Dark Room by Tom Becker

Dark Room by Tom Becker

When Darla and her feckless dad, Hopper, move to Saffron Hills, Darla hopes it'll be a new start for the both of them. But she stands no chance of fitting in with the image-obsesed in-crowd at her new school. Then one of her classmates is brutally killed when taking a photo of herself. A murder Darla herself predicted in a bloody vision. When more teens die in a similar fashion it appears that a serial killer is on the loose - the 'Selfie Slayer'. Darla aone is convinced that the murderer might not be flesh and blood...

Review:

(I was provided an E-Arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Dark Room was certainly an interesting one for me. I don't read much horror (that meaning I've only read one horror novel in the past three years) so I don't have much to compare this experience with. The murders were brutal which I absolutely loved. If there is one thing in horror that compels me to read/watch on it's brutal murders. The more creative, the better.

Being a mood reader, unfortunately, means that it's often hard for me to fully get into a book unless it's what I'm in the mood for and this book was the complete opposite of what I wanted so it was difficult for me to continue on. I am glad that I finished this book despite disliking the twist at the end (somehow having a character go through the transition so that they can continue their murders doesn't quite appeal to me).

The characters in this story weren't very complex. Most of them are rich, they are all completely self-absorbed (except the meek little new girl who comes into town) and they're all cruel to each other. Character development and complexity and realism is something that I find very important and I just didn't get that with Dark Room. I wish I could say that I loved this book but the truth is that aside from the beautiful murders there wasn't really anything that appealed to me. It felt a little cliche and I was slightly confused through a lot of it trying to work out if it was contemporary or supernatural. Who knows?

I will say though, that it achieved it's goal of being 'horror'. I was creeped out through a lot of it and during the last remainder of the book I had to keep looking around to ensure that I wasn't being watched.