Who We Were In The Dark by Jessica Taylor: Young Adult Thriller Review

Our review of Who We Were In The Dark by Jessica Taylor. A young adult mystery thriller with a great atmosphere and told through dual time lines.

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. This post contains affiliate links. That means we receive a small commission at no cost to you from any purchases you make through these links.

Who We Were In The Dark
by Jessica Taylor

Standalone
Released: July 05, 2022
369 Pages | ebook

read this book if you’re in the mood for

an atmospheric setting
a mystery
dual timelines

review

Man I really wanted to love this one. It had all the makings of my favorite kind of thrillers: shadowy, secluded lake setting, mysterious friends, teenagers doing sketchy things.

All that said…I had issues. A lot of it had to do with the pacing. I think a lot of those pacing problems could’ve been resolved had Taylor written the introductory chapter as it is, made us curious as to what happened those years ago, and then went chronologically through the earlier years before bringing us back to the present. I struggled to really ground myself in the story.

Not to mention Grace as a character, from the very beginning, had a lot of red flags that were frustrating as hell to have been completely ignored by Nora and Wes. The ending was also extremely underwhelming. I just expected…more.

in conclusion

I think the premise was interesting, and kept me invested enough to finish. I’d say give this one a chance if it sounds interesting to you. You may end up enjoying it more than I did! To me, though, it wasn’t particularly suspenseful so maybe don’t go into it thinking it’s a thriller.