Book Review: The Dark Beneath the Ice by Amelinda Bérubé

It took The Dark Beneath the Ice a while to get going, but once it did, it brought all the chills.

Marianne's life is falling apart.  Her mother and father are splitting up, her mother has been hospitalized, and she must go live with her aunt.  Additionally, Marianne is having weird dreamlike episodes where she feels she's being dragged under the water.  And she's breaking things during lapses of consciousness. These episodes are getting worse and worse.

She makes a new friend, Rhiannon (Ron), whose mother is a psychic.  When she finally convinces Ron's mother to help her get rid of what is after her, she only makes things worse.  Now Marianne feels like everyone she loves or cares about is in danger.  The creature tells her she's stolen something and wants her to give it back, but Marianne has no idea what it wants.

I liked that Marianne has a support system, and she does get counseling.  She's pretty honest with the counselor too. The tension during the second half of the book is palpable at times and genuinely creepy. It just takes too long to get to this part.  The back story and setup is drawn out and a bit too detailed.

However, fans of creepiness will enjoy The Dark Beneath the Ice. I was not surprised by the ending, but that doesn't really matter if you just want to feel the thrills and chills.

Published by Sourcebooks Fire, August 7, 2018
ARC Copy obtained from School Library Connection Magazine
327 pages

Rating: 4/5

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Book review: Possession: Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano

Possession fell flat for me. While haunting, it fails to step-up the tension which makes it seem slow and repetitive.

The story is narrated by Laetitia, first as she writes entries in her very popular blog, then as she changes those posting to private.  She had lofty ambitions to be a famous singer, but all that changes as she loses her singing voice and begins to have very realistic dreams about being tortured in which she actually feels the pain. She begins vomiting up weird things. These same symptoms happen over and over which makes the story drag.  She stews about what's wrong with her for a long time before we ever see any action towards figuring out what is happening. Although Laetitia has serious problems, they don’t seem to progress or get any worse until the very end.

There is a side story about the trial of a police officer for shooting a black teen that doesn’t add anything. There are several bits of the story that seem just thrown in and not fully explored. There's a kid she has a crush on who is involved in the protesting, but all she ever does is "wonder how he is." There are two episodes where she apparently brings an animal back to life. Her friend Angela who gets mad at her in the middle of the book and suddenly appears at the end and they make up. All of this feels incomplete and therefore unnecessary. The ending, written as a very short editor’s note, was anticlimactic and so quick it didn't have any emotional impact.

There are photographs and reports from various medical and legal professionals that add an interesting element. Mom, Gramma, and Miss Pierre’s magic are the highlights of Possession. And while I found it repetitive and somewhat boring, die hard fans of stories about possessions will relate to the vivid and horrid dreams and the other gruesome symptoms Laetitia exhibits.

Possession is the second book in the Diary of a Haunting series, but it isn't necessary to have read the first book.

Published by Simon Pulse, August 30, 2016
ARC obtained from School Library Connection Magazine
340 pages

Rating: 2.5/5

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