign of the Fallen, and absolutely loved it! That book was more fantasy than paranormal, but it's a world where the dead come back to life and it's so eerie. This book is more paranormal fantasy, set in our world, and oh my gosh it creeped me out!

One of my favorite things about the book is the paranormal investigator main character who doesn't believe in ghosts. Dare doesn't believe in ghosts, but she's willing to go into this "haunted" space to find out more about the home and the mysterious deaths of girls who have lived there, the history behind the original family, and the weird stuff that is going on. Her podcast, which I loved the inclusion of the podcast episodes, is set around this home and her experiences and it was so fun seeing her opinion change over time. 

Meanwhile, there are two other girls living with her, one who is the daughter of the owner, Quinn, and another girl helping at the internship, Holly. Dare quickly becomes friends with Quinn and Holly, and even something more with Quinn. Her service dog, Waffles, steals the show - he's just so stinking cute and don't worry, he does survive!

Speaking of Waffles, I loved the disability rep in this book. Dare has type 1 diabetes, which if you didn't know, is very different from type 2 and the author does a wonderful job highlighting the condition and the struggles. Type 1 is something you're born with and lasts a person's entire life, while type 2 is something you develop over time and it can be reversed. Waffles is Dare's service dog and alerts her when her blood sugar drops too low or goes too high, though according to Dare, he's hardly ever right.

With the rep in this book, we also have LGBTQIA+ rep and I loved watching the relationship develop! Dare is bisexual and Quinn is her love interest in this book. It was so sweet watching them fall for each other over the few weeks and care for each other, though I wished their experience in the house was better than it was. 

Being in that house would have terrified me. As they're working to renovate the home and spruce it up, weird stuff starts happening. Dare hears scratching by her window when there's no branches nearby or anything to scratch it. The girls hear and see weird things that they can't explain. Girls have died in the lake and they can feel it calling to them. The weird stuff begins to build up and if it was me, I would have hightailed it out of there after the first night!

Sarah does a great job setting up the history and the mystery for Dare to solve. I was so invested in what was going on and while I was terrified, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. The ending absolutely killed me and I really, really hope we get a sequel! I have some unanswered questions that I really need answered, so hopefully we get another book to figure out what's going on. 

If you love ghost stories, thrillers, disability rep, or wlw romances - this is a great book to pick up! I loved this book and I will be patiently waiting for some kind of sequel or at least answers for some of my questions.

I really enjoyed this novel as a whole. The concept of Dare, our main character, having a podcast was a very fun idea to me and a great way to incorporate popular media of our current time. The type 1 diabetes representation through dare was great, as I feel as though I have never read a book where it is stated that the character has this illness. The horror tropes in this novel made me squeal in horror and delight all at the same time. I definitely wnt to check out more work by this author.

Let me just say before starting with the review that I hit the « request » button not only because of the cover but also because of the mention of a true crime podcast. I am a huge sucker for all things having to do with true crime and investigations. It’s only logical that I wanted to particpate in this blog tour. And girl, am I glad that I got a spot because this book is « Freaking-tastic »!

This book is so spooky and scary that I seriously don’t want to be alone in an old and semi-abandoned house anymore. I’ve got goosebumps after every scary scene and this is good. I rarely read Horror books and I wasn’t really sure what to expect with « The Girls are Never Gone ». It’s good that I didn’t have any expectations so ever because I loved this YA Horror novel and just couldn’t get enough of the story about Dare and her new friends.

I don’t remember having picked something by Marsh up before, so let me say that I enjoyed her writing style. It worked perfectly well with the horror setting. The details were also amazingly well written. Sometimes I got the feeling that I was playing some major part in the story as well because I could imagine everything so easily. I need an adaptation of « The Girls are Never Gone » right now! (Please make this happen)

Dare is also one of my favorite main characters ever. You simply cannot not love her. (Did this make sense right now? Probably not.) I also liked the fact that there was a diabetes type 1 representation in the story. It doesn’t happen often in books and the illness in general needs more representation so that people can become more aware of it. I always feel like diabetes is a taboo theme in our current society so this was refreshing to see how the main character lived with her diagnosis.

Overall, if you enjoy a great mystery horror novel in the YA universe and you love a good scare then « The Girls are never gone » is going to be your next favorite read. I especially recommend this book during this time of year because autumn is right around the corner and Halloween is in a month and a half. So what are you waiting for? The goosebumps won’t be coming on their own!

If you are looking for a book with vivid history, deeply child ghosts, and a skeptic who is trying to search for more in the darkness, look no further than The Girls Are Never Gone.

After a breakup with her boyfriend and the cohost of a wildly popular YouTube channel about everything creepy and haunted, Dare is looking to move on and does so with her own paranormal investigation podcast, Attachments. But she is having trouble finding traction and she is constantly watching her follower count not rise…

This brings her to Arrington Estate for the summer, the place where young Atheleen Bell drowned and died thirty years ago. The estate is known for its paranormal activity and she has a summer of investigation ahead of her for episodes in her podcast.

