Britney did it again! This book was amazing!

The suspense and twist will keep you on the edge to keep reading. I had to find out what was going on. I did not expect the time travel and I have to say I am loving that at the moment. Hylee disappears just like her brother did but in a different way. Now Hylee tries to figure out where her brother went.

This book is so much more complex and well written. Britney is an auto-buy author for me.

5/5⭐️

Is there such a thing as cozy horror? This book is chilling but also cathartic. Its the kind of story you curl up with on a rainy day to read with a hot cup of tea. It’s an emotional contemporary experience that makes your heart ache, all while the sweet romance gives your butterflies .

But it’s also horror, the lingering kind that leaves goosebumps on your skin as you put yourself in the character’s shoes. Not only was i emotionally invested, but the story seemed to suck me into the pages. Lewis’s writing is beautiful, poetic but conversational in a way that lulled me in to easily connect with the main character Hylee.

The contemporary elements make the story slow-burn at first but the sci-fi horror elements of time travel and alternate realities creates a compelling narrative infused with a unique, poetic and contemplative voice, addressing themes of grief, loss, trauma and the growing pains of self discovery and acceptance.

A mix of contemporary coming -of -age and psychological horror with a splash of satisfying nerdy pop culture (superhero comics and time travel, yes please), Lewis has done it again. This is perfect for fans of contemporary, slow-burn, emotional rollercoasters with science fiction and horror elements.

Thank you to Disney Hyperion and Netgalley for a complimentary copy of this ebook. I am leaving a voluntary review. All thoughts and ideas expressed are my own.

(Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from NetGalley.)

I'm giving this book 3 stars - it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great. I don't think I'll recommend it to anyone however.

The summary was interesting and promised a story about "time, space, and reality," but the first half of the book was so slow and boring I had to force myself to finish it. The second half of the book was so rushed and everything happened with no explanation that it was jarring.

No one around Hylee wants to talk about what happens to her, and they instantly villainize her for something she can't control, can't explain, and can't talk about. Her only friend cuts her off, and her parents ship her away to live with her grandmother, who also will not acknowledge what happened: "...I had to live with Grandmommy because Mama and Daddy didn't know what to do with me after my sudden disappearance (and reappearance)." They treat her like a pariah despite her being a victim of what happened to her.

Beyond the gag order of her "curse," Hylee is forced to deal with the traumatic disappearance of her brother, that also no one wants to talk about, and we're left with a very confusing first half of the book where Hylee is forced into a very mundane routine where honestly nothing happens.

There's no "investigating" anything. Hylee and Eilam meet at a party and he tells her a few lines about what he knows about time travel (mostly from Marvel movies). Their relationship is so forced with very little chemistry, but Eilam is the only one who will actually talk to Hylee so of course they end up spending time together.

I wish the "dark place" would've been explored more. We're given no reason for it's existence or the strange creatures that live there or why the creatures have their horrific characters of no eyes and sewn mouths.

The ending was very sad and bittersweet, but I felt like we weren't given any time to actually feel it. There was no emotional connection before the book ended.

I wanted to like this book and thought we were going to have a nice "Corline" meets "Get Out" story, but it left a lot to be desired and didn't feel as fleshed out as it should've been.

(CONTENT WARNINGS:
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Racism )

A Must-Purchase for our high school library! Although it will shelved in Horror, 'The Dark Place' by Britney S. Lewis is so much more. A mystery, romance, realistic fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy this book will appeal to a wide audience. Lewis' ability to include current cultural references makes it timely and may lead to some students going down a rabbit hole. A heartfelt thank you to Hyperion and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Where can I even start? This was quite literally a magical journey, also a very emotional one. As soon as I opened the book I immediately fell in love with the writing style and the creepiness that captivated me: “sometimes, in the night, the house looked like it might devour every limb on our bodies and chew us into small, meaty pieces.”

Hylee is such a loveable character who just seems so real. I love a character who isn’t just this perfect cutout in a world that doesn’t reflect that. Both Hylee and her environment and the whole world of this story was set up in such a way that you were just drawn in.

