Firstly – huge thanks to Netgalley and Brigids Gate Press for getting me a digital ARC of this one!

I’ve been a huge fan of Sarah Budd (or S.J. Budd) for a while now. She has such a devious way of crafting her stories. If you want proof, check out her pieces ‘Crowded House’ or even ‘A Bubble of Friendship Will Keep Us’ from her 2020 Demain Publishing release. Her short stories always grab you and pull you into a darkness you’d not expected.

So, when this one was announced – a full-length work – I was super excited to see what she’d created and just how dark she’d take the readers.

What I liked: The story follows four different people all going into the depths of a cave system under London during the Solstice. Each person has a ‘connection’ to the darkness that resides within, and it’s this aspect that Budd really dances with throughout as we see more layers revealed and the impact of these connections come to light.

This one reads a lot like how ‘As Above So Below’ felt. That movie was chaotic, claustrophobic and anxiety-driven, and Budd does this on each and every page. I think each reader will connect with one of the characters more than the others, but each one is done well and has their own storyline to follow, which works to give us solid POV shifts and different angles of the same events.

The action in the latter quarter was really well done and ratchetted things up another notch. Garth just might’ve been the character who goes through the biggest change from the beginning, but Cassie is a close second, especially considering the reason why she was going down below to begin with.

What I didn’t like: While I enjoyed the Folklore aspect and how Fiona played into it and all the extra bits that came with it, a part of me almost wished this was purely a story of them going into the tunnels and getting lost and having to survive.

As well, while a lot of the POV shifts work, there were a few that seemed a bit unnecessary as it does just replicate the events that immediately occurred.

Why you should buy this: Budd is such a solid and phenomenal writer. She does a wonderful job of creating characters you want to root for and have them thrown into a scenario that allowed her to tease bits and pieces before completely launching into craziness.

This one was a ton of fun and I think it’ll make a lot of folks happy!

**This review has been posted to Goodreads as well as Twitter/IG/FB and is hosted here; https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/2022/11/03/book-review-enter-the-darkness-by-sarah-budd/**