We Ate the Dark Audiobook By Mallory Pearson cover art

We Ate the Dark

A Novel

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We Ate the Dark

By: Mallory Pearson
Narrated by: Alaska Jackson
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Four women investigating the haunting murder of their friend discover more than they ever imagined in a terrifying novel about good and evil, love and death, and the spaces between.

Five years after Sofia Lyon disappeared, her remains are found stuffed into the hollow of a tree bursting through the floorboards of an abandoned house in the woods. The women who loved her flock home to the North Carolina hills to face their grief.

Frankie, Sofia’s twin, is in furious mourning. Poppy is heartbroken. Cass has never felt more homesick. And Marya knows something the rest of them don’t. Determined to find Sofia’s murderer, they share more than a need to see justice done for their friend. Each woman is haunted, bound to the next by something both cruel and kind, and now stalked by a shadowy presence they’ve yet to understand. Only to question, and to fear.

As Sofia’s secrets unravel, so do those of the woods, and the women soon realize that Sofia might not be who they thought she was at all. And that whoever—or whatever—killed her is coming after them.

©2024 by Mallory Pearson. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Ghosts Horror Scary Heartfelt

Critic reviews

“With stunning prose, Pearson draws readers into the lives of her characters and weaves a horror-esque fantasy tale.”—Library Journal

“The two story lines wind and twist and eventually connect in this leisurely paced, lyrically written paean to the power of friendship and chosen family.”—Booklist

“We Ate the Dark is a gripping tale of friendship and grief and the real and imagined ghosts from the past that come to haunt us. Deliciously queer and wildly Southern, this book had me turning pages fast, lost in its poetic language, immersed in the lush landscape, holding my breath in anticipation. Mallory Pearson has written a stunning debut filled with sentences that continued to surprise me with their beauty and generosity until the very last page.”—Genevieve Hudson, author of Boys of Alabama and Pretend We Live Here
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I am unable to review the story because I had to stop listening, so please know this is not a review of the story or author. The narrator is terribly flat and delivers everything with the same monotone voice so that you don't even realize you stopped listening. It feels like she's reading a bedtime story, which is not what I was expecting or wanting after reading the premise. Definitely try this if you are wanting to fall asleep, otherwise pick something else.

Needs a different narrator

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The story line of this book was really good. I disliked how descriptive the author was in almost every scene. It made the story hard to follow.

Confusing

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The writing style is beautiful, but the story itself seemed to drag on until the last 8 chapters.

Sloooow

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Nowhere in the summary did it say anything about witches! I loathe anything with witches and demons and monsters. Made it an almost 2 hours, but I can't take anymore spells and curses nonsense.

Gave Up

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I really enjoyed this book but I did NOT enjoy the Audible version. For the first time ever I stopped listening and found a way to just read the book. I can't see up close anymore which has really sucked but I can still see far away so I read the Kindle version on my TV.
The narrator is just bad. I lost interest almost immediately listening but reading it, I couldn't stop. Great story, horrible narrator.

I had to stop listening

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I am unable to give this story a fair review because I could not stay interested or focused listening to the very low monotone voice of the narrator. It literally depressed me. If I try again successfully, I may re-write my review.

Monotone Narrator

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Gonna start by first praising the narrator for doing a great job and bring the story to life. I liked most of the main cast of characters and how they were imperfect. Unfortunately halfway through the lack of any true growth from the characters and their flaws grew to be irritating. One second they felt like they'd be moving toward being better but than reverted back to exactly how they were at the beginning. The mystery was interesting but ultimately stalled out and stopped shocking me. The lacking of any true conclusion was the ultimate cap to this frustrating experience. Many parts of this book I enjoyed but I don't think I could recommend with how the ending is a cliffhanger.

Hard to like

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I have listened to hundreds of books via Audible….and I typically do not leave a review. I thought I would try something different and the premise of this story sounded promising! The narrator was soooo drabby and monotone that it was sooooo tedious to listen to. Maybe the story would have seem more interesting had there been some inflection in the speaking tone? Plus it ends on a cliffhanger…but I will NOT be reading anything else by this author, unfortunately.

Monotone

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I understand the criticism, but this was worth the experience. So long as you prepare yourself for slowly developing story (almost like a slow-burn), then you can really enjoy this hauntingly tender sapphic tragedy. What starts as a missing girl in a small town grows into multi-perspective journey into love and ✨witchcraft✨! The narrator does a great job embodying the different voices and personalities of each girl. However, the POV switches mid-chapter and mid-paragraph, so the audiobook was a challenge to follow along. I was still happy to read it.

Five years ago, Sophia Lyon went missing. In her absence, her tight-knit family falls apart. Her friends flee town, go to college and her twin sister Frankie is left behind. But everyone is brought back to town when Sophia's body is found buried in the hollow of a tree. Chapter by chapter you uncover what has happened between the girls over the past years and piece together what Sophia was up to before her death. But there's more going on than your average disappearance because the Lyon women are witches.

I loved how the story evolves as Frankie's belief in witchcraft grows. She always thought the spells and trinkets her mother made was a quirk, a personal path. But Sofia leaned in and apparently she excelled in her family gifts. Once you realize that ALL of the female characters are queer (5%), the story really opens up. It beautifully explores grief, loss, anger and love. "No one loves like a girl."

I understand the criticism but it was worthwhile

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I liked the narrator. The overall story was meh. I didn’t like how every single scene was SEVERELY over described. Sometimes it felt like the descriptions took you off track so far you had to try to remember what she was talking about in the first place and thankfully she’d eventually loop back around. This was the wordiest book I’ve ever listened to or read! If I was reading it I wouldn’t have finished it. I was only able to stick with it because I was painting and doing yard work. I regret sticking it out because every single character was left unresolved except the missing girl. That’s really annoying. Less descriptive tangents and more resolution would have been great. The synopsis isn’t good and doesn’t mention that it’s a lot of witchcraft and that’s not my thing.

SOOOOO Unnecessarily Wordy!

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