In my opinion, this also featured such a beautiful depiction of love and soulmates and destiny. I’m such a hopeless romantic and it gave me hope. Not in a big gesture, over the top way, but in a way that comforted me. That lovers will find their way back to each other in any timeline. It also had such a strong sense of familial love. But it also shows the way that it can sometimes not manifest in ways that you need it and how difficult and cold that can be. I really don’t know exactly what it was about this book, but it spoke to a part of me that I often keep more under the radar.

I very much enjoyed The Dark Place, it was mysterious and dark but also had glimmers of warm hope threaded through it.

The Dark by Britney S Lewis

Thanks to Britney for gifting me a copy of her dark book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is giving Spider-man into the spider verse vibes but darker and more eerie and well, just better.

It hooks you from that first chapter and holds you in its grip.

The portrayal of Hylee is so relatable that you can’t help but like her and feel her pain at the people around her dismissing her obvious confusion and angst.

I really enjoyed the writing of this book and have seen that Britney does have a previous book out so I shall be adding that to my tbr.

Overall I enjoyed this book and would say that anyone who enjoys mild horror and/or sci-fi stories will enjoy this one!

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

The Dark Place has such a great foundation for a beautifully written book it just falls a little short. I feel like the book felt a little rush and would have better if there was more added to both of the timelines (alternative universe).

hylee’s brother disappeared nine years ago, but not like hylee disappeared recently. though her brother went missing, hylee is sure that, unlike her, he did not travel through time and space. when she does this in front of her parents and friend, her parents decide this is just too much, and send her to live with her grandmother. in her new town, she meets eilam, who she feels drawn toward. when hylee disappears in front of him, they decide to investigate the truth about time, space, and reality, as hylee is sure this is the key to finding her brother. the more they explore, though, the more hylee sees darkness in her surroundings and in herself.

i LOVED the undead truth of us, so i was very excited to pick this book up! i will definitely be reading anything else britney s. lewis writes. i loved going on this journey of grief, self-discovery, time travel, and love. being a teen is hard enough, but hylee had even more on her plate than most. i loved how all of the topics were explored and how each character/relationship was handled. i can’t wait to read more from this author!

I wouldn't consider this a horror book. It does have some creepy elements, but there is no fear inducing in the plot.

The story is about a girl, Hylee, that can disappear in certain moments. It kind of freaks people out, and she is moved in with her grandmother after a very sad incident in her family home - a house break in, where her older brother disappeared. Now everyone is festering in their sorrow and now knowing of what happened that night.

At grandmother's Hylee starts a new life of sorts. She makes new friends, and finds a boy that hides his own little secret. With his guidance, Hylee decides to find out what happened that night when her brother disappeared and figure out why The Dark Place keeps creeping in into her life.

It was very light on horror. And a lot of trying to hit on the emotional buttons. It works in some places, and not really in others. It was a fast read, but I wasn't really invested in this story. Some very important parts of the story, including the ending felt very rushed. Especially with so much build up to it.

Overall, a book for younger readers. There are great themes of not letting things fester, that talking about one's feelings and hiding secrets can and will create more problems.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for my review copy. All thoughts are my own. 3.5 rounded up.

This was an incredibly interesting premise and skillfully handles the delicate task of grieving the past while also moving towards the future. I would have loved a bit more exposition on the mechanics (i.e. time travel, the dark place) but it did not distract from the central theme and Hylee's journey.

I was so excited to read The Dark Place by Britney S. Lewis.
I enjoyed reading this YA novel. The characters were engaging and the the story was a slow-burn interesting read.
I personally thought the writing was great. Lewis, held my attention throughout and kept me turning the pages.
A very interesting time-travel story. that I thought was both intriguing and different.
Like most have said below, I do agree that this is not a horror story. I was like most of the readers kept waiting for that horror factor and it never came.
But other than that I enjoyed reading her newest novel. I am defiantly going to be checking out this authors previous titles.

I think that many YA readers will really enjoy and get into The Dark Place.
And I look forward to reading her next title.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The Dark Place is an interesting twist on time travel, and includes the idea that changing the past changes the future, in ways often impossible to predict. Hylee is 8 years old when her world is turned upside-down: in the course of a shooting in her home, her brother vanishes. No one knows what happened, and no trace of her brother is ever found. In the aftermath, her family loses their home, and Hylee loses her grounding in her life. IN an attempt to help her find herself again, her parents send her to live with her father's mother, whom Hyle calls Grandmommy, when she is 17. But instead of finding herself, she finds her ability, and another time traveler who helps her understand her ability.