Dare has never seen a ghost, heard unexplainable voices, or felt that unsettling “feeling” when spirits are said to be around be. And she knows she won’t actually find anything here, but it doesn’t stop her from continuing to search for more out there. Along with her service dog, Waffles (she has type 1 diabetes and he is supposed to alert her when her levels are off) Dare meets the inhabitants of the estate, a woman renovation the house, her daughter Quinn, and another guest, Holly.

Immediately sparks fly between Dare and Quinn and I thought that their chemistry and their relationship were really sweet. But aside from budding love, Dare soon realizes that as a skeptic, this place was way more than she bargained for. Unexplainable things begin to happen pretty quickly and Dare is constantly trying to explain them away (much to my annoyance - but I get it… it’s her thing) and none of them are safe. The more Dare learns about the history of the house and the family that lived there, the more terrifying the book becomes. And it’s so good! This is a real on the edge of you seat read and I LOVED it!!

When I saw “The Conjuring meets Sadie”, I was immediately drawn in. The Girls Are Never Gone did not disappoint! I loved all of the characters. I loved the LGBTQ+ representation. I LOVED the ghost story and the mystery through it. I loved the twist right towards the end. It kept me so hooked through the entire thing. This book was absolutely incredible!

3.5⭐

This is a really fun, creepy YA story that will the perfect addition to anyones fall TBR. This has queer characters, a haunted house, chronic illness rep, and plot that will leave you questioning if ghosts are actually real.

There was so much to love in this story. But I think my absolute favorite aspect was getting a chronically ill main character. This is an own-voices story for Type 1 diabetes and it was so fantastically handled. The main characters relationship with her disease is something I completely related to. I loved how it's part of her that she embraces but it still occasionally self conscious over. It was just such a wonderful and realistic depiction of living with a disease and I'm forever grateful to see that from an amazing female lead.

This also has a great female friendship plot! While a relationship also forms, there's less emphasis on the romantic feelings, and more emphasis on the platonic feelings. And I LOVED the way the relationships worked out in the end!

The haunted house, creepy ambience was also fantastic. I love a good atmospheric story and this definitely delivered that! There is absolutely no way you would have caught me dead in this terrifying house!

Overall this was just a really great, creepy read that I will definitely be recommending this October! I can't wait to read more from Sarah Glenn Marsh in the future!

Something happened to me while reading this book. I am not someone who generally gets scared at movies or books. My friends hate watching scary movies with me because I tend to laugh during them. However, the further I got in this book, the more lights I was turning on. It's one that has slow burn tension building in the background that you sort of ignore at first but then find yourself feeling later. I loved Dare. She was so fun and courageous, while being the most relatable to me since I'd call myself a skeptic. I liked that her podcast was to tell the truth, not to make up lies about seeing ghosts. I went back and forth on whether I liked Quinn and Holly but that was more part of the story. I liked the very last twist in the book because I had doubts myself. For me, this was a 4/5.

If you like paranormal ghost hunts, girls with heart eyes for each other, or is someone who wants to get a little spooked, this is the one for you.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is fantastic. It's very atmospheric and creepy; the tension starts high and keeps getting increasingly more unsettling as the story goes on. I feel like that's not necessarily hard to do, but what IS hard to do is the other thing this book did: it made all the scares and the backstory completely unexpected. Everything about this story feels new and original, and that's a real achievement.

This was absolutely fantastic. I was excited to read this because it was advertised as a sapphic horror book and that’s definitely something I’m interested in! That being said, I’m a scaredy cat, and the only way I can consume horror is through literature because I can control when and just how much to read. However, this had me reading at times when I would’ve never expected to pick up a horror book—namely, at night—because I just needed to know what came next. I was extremely hooked.

Firstly, I need to talk about how exquisite the mystery of the novel was. Dare, our protagonist, is a paranormal investigator with a brand new podcast that she’s dedicating to this particular case of Atheleeen’s drowning. Seeing her uncover the mystery surrounding the Arrington Estate is equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. The narration was great in presenting us with the information in a way that was genuinely scary and unsettling—don’t be like me and read this at night. I personally don’t think I’ve ever been this pleased to be horrified.

Dare’s diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was another wonderful aspect of the story. I must admit that before reading this I had no idea what such a status implied and I really enjoyed learning about it. I thought that it was beautifully integrated not only on Dare as a character but also on the story as a whole. It is obvious that Sarah Glenn Marsh knows what she’s talking about from her own lived experience, and not only that, but she knows how to make this information comprehensible to an audience who might not have had any previous knowledge of this autoimmune disease.

In the same vein, we need to talk about Dare’s adorable service dog, Waffles. I will be honest and admit that although I love animals in real life, I often don’t enjoy them in stories—I have no idea why that is, so I can’t explain it. However, I thought Waffles was a great addition to this cast of characters and I felt like he truly played a part in the plot, albeit a small one. He was not only a comedic element but also an important part of both Dare’s life and—to my understanding— of the ongoing investigation.

