Another creepy book perfect for Halloween
Another creepy book perfect for Halloween. I love this time of year so much but between all the ghost shows I’ve been watching, and all the horror books I’ve been reading, I’m going to need at least a short break of reading some warm and fluffy romance:) This has been a good year for YA horror and The Girls Are Never Gone is another book to add to that list. While there were other books in this category that I enjoyed more this year, this was a good, solid read that held my attention the whole way.
I’ve mentioned this before but there seems to have been more gross horror than scary horror lately. While I will happily read both genres, I’m looking more for the creepy and flat-out scary. I was happily suspired that I thought this book had a very good mix of both gross and scary. In terms of the gross, there was this slim and decay that covers everything in the book. It’s funny, the characters were constantly taking showers, and the ick was so perfectly conveyed that I could not help but want to jump into my shower as soon as I finished the book.
I liked how the scary parts were woven in with the grossness. There is the underlying fear of never knowing what to expect and even who you can really trust that messes with your head, in a good horror way. Not to mention lots of little moments that would definitely be good jumps scares, especially if this book were turned into a movie. The creepiness here will keep you on your toes. While I was not as scared as I was while reading To Break a Covenant, I purposely put this book down last night so I could read the rest today in the sunlight.
There were a few things I wasn’t crazy about which revolved around the main character. I liked her as the main character but her skepticism got old really fast. I don’t know any person that would take that long to realize something paranormal was going on. While that was annoying, that wasn’t my biggest issue. The main character was supposed to be a very experienced ghost hunter. She talked about bringing all this equipment and was going to debunk this supposed haunting for her podcast. The problem was that more than half the time she didn’t seem like she knew what she was doing. She stopped using all but the most basic tools in her arsenal and it didn’t seem to fit with this great investigator persona. I did really like all the podcast parts, but I wish there was a little more to that part like I wished there was more to the ghost investigating.
The sapphic romance was super cute. I was surprised how many times the characters got to have these small intimate moments together when they are in a middle of a horror book. Marsh handled this well and it gave this darker book some lighter moments that it needed. I believe the ages of the three main characters were 17, 18, and 19, or somewhere in that range, so Marsh was able to keep it a sweet YA romance, yet you could still tell that they had chemistry and one could even believe that they could have potential as a long term couple.
TLDR: A well-written YA horror book that was a good mix of scary and gross horror. There was a cute sapphic romance to give the book a little light, but I still would recommend reading this book with the lights on. There were a few bumps, I wish the main character was more into the ghost hunting parts, and one of the twists was easier to see coming than I had hoped, but this was still a very entertaining horror book. I also have to mention that there was an adorable service dog and some of the better Type 1 Diabetes rep I’ve read in a fiction book. I will absolutely read anything sapphic that Marsh writes in the future.
