Mini Review: The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee
What: The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee
Who: Zando – Gillian Flynn Books
When: August 13th 2024
How: A copy of this novel was provided by Zando for review.
From Gillian Flynn Books, a lyrical YA horror by debut author Wen-yi Lee that’s perfect for fans of She Is a Haunting, Stephen King’s IT, and The Haunting of Hill House.
Art student Isadora Chang swore never to return to Slater. Growing up, Isa never felt at ease in the repressive former mining town, even before she realized she was bisexual—but after the deaths of two of her childhood friends, Slater went from feeling claustrophobic to suffocating. Isa took off before the town could swallow her, too, even though it meant leaving behind everything she knew, including her last surviving friend Mason.
When Isa’s abusive father kicks the bucket, she agrees to come back just long enough to collect the inheritance. But then Mason, son of the local medium, turns up at the cemetery with a revelation and a plea: their friends were murdered by a supernatural entity, and he needs Isa to help stop the evil—before it takes anyone else.
When Isa begins to hear strange songs on the wind, and eerie artwork fills her sketchbook that she can’t recall drawing, she’s forced to stop running and confront her past. Because something is waiting in the shadows of Slater’s valleys, something that feeds on the pain and heartbreak of its children. Whatever it is, it knows Isa’s back… and it won’t let her escape twice.
The Dark We Know is a YA horror with a bisexual Chinese American main character. The blurb reeled me in so fast because it mentioned things I love reading about like supernatural entities, creepy small towns, murder, and queerness. Add the forest cover in and it was a must-read for me.
Unfortunately The Dark We Know didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I still enjoyed it overall so it wasn’t a complete bust but I didn’t fall in love with it the way I thought I would with all those elements on its side.
I think one of the reasons why The Dark We Know didn’t click with me completely is because the dark entity just confused me. I tried to make it make sense, I really did, but after reading the whole book I’m still confused. Keep in mind though that I read an ARC so this might have been cleared up in the final copy! But as I read it, I was one big question mark regarding this element.
One of the things I did like about the book was the queerness of so many of the characters. I was living for it!! Queer teens really do find each other a lot of the time, and I love to see it on page like this.
Overall, the creepiness of literally everything in the town from the parents to the history to the church and everything in between did give me the horror vibes I was looking for when I picked up The Dark We Know.
“We are the creatures of the forest. We are the strange things in the dark.”
© 2024, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.
trigger warning suicidal ideation & suicide, grief and depression, references to self-harm, pregnancy scare anxiety (side character/not main plot), domestic abuse, body horror, religious trauma (provided by the author), as well as misgendering and animal death/cruelty recounted