Moreover, I truly enjoyed the friendship between Dare, Quinn, and Holly. It was really enjoyable to see these three strangers get to know each other and develop a very intense relationship caused by both the forced close proximity and their shared paranormal and horrifying experiences. Each of the girls had a very distinct personality, which in my opinion was what made them work so well when put together.

Finally, to no one’s surprise, I really enjoyed the glimpse of sapphic romance. I loved how it wasn’t rushed at all and it seemed to flow in a very natural way. And I especially adored how their circumstances—the weird happenings in the house—affected them and their interactions with each other.

All in all, this book had many great aspects, and all of them made the story feel so much more alive—from the horror at the core of it to the Type 1 diabetes diagnosis of the protagonist which played a vital role in her character as a whole. I have no doubt that this is a book I will be recommending for a long time.

I read that this was like The Conjuring and Sadie which got my attention but another review compared this to Nancy Drew meets Ghost Hunters. I’m going to agree with a little bit of all those descriptions. It definitely had some creepy moments but nothing extremely frightening. For me, when a book takes place in a haunted house it is all about the atmosphere and the subtle horror elements that keep you up at night as a reader. Those elements were present but the flow and pace of the story were too chaotic during some of those moments so I couldn’t grasp that vibe with this book. Aside from that, it did have some entertaining moments like Dare’s dog, Waffles! Loved him. And he’s a service dog. Dare is a type 1 diabetic. It played a huge part during her actions and feelings throughout the story so I know this is an important representation to mention as I know a few of my friends on here are type 1 diabetics. Overall, I did enjoy this YA paranormal story and I think it’s perfect for readers who don’t usually read horror but want to enjoy a spooky read to get in the mood for Halloween and this fall season!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Teen for my eARC in exchange for my honest review!

this book was very enjoyable! extremely creepy, and dragged out the suspense in such a perfect way. the ending kind of had one of those “if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” vibes, but the rest of the book was so good i can forgive it. also the chronic illness rep was PHENOMENAL

(arc provided by netgallery and Penguin Teen. all thoughts and opinions are my own)

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“After all, ghost stories are human stories, brimming with life, with history, drama, and personality. They’re as enduring as we are.”
(This is taken from an uncorrected proof; it may change in the final version.)

You know what I realized as I read this book? That I definitely went into this thinking it was mystery (don’t ask me why…), but I was not at all mad that it was actually a horror novel. This is the second YA horror novel I’ve read in the past few weeks and, I have to say, this book makes me want to pick up more!

We’re following the story of a young woman named Dare Chase. Dare has signed up for a summer internship to help restore an old mansion at the edge of a lake. But the real reason that she volunteered was to investigate the possible haunting of the mansion and the mysterious drowning that happened there twenty years ago for her new pararnormal investigation podcast, Attachments. Dare doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she knows this is just the sort of thing her audience would love. As she searches the house for clues with the help of the owner’s cute daughter, Quinn, and the other summer intern, Holly, she begins to realize there may be more to this haunted house than she thought.

Y’all, when I say this book creeped me out, I say that with my entire chest. Sarah Glenn Marsh should write for horror films because the imagery was on point! There was a moment in this story where I legitimately felt my stomach fall (has to do with a ceiling… you’ll know when you get there) and I freakin’ loved it. The overall atmosphere of this story was perfect; it was dark, haunting, frightening, and definitely gave me a few chills. I love a horror novel that nails the spooky feeling of that which scares us, and this book did it magnificently.

Beyond the creepy feels, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, as well! Dare is such a compelling main character, with her skepticism and her determination. The fact that she also has Type 1 diabetes plays a pretty big role in this story, as well. I can’t speak to the rep as I don’t have the disease and have only ever known people with Type 2, but I liked that it was a big part of the book because it’s a big part of Dare as a person. She isn’t her disease, but it isn’t ignored, either. I loved how intense she is and how fiercely she’s willing to protect people she cares about. She’s such a strong main character which made this book even more compelling. The other characters didn’t snag quite as much in my mind, probably because we spend all of our time from Dare’s point of view. And I will say that the romance between her and Quinn felt a little insta-lovey… but what summer romance isn’t? Even if this one had a heavy backdrop of ghosts and death.

As for this plot of this haunted tale, I found myself guessing pretty early on where it was going. But I still really enjoyed the ride! This was a well-paced, well thought out novel that had my heart hammering for several pages at the end. I got completely swept up in the mystery and, if that isn’t a sign of a great book, I don’t know what is!

Final thoughts: This was such a gripping tale and I’m glad I read it now because it has put me in the Spooky Mood! The atmosphere was top-notch, the main character is incredible to watch, and the plot had my heart racing! I thought the other characters felt a little lacking and I did guess some pretty big twists early on, but I still enjoyed this book thoroughly. If you like YA horror (or horror in general) that has a dash of romance, a dash of mystery, and plenty of frights, I think you would enjoy The Girls Are Never Gone!