This week’s Horror Book Review is on WE ATE THE DARK written by Mallory Pearson. This is the author’s debut book and it currently sits on the bestsellers list for Ghost Fiction and Occult Fiction.
The book was published on 1st February 2024 but was available on Amazon First Reads. The First Reads program lets readers with Prime membership have access to free ebooks in January while non-members get access to Two Kindle books for $1.99 each.
Because WE ATE THE DARK was available on Amazon First Reads, it was reviewed by customers and critics before the book was published.
We Ate The Dark was immediately bought by horror fans who were thrilled to find horror fiction among the many titles available for First Reads.
Those who read the book found it to be promising with a chilling mystery. Critics lauded the author for writing a stunning, hypnotic prose that is leisurely paced and tells a gripping tale of friendship.
However, other readers were not too thrilled with the book and found it to be wordy and over-descriptive. Many claimed to have almost put it into the DNF pile but still managed to finish it because they thought the ending would make up for the slow pace of the book.
Quick Book Review of WE ATE THE DARK
The book has an interesting premise about three friends Frankie, Poppy and Cass dealing with grief when they finally learn what happened to Sofia, Frankie’s twin.
Marya is Frankie’s employee but she has a secret that can help the friends find out what actually happened to Sofia and how she died.
The plot of the story hints at supernatural elements.
The first few chapters of the book show what happens when Alex and Tommy happen to come across an old abandoned house. It is when they find a skeleton that the truth about what happened to a girl that disappeared years ago, comes to light.
Frankie is still dealing with the grief of not knowing what happened to her sister. When she finally realizes what happens, she is broken-hearted.
It is Marya whose secrets are revealed soon. She is able to see spectres and she has seen Sofia around Frankie. Yet she does nit tell anyone about it.
The story seems to be heading towards something ominous and that is palpable throughout the prose.
However, just as the other readers claimed, the story is bogged down by the overuse of descriptive words. For every little thing, there are at least two words to describe it. The author goes to great lengths to describe every little thing and do the imagining for you rather than letting the story unfold in your mind.
Because of all the extra information thrust into the narrative, there is a tendency to skip through sentences and seek out the dialogue that you hope takes the story forward.
The only interesting character seems Marya because of the way her chapter is written. Her story, while still verbose, has a few concise sentences scattered around that keeps the story moving along.
The book clearly needed a good editor to polish and make it crisp.
We Ate the Dark is 438 pages long and hopefully the story gathers steam once the introductions are made.
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