Man I really wanted to love this one. It had all the makings of my favorite kind of thrillers: shadowy, secluded lake setting, mysterious friends, teenagers doing sketchy things.

All that said…I had issues. A lot of it had to do with the pacing. I think a lot of those pacing problems could’ve been resolved had Taylor written the introductory chapter as it is, made us curious as to what happened those years ago, and then went chronologically through the earlier years before bringing us back to the present. I struggled to really ground myself in the story.

Not to mention Grace as a character, from the very beginning, had a lot of red flags that were frustrating as hell to have been completely ignored by Nora and Wes. The ending was also extremely underwhelming. I just expected…more.

in conclusion

I think the premise was interesting, and kept me invested enough to finish. I’d say give this one a chance if it sounds interesting to you. You may end up enjoying it more than I did! To me, though, it wasn’t particularly suspenseful so maybe don’t go into it thinking it’s a thriller.

I really loved the twists and turns in this one! I loved the writing and the darkness of it. It really shows how we have trouble showing who we really are.

I usually read YA thrillers as pallet cleansers from fantasy books, and I picked this up after a particular dense fantasy novel. Unfortunately it's hard to get me to really care about characters in thrillers, and this is one of those cases. The plot was fine, but I just let it wash over me and this book hasn't stayed with me. It doesn't do anything I would say makes it stand out.

This was a well done YA Thriller, and exactly what I needed after all the romances I had been reading. Definitely loved the plot and the characters!

Unfortunately, I couldn't really get into this one. The whole premise of the book was promising, but for me, I couldn't connect with the characters. Though, because of the writing style of the author, I am sure that there will be others who will like this book.



Reviewer Note: For a while, I originally posted on my website because that was where most of my followers were, and it was the easiest for me at the time. Then my website crashed. The reviews I wrote were lost. I am doing my best to post my comments here from what I can remember. Starting 2023, I have been posting across platforms (site/Instagram, Goodreads, & Amazon) so that the reviews are in more places.

I started this when it was released but put it down and never got to finish it. I liked the story well enough, but it just couldn´t hold my attention.

Jessica Taylor's Who We Were In The Dark is a sort of coming of age mystery story about Nora who grows up poor. She lives with her brother Wesley and her single mother. Her mother struggles with addiction. She also told the kids that their father was dead. Well, come to find out, their dad is alive and lives at Donner Lake. So, Nora and Wesley go to visit him. And so, over the summer they become friends with Grace and Rand. Grace is THAT girl. They end up going on different adventures and living extravagantly - funded by Grace. But, it turns out maybe things are not quite what they appear to be. Two summers later and Grace has gone missing.

I thought Who We Were In The Dark was an okay listen. It didn't completely grab me. BUT, I did like that the characters weren't from wealthy backgrounds and that they struggled. Grace is quite the manic pixie dream girl -- wild that this trope is still a thing. Ultimately I just didn't care a TON but this helped to pass the time driving. The audiobook is narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker who is easy to listen to. It is 11 hours 38 minutes and honestly is one you can speed up a little with no issues.

I enjoyed the pacing of this book and the plot was very well written. But, I found I lacked any connection to the character or their journeys. Not a bad book but not a complete knock out either.

Who We Were in the Dark is not necessarily bad, but it doesn't address a core question...why should I care about this particular narrative and its characters.

super suspenseful. I enjoyed the pace of the story. It was very enticing to see the plot unravel. I was iffy about the characters in the beginning but I was able to connect with them as the story took flight. The plots and twists left me wondering but I love how the author completed the mystery. Looking forward to more.

The first thing that caught my eye about this book was the cover. Then the synopsis hooked me. I love a good Teen and YA Fiction novel and I was excited to read this one. The story follows Nora and her brother Wesley as the go to a cabin in the mountains at Donner Lake and meet Grace and Rand and a friendship blossoms.

These characters could be my friends when I was a teen. I loved Nora’s personality. She was usually torn between having a good time and not sure if they should break the rules. That reminded me a lot of myself. Grace annoyed me a bit because it was almost like she was trying too hard a lot and she expected people to live up to a certain expectation that didn’t include herself doing the same. I also really enjoyed watching Nora’s personality and self develop over the course of this book. I felt out of all of them that she had the most personal growth and we got to witness it step by step.

