"Drowning in the Dark" by Allison Karras

From Goodreads: "There’s a demon walking the streets of Freeport. And only teenager Samantha Carver can stop it.

It’s hard to outrun your past. But that’s what Sam thought she could do. After moving to a sleepy town on the Oregon coast to live with relatives, she thought she was safe. She thought she could be someone different. She thought she could be a normal teenage girl.

However, the quiet coastal town of Freeport is no refuge. After a girl at the high school is brutally murdered, the police believe Samantha’s cousin and best friend, Terry, is responsible.

But Samantha knows what her friends, teachers, and the police don’t. The murderer isn’t human. Samantha has seen this before. Too many times. She has witnessed the dead rise from their graves and do unspeakable things. She carries the scars on her skin and the sorrow in her soul to prove it.

The evil that she thought she had left behind in the rotting graveyards of her past is still stalking her.

Will Samantha be able to save Terry, Freeport, and herself from the malevolent power that threatens to rip her world apart? Or will she succumb under a surging tide of evil and drown in the growing darkness that surrounds her?

In the tradition of Amanda Hocking and Charlaine Harris comes a paranormal romantic thriller with more chills than a cold and windblown night on the Oregon coast."

The first thing I noticed about this book was that it was a mere sixty or so pages long. As such, I felt similarly to how I did prior to reading Jools Sinclair's book "44" (which was only around 79 pages or so), that due to the length of the book the plot would be rushed, that there would be lack of character development and so forth, however, as I began reading the book those worries soon dissipated as the fantastically developed characters and plot emerged.

Samantha was such a dynamic and realistic character that the reader could really relate to. She was (almost) always an extremely selfless individual, protecting those around her (especially her loved ones) was her top priority. Terry was a quite a surprising character to me, so much surrounding him I wouldn't have guessed in a million years (ie. his reaction to finding out a character had died and so forth). The character that I am hands down the most intrigued by is Shane (Errrr... Kinda Shane)- I really want to know what his back story is!

My only real complaint about this book was the lack of romance (but then I remember that when your life as you know it is seriously blowing up before your eyes, romance is most likely the last thing on your mind). There were a few times here and there in the book when it seemed like things between two of the characters may have headed in that direction, only to take a sharp turn in the opposite direction.

All in all this is a great book for fans of Jana Oliver’s “The Demon Trapper’s Daughter” and Lili St. Crow’s “Strange Angels” series! The fast pace of the book will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time while reading it, making it a quick read and making you hunger for a sequel!

Rating: 8.5/10

I received this book from the author to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.