The Dark Beneath the Ice by Amelinda Bérubé

TITLE: The Dark Beneath the Ice

BY: Amelinda Bérubé

GENRE: Young Adult, Paranormal, LGBTQIA, Psychological, Horror

PUBLICATION: August 7th 2018 by Sourcebooks Fire

RATING: 

Marianne‘s life is falling apart. Her parents are getting divorce and her mother checked herself in a hospital. Her bestfriend Ingrid’s family moved to different town. And then there’s this someone trying to drown her beneath the icy river that all started in her dreams nightmares but then things begun breaking around her and unusual things started happening that she can’t even remember a thing about. But then, life had always been different ever since she quit dancing.

The story opens with Marianne’s mother taking her to her Aunt Jen’s to stay for a while  and right then I’m intrigued. I thought the writing is a little poetic and really mysterious. Though the opening scene is a little cliche, a car ride with our main protagonist obviously having a hard time and reminiscing a once perfect joyous times with her family. It was really eerie specially with Marianne talking about something that happened the night before. I was intrigued and thought this is exactly what I was expecting when I saw that beautiful, spooky cover on Netgalley. In short, the book started really well and very promising.

But as I read through, everything changes. Or at least how I see the story is not as eerie as it was at the beginning. I found myself just reading not really hundred percent interested on what’s happening rather just reading to know the ending. It’s not really uninteresting, it was just slightly mediocre. Everything was mediocre. The writing became less poetic and mysterious. The plot became a little obvious. The drowning-and-dark thing she experiences became less interesting.

This one is advertised as Black Swan meets Paranormal. BUT Black Swan and Paranormal are such incredible movies, they’re too hard to equal. I mean Black Swan is phenomenal and Paranormal  is really spooky. If you’re going to read this book thinking you’ll get the same experience when you watched those movies, ahm, you’ll be disappointed. Sure the vibe is there. The reason why I even said the plot became a little obvious is  because of Black Swan. But the entire experience is really different. Sorry.

I love how unreliable as a narrator Marianne is. I love unreliable narrators in general. They make suspense and mystery more suspenseful and mysterious. hehe. But overall, as a character, she’s a little weak.(Okay, she has to be vulnerable because of the plot but till the end she’s very needy) I actually like Rhiannon more. Her character is more defined and thankfully she’s a big part of the  story.

The ending is okay, I guess. But it’s not as grand as I wanted it to be. I guess I wanted it to be more than it was. Though I really like  what the author wanted to show. It was an amazing concept and really interesting. And because of that, I look forward to this author’s works. This is her debut novel, btw.

Tell me what you think about this novel if you’ve read it. Or is it on your TBR?

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