dbguide2's Reviews (863)

This is a non-fantasy book, to my knowledge. Aka, there’s no actual vampires in the book. The book is set in New Orleans and I am a fan in believing in the extraordinary. So maybe there are actual vampires and this book just doesn’t touch upon that. Was I sad that this book didn’t have any vampires in it? Yes, I was, as I love vampires. At the same time, the book works well without the inclusion of the vampires.

By the mixed signals bit, I meant that I was confused about how much I liked this book, and why. Yes, I gave it 3 stars. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book, I did. But it was also confusing re plot. There’s the main plot, Lucy, Mina, Arthur, and Van Helsing decide to look for Harker (Lucy’s brother) as he’s disappeared. And then the plot gets all muddled? And they’re also focused on a game that’s supposedly linked with Harker’s disappearance; and while we do get to the bottom of it, I’m also perplexed. Because for me, the result/? sort of fell flat.

Poor Lucy’s trying to look for her brother but the clues they get are so bare they make a skeleton cringe. But maybe that’s how a mystery book is meant to be? I haven’t read many, so maybe they do tend to give the reader bare clues and allow the clues to be fleshed out over the course of the book. 

I loved the characters! Lucy and Mina were adorable together and I loved seeing their relationship. I loved seeing Arthur and Van Helsing interact – Van Helsing was such a fun character to read about. Even though I didn’t understand much about what he said re anthology (as he’s an anthology professor), I still enjoyed it. Which is something!

I liked reading about the app (Thrall) and also the ‘sub-app’ that they find through Thrall – which I won’t spoil for you. I would maybe use the dating app as it did sound cool? I would like to listen to their true-crime podcast (Shadowcast) though. Even though I’ve never listened or am not subscribed to any true-crime podcasts.

I was instantly drawn by the comps – Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity and immediately wanted to read the book. I wanted to get the same type of psychological horror we see happen to Natalie Portman’s character in Black Swan – that type of dreading we get from having to see the character slowly going down this path where they’re not sure what’s happening to them. With Paranormal Activity¸ I’m a fan of seeing creepy and disturbing things happening to the characters and sometimes those around them who don’t believe them (about the paranormal happenings) at first.

I like Marianne – her personality and her narration. We see enough from her point of view that we root for her from the beginning and like her early on enough. Which is a good thing because I really don’t like reading books where I don’t like the narrator. She’s also an unreliable narrator – though that’s more because she’s experiencing the strange circumstances happening around her rather than her being unreliable due to her personality.

I liked Ron and her relationship with Marianne. She believed Marianne from the beginning and helped her as much as she could. Their friendship easily melded into a sweet relationship and I really enjoyed that transition.

The first half of the book starts creating the atmosphere and showing the reader odd things that are occur around Marianne. Then it starts to escalate and the action happens more – which is exactly what I like in this genre.

Memory plays a big role in the story and Marianne’s understanding of herself and what’s happening. I always enjoy reading books where memory loss occurs. And by enjoy, I mean I like to angst over the memory loss, the character having the memory loss and now having to deal with that. And the book adds the paranormal genre and the love for this book grows.

Most of my experience with the paranormal genre comes from movies, so I did compare the storyline and the timeline of this book to paranormal movies. It worked out well and I’m impressed by how well Bérubé channeled the feeling of a horror movie into a book format. I could easily see this as a movie and I think that’s a big reason why I liked reading this so much – the easily readability of The Dark Beneath the Ice. Everything flowed well together and although it did sometimes feel like it dragged in places, the pace picked up nicely the next chapter.

Read this if you want something for Spooky month. Or if you’re looking for a sweet relationship. Maybe you’re looking for a book that reads like a movie. You’ve got that all here.