This novel deals with loss, change, and adolescence, as well as family problems, especially the type of family problems that follow a tragedy. The metaphysical problems involved in time travel both highlight and compound those issues for Hylee, as she struggles to find herself while adapting to living with her Grandmommy, attending a new school, and making new friends, while trying to keep up with her family and friends from her original neighborhood about an hour away.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hylee has a traumatic experience when she is young, and her brother is missing since that day. Then one day Hylee herself goes missing, she somehow ends up in a Dark creepy world that seems to have grown around her old childhood home.

Hylee is sent to stay with her grandmother after this happens, both her parents and her friend are struggling with the fact she disappeared in front of them.

But here, Hylee meets Eilam, who also witnesses her disappearing but is not scared away by this. In fact he is keen to help Hylee understand things better.

Could controlling this strange power and using it to navigate the dark place, help Hylee fix her fractured family?

I really enjoyed this book, finished it within a 24 hour period. Only thing I did think is that the end was all wrapped up a bit quickly but otherwise a creepy keep you wanting more story.

Gave me vibes like Silent Hill or Stranger Things, with a hint of Us. Thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion of the early copy of this book, review not influenced by this

“The Dark Place” surprised me. I read the author, Britney S. Lewis, first book “The Undead Truth of Us”, and while I enjoyed her first novel I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. I don’t tend to do written reviews, my reviews are more video based but I will say for netgalley, if you liked Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why(for the high school drama) and throw in a dash of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, then you will enjoy this book. It’s a quick read, and it feels quick. Lewis really paced the book well, it does not really slow down at all.

If I had to nitpick I could, and I will do that for the video review but for this, go ahead and read it. You are going to enjoy your time spend with Hylee, the main character. you’re not going to regret it.

So, what I was expecting when I picked this book up was to read about a teenager being haunted by some sort of entity or evil dimension. What it actually is is a book about family and loss. It is also about how we process our emotions in dealing with that loss. I feel like this is becoming a theme with a lot of books lately, especially horror and paranormal books.

The Dark Place is about Hylee Williams, her relationship with her missing brother, her estranged parents, and the event that changed their lives forever. When Hylee was nine years old, her brother went missing. Did he run away or did he just disappear? That’s the question that plagues Hylee for nine years after the last time she saw her brother.

Now, what kind of character is Hylee? She’s a typical teenager going through emotional problems. She feels like no one tells her the truth because she is a child, and instead of finding someone to talk to about her emotions, like all grade-A Americans, she keeps it locked inside until she feels like she’s about to explode. She’s a very relatable character.

Her relationship with her brother is one of the highlights of this book. It’s refreshing to read about a sibling relationship that isn’t full of fights, arguing, and attitudes. Bubba is the big brother everyone should have. I just wish we would have gotten a little bit more of their relationship shown to us in the book. I felt their unique bond. I just don’t think I was as emotionally invested as I could have been.

This leads me to Hylee’s other important relationship in this book. Eilam is the nicest of nice guys, but, like Hylee, he is also full of teenage angst. The emotions were out of control! I will probably blame Hylee for this though because he only seemed emotionally out of balance in reaction to her. Otherwise, he was as cool as a cucumber. I didn’t really like his “secret”. It felt a little juvenile. Actually, Hylee’s reaction to it felt more juvenile than the actual secret. I can’t blame her though as she’s emotionally underdeveloped due to losing her best friend in Bubba. But, this just proves the point even farther that Hylee was Eilam’s catalyst to emotional shenanigans.

But, just like Hylee and Bubba’s relationship, her relationship with Eilam felt underdeveloped emotionally. I just wasn’t hooked all the way. I was dangling at the end of the rope and made the decision to stay. I didn’t feel like I needed to stay because my book-life depended on it.

The other characters in this book were underdeveloped as well. The side characters were very distant. Even Hylee’s family were shadows of the main storyline. Grandmommy was the only family member that got a small amount of personality.

