e-Audio, 09:04:46
Narrated by: Julie Lumsden
Release Date: September 3, 2024
Published by: Heartdrum
Read from: September 6-9, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Audible (I received a copy of an ARC of this from the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Animal Death, Body Horror, Child Death
For Readers Interested In: Horror, Mystery, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Indigenous- Mohawk), YAIn this debut YA horror novel by Cheryl Isaacs (Mohawk), small-town athlete Avery is haunted by the black water and Unfinished beings of Kanyen’kehá:ka stories and must turn to the culture she hasn’t felt connected to in order to save her town.
The black water has been waiting. Watching. Hungry for the souls it needs to survive.
When small-town athlete Avery’s morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople of Crook’s Falls have long forgotten.
Avery can smell the water, see it flooding everywhere; she thinks she’s losing her mind. And as the black water haunts Avery—taking a new form each time—people in town begin to go missing.
Though Avery had heard whispers of monsters from her Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) relatives, she’s never really connected to her Indigenous culture or understood the stories. But the Elders she has distanced herself from now may have the answers she needs.
When Key, her best friend and longtime crush, is the next to disappear, Avery is faced with a choice: listen to the Kanyen’kehá:ka and save the town but lose her friend forever…or listen to her heart and risk everything to get Key back.
In her stunning debut, Cheryl Isaacs pulls the reader down into an unsettling tale of monsters, mystery, and secrets that refuse to stay submerged.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I heard about this book and it immediately became one of my most anticipated books. I think I bought this in two different formats because I was so excited. And even though I didn’t give it what I thought I would, it still didn’t disappoint.
Hands down the best part of this book was the spooky bits. I’m usually not a huge fan of horror books with water because there’s just too much unknown in those areas. Like the deep,deep water where no one can go? Yeah that scares me. But this one isn’t exactly about that, so it wasn’t all bad. In this one the main character finds a pond of Black water on her run. This water just so happens to be a thing that’s being talked about in her hometown and there’s so many different rumors surrounding it. Including the fact that there are people going missing because of this pond. Now this water ends up showing up at the weirdest places and it’s always only visible only to her, which makes this all the more creepy. I thought the creepy was done really well, but I DO wish the creepy had something to do with the Indigenous/Mohawk culture. But alas, that wasn’t the part of the book that the culture influenced. (According to her author’s note at the end.)
The other part of the spooky was the shadow people thingies. They were weird af! I’m not going to lie I wish we had more descriptors about them because just thinking that they looked like the people they kidnapped was creeping me out.
The main character was the goat tho. The things she did was crazy! I think I would have left them there a couple of times lol But she was a bad ass and took care of things each and every time. Idk if that means bad ass or just crazy, but yeah, here we are. I did feel bad for her never feeling comfortable in her skin with her heritage tho. No one should ever feel like they don’t belong or they don’t deserve to know something about their heritage. It wasn’t ok. Especially as a teen, she was still learning about herself. She deserved to know about that part of her too.
I don’t want to talk about the romance because I think it might include spoilers, but you’ll understand as soon as you read it. It’s actually really sweet. Idk how she was able to keep it all together. But I mean I get it. If this was my husband, I would also be doing the things she did when trying to keep him safe.
There were some things I was disappointed by in this one, but for the most part I really enjoyed it. Enough to put it on the list for my Tournament of Books 2025 picks. Definitely enough to be creepy, something to teach them about a culture other than their own, and a really good story to boot!
Overall, I give this
