This book was a disappointment. I was really drawn to the plot (I love dark academia) but it didn’t go in the direction I thought it would and found the ending tone anti-climactic.

I had such high hopes for this one...dark academia, one of my favorite tropes; a mysterious boarding school, and a dead student. However, the mystery of the dead student came secondary to the mystery of psychiatrist Dr. Madeline Pine. Dr. Pine has been through difficult cases before, so she hesitates when she's asked to help investigate. But when she sees the photos of Charley Ridley, barefoot and in pajamas at the bottom of a ravine in freezing temperatures, she decides she must go.

It soon becomes clear that something is very wrong with Dr. Pine. There were numerous descriptions of her medication bottles and frequent references to sticking to a schedule. We gets bits and pieces of her past through frenetic flashbacks that usually involve her husband and daughter. I found myself rolling my eyes frequently at the doctor's behavior, which was not at all professional, but when strange things started happening in the room where she was staying, it wasn't hard to figure out what that meant. The ending of her storyline, however, was quite unexpected and shocking.

I was hoping for a twisty mystery focusing on Charley, but she remained on the fringe of the book's focus, and the mystery behind her death was wholly unsatisfying and anti-climactic. I liked the book well enough to keep reading, and while I did enjoy the writing style, I just felt misled by the blurb.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mira Publishing for the advance copy. THE NIGHT IT ENDED will publish June 27, 2023.

Placeholder. Will update when the Harper Collins union new contract is finalized. Thank you again to the publisher for the copy.

Dr. Madeline Pine is a successful criminal psychiatrist who specializes in female violence. When she receives a call to help with the investigation of a death at a private boarding school for troubled girls, she hesitates. She worked a terrible case the year before, and her mental health suffered because of it. But, when she learns more about the victim, Charley, she can’t say no. Charley was so close in age to her own daughter. Dr. Pine knows that if this had happened to her daughter, she would want answers. But nothing is quite the way it seems at Shadow Hunt Hall, and everyone has secrets…

I always enjoy a boarding school setting, and this book was no different. I loved the atmosphere, the flashbacks to the year before in the form of the audio scripts, and the unreliable narrator. Although I felt like the middle dragged (the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars), the ending had so many twists! It’s hard to surprise me, but this book did.. multiple times!

Thank you to HTP books/MIRA books & NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.