The first eighty percent of this book was a gothic dream. I was fully invested in the mystery of Hylee’s situation. The climax and ending of the book took a turn I wholeheartedly expected it to take. It was predictable. But, that is not a condemnation. The ending of the storyline was satisfying, but the climax of the story felt rushed. Hylee needed to struggle just a little bit more to get her happy ending. I realize she had already been through a lot. However, she learned how to do things too quickly, and the solution to her problem fell in her lap. She got a first place prize for just showing up.

All that said, I still really enjoyed this book. It was an easy and satisfying read.

3.75 / 5


Review will post to my IG page on Wednesday August 9, 2023.

I have three major issues with this book.
1 the book has this lying throughline and to say it was handled without nuance would be an overstatement.
The books could have spent real time talking about how black families sweep trauma under the rung no matter how much it's impacting them, but it completely bailed on that (we'll get back to the parents in a sec) and instead kept trying to push this idea that people you just meet are entitled to all of you so if you don't tell someone something because you don't trust them or aren't comfortable, you're actually a bad person. And that alone was enough to make this something I could never recommend.

2 The parents. The books did acknowledge how the parent's behavior was hurting Hylee but was not only avoiding actually saying they were bad parents, but made Hylee apologize for leaving her parents neglectful home. But When things get more complicated than you're prepared for, you don't get to opt for parent lite and still get to be called a good parent. They're putting their comfort and feelings over her needs. If is was money the situation would be "I don't have the tools so I will send her to someone that has the tools and still not neglect her." this is "I don't have the tools so I'm giving her to someone else that doesn't have the tools so I don't have to be the one to try and figure this out."

3 The forced twelfth night quote and even more forced resolution for it made me hate this book
1 star

I was so excited to receive my copy of The Dark Place and while I did find the story to be intriguing, I just couldn’t fully get into it.

I really struggled with the pace of this one. There’s so many pages of quite mundane detail especially in the middle that I did find myself skim reading bits because I just didn’t find that it added anything to the story. The actual imagery was really good. I was able to picture the horror parts really well thanks to Britneys writing and I really enjoyed the thrilling parts. It just felt like there was a huge buildup and then everything happened over the last couple of pages.

I didn’t really connect to Hylee as a character. I felt sorry for her because she had such a crappy childhood after her brother goes missing. Her parents and grandmother are really quite terrible and I didn’t understand the constant “don’t talk about it” attitude from them. Like stop being neglectful already. I also didn’t really get any connection between Hylee and Eilam. They just seemed to have the time travel thing in common and then all of a sudden they like each other.

I also struggled with parts of the writing style where the inner monologue used partial sentences. “Went to the kitchen. Picked up a glass” as examples instead of “I did this etc”, it really pulled me out of the story.

Altogether the premise was really interesting but just wasn’t right for me.

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House for sending me this ARC and also for the eARC on NetGalley! This was a great YA horror!

The book follows seventeen year old Hylee whose life was changed nine years ago when a tragic incident occurred and her brother disappeared without a trace. In the present tense Hylee has moved to her Grandmother’s to finish High School because she has started “disappearing” into thin air and her parents don’t know how to cope. Whenever she disappears she lands in a dark alternate reality that replays that tragic night nine years ago over and over again and she thinks it might be the key to discovering what happened to her brother. She meets Eilam at a party and they have an instant connection, better yet, her “disappearing” doesn’t scare him. As they spend time investigating time travel and alternate universes, a beautiful romance blossoms between them.

Before I start on my review I wanted to share this weird tidbit about myself that I personally have never been able to understand and have never met anyone else who experiences this. When I dream I always go to the same “alternate universe” where everything is very similar to how it is in my real life except I have another younger sister, all the rooms are a bit wider and the layout of my hometown is slightly different. Everything is exactly as I left it when I go back to dreaming, I don’t pick up where I left off as such but I can remember experiences in this universe, I can literally walk/drive to different places in the universe and if I put something in a drawer I can find it again in another dream. There is so much I could go into with this because I’ve had 26 years of experience now but this book resonated with me in that way.

