Thank you NetGalley for an ARC for my honest opinion!

When I read the synopsis of this book, I was so excited. It seemed like a classic thriller YA story with a twist.

Three sentence summary:
Sam Hall and his friends visit an abandoned hut in the woods that they call "the Dark Place". When they visit this special place they hold "funerals" for their secrets and do not tell anyone else these secrets - not even each other. Now, someone is using these secrets and blackmailing them - who can they trust and who is watching them?

I thought this book was a good YA thriller. It took me a few chapters to get really into this book but the chapters were short and quick which kept me powering through. I thought Sam was the most flushed out character but I wish we could've known more about the other friends that visited the Dark Place with him. It was hard to understand the importance of their secrets and also just their overall relationship with Sam. I do think their secrets were not super awful but I can see why as a teenager it would feel terrifying to have these secrets revealed as they would feel like a much bigger deal.

The plot twist was interesting and the last half of the book was definitely better than the first half. I would be interested in reading more stories by this author and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes YA thriller novels especially as it comes out in September!

This was an interesting thriller.  I liked the premise of a "Dark Place" to spill secrets.  I also liked the exploration of the main characters personalities and secrets.  Things were revealed at the appropriate time and it was well done.  There were some really interesting characters.  However, I ended up not super loving the villain's motivation.  Overall, I had a pretty fun time with this story.  This was one of my eARCs from NetGalley, so thanks to the publishers for this opportunity.

3.5/5 stars! I've read other books by Vincent Ralph and enjoyed them, so I was excited to read this YA thriller. The pacing of this book was great. It was a quick read and the twists fit the story. The issue was that the characters felt really two dimensional so I didn't really care what happened to them. But a quick YA thriller with good twists and turns.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

This story was interesting, but it was missing something that I can’t quite put my finger on. It did get better once the big twist was revealed, but even that didn’t end on a great note. Still, it was worth reading, but I wouldn’t read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

this book was very slow to begin--after the first chapter or twpo, I wasn't sure that I'd make it through this one. Thankfully, it picked up. Secrets whispered into the wind, blackmail, and lots of twists and turns. Readers who like a good mystery will have fun trying to figure this one out, as long as they can hang in there.

Everyone had secrets, including Sam and his friends, so every year on Halloween, they ventured into the Dark Place to unburden themselves of their pasts. When the truth comes to light, they'll find themselves questioning their friendships, but sometimes it's not your secrets that will come back to haunt you.

I was not expecting the plot twist, and I really want there to be a future sequel following Sam's new quest. Either way, it's a great story and will forever be a fall read for me.

I have read other books by this author. I did enjoy this book and the concept of telling your secrets to a dark place. I wanted to know everyone’s secrets through the whole book and did not expect the ending.

Every Halloween Sam and a group of friends go into the woods and bury their secrets they want no one to know. But what happens when their secrets start to haunt them.

I honestly thought this was going to be a very predictable read but there was some twists and turns I really wasn't expecting (but I few I figured out right away.

The ending left be a little confused but over all a good read.

3.75 stars

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Sam Hall and a few close friends have been holding funerals for their secrets in an old hut abandoned by one of their moms. It’s in the woods and they call it the Dark Place. It has been freeing for Sam, a former child star, who has a lot of worries. Or it seems as if he does, but then they are teenagers and all of their actions seem more important than they are.

This year when they enter the hut under cover of darkness on Halloween, someone else is there. Unseen, but not unheard.

Are their secrets coming to life to haunt them? Or is this a game someone else is playing?

When they all begin receiving cryptic texts which become threatening, someone needs to come clean before this gets out of hand.

As much as I enjoyed the story concept, the characters left me unimpressed. Such angst they had but I couldn’t have cared less.

NetGalley/ September 26, 2023, St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday

Oh my gosh, this book is soooooooo good.

The story as so unique and original, the plotting was superb and the characterizations were excellent. But without doubt, the best part was the dialogue; it was realistic, hilarious and spot on. It made reading this corker so, so enjoyable.

I gobbled this up in a day. I couldn't put it down!