I think the jumping back and forth between the current time and now was almost not needed. It didn’t add to the suspense of things aside from the fact that we knew Grace was missing. That could have easily been introduced as a prologue and then all those chapters about Nora and her brother coming back to the cabin could have been at the end. I feel it would have almost flowed a little better. I really enjoyed the ending though. I think as readers we build up an expectation while reading the book and you almost expect what is going to happen, but Taylor threw us that last shock at the end (no spoilers). It made me question if you should hold out hope in books or expect the worse. You never know which way the author will take you.

Overall this was a great read. It’s a well-written coming of age story about kids from all different paths coming together in a place that makes them almost the same with a bit of a twist at the end.

"Who We Were in the Dark" tells the story of a group of four teens brought into the bonds of friendship through shared circumstances. I (mostly) liked the characters and their unique perspectives and personalities. I enjoyed the narrator's perspective, and felt it did a good job showing her character development and interpersonal relationships. While 3/4 main characters were developed and felt well-rounded, the fourth was...not. Grace (who it could be argued is in some ways the antagonist of the story) felt much more stereotyped. She was viewed by the narrator, and several other characters, primarily as a "manic-pixie-dream-girl". The ending alludes to this one-dimensional characterization being intentional and the narrator's realization of this being framed as the point of the narrative, but in my opinion it never really came together. I felt that the twist ending detracted from the novel's central ideas, since the overarching themes suddenly shifted away from what was introduced in the initial setup. The narrative, especially towards the end, tried to to do too much and ultimately devolved into a confusing mix where several significant themes were trying to be conveyed in ways that did not meld together. Adding to my confusion was the switches between past and present timelines -- not because the storytelling didn't work in that format, but because the chapter headings were not notated in a way that was very clear. Had the ending aligned with the initial set-up and maintained more thematic consistency, I would have liked the story, but instead I felt underwhelmed and disappointed at the twist/reveal.

This was one fun atmospheric novel and I was hooked from the very first page. I loved the characters and their journey to solve Grace's disappearance.

Very well done.

For anyone who's ever considered being someone else when meeting new people in a new place, or anyone who struggled with the realities of life at a young age, forced into being the adult when those in your life couldn't be, this one's for you.

Not all YAs are routed in sunshine and rainbows, and I think it's important to have books like this one on the shelf. Taylor wrote a beautiful slow burn about friendship, love and what one will do to save themselves and their secrets, and how the bonds formed from a single season of life can last forever.

The story focuses on 4 characters, Nora and her brother Wesley who meet Grace and Rand at the lake when they're forced to spend time with the dad they never knew. Within the story we have the past and present, in a unique coming of age story that makes you think about the relationships in your own life, and how everything can seem so big, and so small all at once. Each character had their own flaws that seemed to make their time together even more precious, to store up those cherished moments from the seasons together before returning to home and the world outside their friend group.

“There are places you know, and then there are places that know you.”

I listened to the audiobook thanks to @prhaudio and was impressed at what a quick read it seemed like. As someone who cannot listen at a super fast speed, I struggle with staying caught up and focused, and with multiple characters + constant flashbacks I was a bit worried as the story started, but I quickly fell into the rhythm of the book and really enjoyed listening to it.

Read if you like
🌊 being at the lake
🌲 coming-of-age stories
🔍 mystery
⏰ alternating timelines
💔 reading about difficult family dynamics

I love friendship stories that span over multiple years. While Nora and her brother Wesley spend time at Donner Lake with their biological dad, they meet Grace and Rand. A lot of the story revolves around Grace — and while she was an intriguing character, her actions bothered me quite a bit. But it is easy to emphasize with her when you learn more about her.

It took a little bit for me to catch my footing with this book — there is a lot going on and a lot of talk about things that have yet to be revealed. For most of the book I was waiting for something to happen that would •wow• me, but it never really got to that point. This is partly my fault because I was expecting it to be more of a thriller.

