What an amazing story! I was gripped from the first chapter. We follow multiple characters throughout the story and how they all collide together either in the past, present or future. I really enjoyed this story and it was very well written. I will be highly recommending it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kevin Van Den Berg for allowing me to read this advanced reader copy (ARC). This will be available for purchase on July 9th.

During the entire story I kept waiting to see excerpts from the Journal of Freddie Dawson. However, this journal does not even exist or become relevant to the story until the last third of the book. But when it shows up it becomes a pivotal moment and crucial to the story, especially for Thomas and Rosemary, the main characters.

Thomas is a product of extremely unfortunate circumstances who grows up to surround himself with the wrong people which leads him to find his personal salvation, friendship, family and love. Rosemary is an innocent young woman with a crush on Charlie that finds herself thrust into the midst of a violent situation that will change her life forever. Charlie will suffer from the sins of his father and will set off an investigation that will eventually intertwine all the characters in a shocking plot twist of narration that all leads to the contents of Freddie Dawson's journal.

A shunned boy will become a hero and a loved man. An innocent flower will find strength and self-worth. A young life will end tragically. Pigs will always remain animals whether in animal or human form.

What I bought from the blurb,isn't what was sold to me in the pages I flipped.
It was quite difficult for me to comprehend or understand what I was reading anymore.
The book is titled 'The Dark Journal Of Freddie Dawson' and I thought that's what I was reading with young Thomas's troubled and appalling childhood in the first chapters but then Rosemary Manson's story comes into play and hogs about two or three chapters and with interest already lost,patience follows suit.
I honestly feel betrayed and shortchanged.

Thank you NetGalley and Yorkshire Publishing for the opportunity.

Initially I was really excited to read this book as the blurb and cover drew me but the more I read the less I was enjoying it and it just really didn't meet my expectations or make me want to keep reading on.

Thanks to Yorkshire Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC of The Dark Journal of Freddie Dawson by Kevin Van Den Berg.

The blurb sounded really intriguing so I was happy to be approved but, honestly, I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I'm not convinced this is not AI generated.

I started off really liking it. The setup was strong - the novel promised a lot hinging on the appalling treatment of a child in the wake of a horrible tragedy. The language and setting reminded me a lot of Ramsay Campbell's novels and I felt like it was inspired by that legendary author's style. However, it just went on and on and on and the weird machine-like formality of the language and the characters just got odder and odder as the book progressed. There were errors and oddities of terminology - England in the post-war years and beyond doesn't use kilometers to measure distance - they still don't. There's no such place as 'the Moorlands' and no reason not to specify where in England the action happens. The train pulls into 'London Station' - there's no such thing as London Station. A simple online search would've revealed which of the main train stations in London would've served the part of the country from which the trip was being made.

The title of the book is 'The Dark Journal of Freddie Dawson' but we don't actually encounter the journal until about two-thirds of the way through the book and, even then, it plays a minor role in the action.

There are all sorts of side stories which don't make a lot of sense and aren't really followed through.

Characters are weird, the way the speak is weird, the way they interact is weird and I don't mean in a horror/weird way - just very odd.

I've never given a one star review on here before but this time, unfortunately, I'm compelled to. I really, genuinely think that this is AI generated. I can't think of any other way this could've been produced. If there's a real author behind this I'd advise going back to scratch, take that initial idea and rework it from there, there's a better story there somewhere.

This was a interesting concept for what I was looking for and enjoyed the overall feel of the story. I do think the title could have been something else but it worked. I enjoyed the idea of this story and that the historical feel was everything that I was looking for. Kevin Van Den Berg does a interesting job in writing this and can’t wait to read more from the author.

Too long and drawn out for its own good. Was expecting to be a journal of sorts that I was reading and didn't really get that either so I was disappointed with the entire novel as a whole.