This book was so good! I didn’t want to put it down, and I completely loved the characters and all of the secrets that they held. I love the multi generational aspect, and how detailed but not over done everything wise. This was a wonderful story, and it kept me guessing to the very end! I would love to see a follow up to this book to know what happens next, I felt like the author left potential for more in a series. I promptly signed up for his email list, because this book was absolutely phenomenal!

3.5 rounded up
Fast paced story with relatable characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me, It has such a great premise. I also loved the whole back story for the main character Sam and how he was a child star that had a bad experience. After that it just wasn't my cup of tea. The other characters felt forced like there was a quota to fill. I hope to check out other books by the author in the future. Thanks to NetGalley for the gifted copy.

thank you netgalley for the advanced readers copy!!! :)

Vincent Ralph does it again. I read 14 Ways To Die a couple months ago and was in awe so I was so eager to read this one. I just love his writing style! This is definitely a book you can read in one sitting because you’re always left at the end of each chapter wanting more! The characters were enjoyable and I really loved the eeriness/spookiness of this one too! Sometimes I forgot I was reading a YA book. Definitely a book I will be recommending!!!

I enjoyed the book but the ending was confusing. I still have no idea who did what to who. All in all I was lost and thus ruining my experience overall.

A classic story of revenge. I liked that the main character was male, I don’t read enough of those. I liked the familiar comfort of having a little bit of an idea of what happened next but I was still shocked when all was said and done. I like being a gullible reader.

Pretty fun, although predictable and tropey at times. Still, this had all the things I like in young adult thrillers: secrets and mysteries, good pacing, easy writing style. I could recommend this to other readers.

This was a really good YA book. I found this to be a quick read for me. I was invested from beginning to end. There are a few twist and turns that will make you think omg I didn't see that coming. I would definitely recommend this book for someone wanting a good YA mystery and thriller.


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for allowing me to read this ARC in advance for my honest opinion.

While it took me a few chapters to get into the book, things quickly pick up and every time I thought I knew what was happening, I was wrong - which kept me reading and on my toes. I enjoyed the way that the author wrote the characters and the way they responded to certain things was believable for their age. I have to admit, certain parts of this book had my heart racing more than I anticipated.

Well, I had hoped to enjoy this book as much as "14 Ways to Die" or "Lock the Doors," but unfortunately, I did not.

Don’t get me wrong; the action-packed pacing, short chapters, quick start, increasing tension, and minor and major twists are still strengths of this book. I finished it in one sitting. The last quarter, in particular, was extremely exciting. However, I found the entire cast of characters to be one-dimensional, and the secrets they carried were not earth-shattering enough to serve as blackmail material.

The backstory of Samuel, the child star, was a great choice, but the execution of the story didn’t provide enough emotional depth to his character. We read about the situations, but we don’t sense how those incidents shaped the character’s personality. The author also kept us in the dark about the other characters. Dom is a privileged, bullying, pretentious one, but we don’t know much about what made him act that way. There was also not enough material for us to understand the romance between Elisha and Sam. Until the second half, we don’t know much about Elisha or her family issues. Harran was also portrayed as a queer poor boy and Sam's best friend, but we didn’t get much information about the character’s attributes.

I only liked the prodigy kid, Molly, but even she was a little exaggeratedly portrayed: she read minds and had artistic photographic skills at the age of five!

The plotline is interesting. Sam, Harran, Elisha, Laureen (Dom’s college student sister, queer, and that’s all we may learn about her character) and Dom gather around the woods every Halloween to make confessions at their sacred place, which they call "Dark Place." But when they conduct their ritual, they realize somebody threw eggshells filled with blood to their place, and the very next day, they start getting text messages from a person called Sasha Craven, who already knows their secrets and starts blackmailing them. They should find her identity before she ruins each of their lives.

Overall, as I mentioned before, the pacing, twists, and eerie ending of the book were the best things I enjoyed, but I couldn’t connect with the characters, and I wish the secrets they kept were more life-changing (especially Sam’s secret) to serve the entire mystery better.

I loved the author's previous works a little more. I am still looking forward to reading his next work and keeping my fingers crossed that I will enjoy it more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for sharing this digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.