If you’re expecting an outright creepy, scary horror book, this is not it. It’s definitely creepy but the horror elements are more underlying which actually makes it more atmospheric and weird in my opinion. There are also a lot of sci fi elements to this regarding the time travel aspect of the book. I read this in one sitting, I was just compelled to turn the pages. I felt so sorry for Hylee, everyone around her seemed to be failing her and I just wanted her to experience some rest and happiness.

I really enjoyed her relationship with Eilam and the way their love literally conquered all. Bubba was such a lovely character as well and prepare to be emotional while reading this because there are both heartwarming and bleak moments. I won’t be the first to say that it’s really hard to find genuinely good YA horror books sometimes, I think YA horror gets a bad rep, but this is going on my favourites list.

Britney S. Lewis is really talented and great at weaving together a compelling and emotionally deep story. I can’t wait to see more from her! This comes out on 8th August so you can pre-order it now or grab it when it hits the shelves!

I had a really good time reading The Dark Place. It was a surprisingly fast read and I honestly didn’t want to put it down. 

Firstly, I have to say just how gorgeous this cover is. It’s definitely what drew me to the book. One of my favourite covers of the year hands down. Stunning. 

The whole premise of The Dark Place was so intriguing. I’ve really gotten into thrillers/horrors in the last year or so. This wasn’t scary, but I did really like the tenser, more horror-esque elements. It’s a great thriller, but I do think it could have upped the ante even more. 

I don’t often include quotes in reviews but I really loved this one: “If a stare was a single story, he was giving me an entire book. I wanted to highlight his paragraphs and fold his corners so I wouldn’t forget my place”. It’s incredibly poetic for a teenager to think this and honestly, I think it’s a beautiful quote. 

The difference in narration style when the story was told from younger Hylee’s perspective was done very well. She really did sound like a child and then in the rest of the book, she actually talked and processed things the way a teenager would. I feel like getting the tone right age-wise can be very difficult.

The ‘time travel’ element of The Dark Place is still a mystery to me. Is it science-based or magic? I don’t know, but I’d be happy either way. It’s such an interesting concept, I think either explanation would be good.

I have no idea if The Dark Place will be a standalone or if the author has plans for a second book, but I hope it does. I feel like there are a lot of unanswered questions and I’d love to learn more about Hylee’s power and why, giving no major spoilers, it’s different to others. 

This would be such a great read for October. It has creepy vibes (in the best way possible) but it’s also quite cosy.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this book by way of a form on the author's site, and she gave me access to a temporary ecopy via NetGalley (thanks!). This didn't influence my review in any way.

When a book promises to "investigate the truth about time, space, and reality" and involves sibling love (especially in the form of one of the siblings trying to save the other), I get super-excited. And I did get what the blurb promised in both respects...though "investigate" might be too strong a word, since we aren't given a scientific reason for the protagonist's ability to time/space/reality-travel, other than a vague "genes thing". (Then again, The Dark Place is more of a soft-sci-fi novel, and the science itself feels a bit like magic, so that's excusable). I would have liked an explanation for the dark alternate reality Hylee visits, too...but I did enjoy spending time in it and getting creeped out by the twisted version of the night her brother Bubba vanished, and I loved to watch her trying to change the past, fucking up and trying again. I also found the horror aspect and the sibling relationship to be satisfying - easily the best part of the story. Conversely, I wasn't so keen on the whole "family secret" thing - and I don't mean the one that started the chain of events culminating in Bubba's disappearance (also...Hylee's folks aren't the only ones keeping secrets for no valid reason here). The "there's a thing that runs in the family but we won't talk about it and will sweep it under the rug instead" angle has been done to death, and frankly, it never feels believable - plus, Hylee's parents' and grandmother's cold-shoulder attitude here is way over the top. Lastly, the ending feels rushed and resolves the family conflict far too easily (not to mention, for the wrong reason).

(One note about the lead's inner monologue: the abundance of verbs without the "I" subject was probably supposed to make the protagonist's "teen voice" sound more natural, but if anything, it got the opposite effect - it felt way too deliberate. Maybe I'm just a grammar purist, but it did nothing for the story IMO, either than irritate this reader...).