I ran across Britney Lewis’ IG a while back. She’s written a book, Blood Moon, coming out May 2025, that she rage-wrote for revenge of the mistreatment of Bonnie’s The Vampire Diaries character. When I saw a clip that said that, I knew this was a writer to follow.

So, this is one of her backlist titles. It’s a YA horror/fantasy/romance. I really enjoyed it. The main character feels right- a teen girl who has been through significant trauma and now is being randomly pulled into The Dark Place forcing her to relive the worst night of her life.

We begin the story right after she disappeared in front of family and friends and then reappeared later. This obviously was upsetting to the family and to Hylee, our main character. She’s sent to live with her paternal grandmother as her parents aren’t sure what to do with a kid who disappears. Does Grandmommy? I guess we’ll find out.

So, now she’s dealing with past trauma, current trauma, and a new school. Good lord.

She does meet a new friend (and potentially more) at a party soon after she arrives in town. Eilam sees her disappear and doesn’t get weirded out. Instead, he checks in with her and makes sure she’s ok. How refreshing!

They pair up to figure out what’s happening to Hylee and why and maybe if it can be controlled.

I was invested in the mystery of what happened that night and in the relationship developing between Eilam and Hylee. Good story and I’ll definitely be reading her other available title, The Undead Truth of Us, and eagerly anticipating Blood Moon.

#yabooks #youngadultbooks #yahorror #yafantasy #yaromance #bipoc #bipocbooks #libby #libraries #bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram #britneyslewis #thedarkplace