I was hoping for so much more from this book. First I thought it would be a lot more of a thriller and while it had some mystery it wasn't nearly enough. I also didn't really like any of the characters,. They were supposed to be young teens but they seemed much older. I think this book would have been much better suited to having older characters. Overall I just never really got into this one.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Dial Books, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Donner Lake is famous for its waters, surrounding montains and some travelers who, long ago, was trapped there and did unspeakable things to survive. But for Nora Sharpe, Donner means a girl named Grace who changed her whole life. After that first meeting, every summer, Nora, her brother Wesley and their friend Rand and Grace spent their time there, trading truths and lies, spending time with each other, leaving behind their real lives, falling in love, trusting one other, pushing each other too far and getting to know each other better than anyone else could have.
But two years later something destroyed them. Grace is missing and Nora must understand what exactly happned to Grace, unspooling lies and betrayals and half truths of the past two years, in order to get back to Wesley and Rand and their own lives.

Who we were in the dark is a brilliant story, a wonderful thriller, set in an evocative and atmospheric setting and truly unmissable. I was hooked from the very start, feeling involved in the story, with the shy and lonely Nora, her bother, her friends, following them growing up, trusting, helping, supporting and loving one other, between secrets, betrayals and mysteries.
Character-driven story, this book is magnificent, written so beautifully, it's impossible not to feel like you're there with them, especially with Nora, who wants to know the truth about Grace, the girl she thought she knew. Tense, addictive and thrilling, this book is phenomenal and truly recommended.
You will inhale it!

Nora and her brother and friends reunite at Donner Lake at Spring Break. It’s a place for them to escape and hang. Nora met Grace and her life has changed, but this year Grace is missing and Nora wants answers.

This was a quick read that I enjoyed. A little perfect summer thriller. The synopsis and premise grabbed me, but I felt the story lacked some and I was left wanting more. The characters were a bit flat in build up for me. All in al, I enjoyed the concept, but execution failed.

Overall this was a god mystery book. I enjoyed it. I rated it 3 stars because I do not think I will read it again. But I did like it.

I went to Goodreads to grab the book info for this post, and I see this book getting positively lambasted, and I don't really know why? I mean, I get that everyone has opinions obviously, but I am here to provide you with a different one, because I really liked this book!

We first meet Nora and her brother Wesley when they are quite young, Nora not even in high school if memory serves. They've been told their whole lives that their biological dad was dead, only surprise, he's not. And he wants to hang out! He has a family cabin at Donner Lake, which is obviously cool, but Nora is understandably hesitant. Her mom is in poor health, and she certainly doesn't trust this father that was suddenly thrown into the picture. But since she's like fourteen, she has no choice.

While she and Wesley are there, they meet Grace and Rand. We know from the start that something has happened to disrupt this foursome, since they are no longer the happy group they once were. At the present, Nora, Wesley, and Rand are cold to each other, but accounted for. Grace, however, is not.

So we switch between the past summers and winters and springs that the group had spent together, and the present time when they are seemingly fractured beyond repair. There are several mysteries happening, though. The obvious being Grace's whereabouts, but the less obvious being what happened over the past few years that lead to this once close-knit group to now be unable to stand the sight of each other. Also, what has lead to the point where Nora is packing up their cabin, never to return?

While I found the book a bit slow to start, I became really invested in the story once it did get started. Grace's actions were so off the wall from the beginning, that I figured it would be even more difficult to discern when or how things went off the rails. Grace was always trying to be a little... extra, for lack of a better word, but her intentions seemed to be for the benefit of her friends, always. So yeah, I did find myself really invested in the outcome of all of the stories.

And all the while Nora is focusing on the big mysteries around her, she is coping with a lot in her own life. Her first love, her mother's illness, having a father appear in her life, and her ever changing relationship with her brother all play huge roles in the story. Also, I'm legit never going to turn down Donner lore being part of a story, so added bonus there.

Bottom Line: I became quite invested in all of the mysteries of this story, both the huge and the subtle, and the growth and changes all its characters underwent.