Review: We Are for the Dark

We Are for the Dark by Gretchen McNeil
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and DAW for the pre-release copy of We Are For the Dark by Gretchen McNeil. Below is my honest review.

Let's start with the pros:

Awesome setting - creepy, atmospheric, mysterious, gives that preternatural eerie feeling of dread from the start.

Good characters - the two MCs are developed and have some depth to them

Twisty plot with decent pacing

And the cons:

Predictable, unsatisfying ending

I like this author a lot, having enjoyed her YA horror/thriller TEN and absolutely loving her 2025 adult horror release They Fear Not Men in the Woods, which is an epic banger of a novel and you need to go read it immediately.

I'm glad she's branched into adult horror (get it, branched, after I just mentioned the book with "in the Woods" in the title???), and I hope she keeps going with it. But alas, this one wasn't my favorite of hers.

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3.

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Review: Blightfall

Blightfall by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Delacorte for the pre-release copy of Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson's Blightfall, book one in the new Skyward sequel series Riftwake.

This is my second BrandoSando collab book this year, and boy was this one a winner (especially compared to the other *sad face*).

I had a hard time even realizing it was mostly written by someone OTHER than Sanderson, because they worked so closely together on the previous three Skyward side tales.

I had a blast with this one. Arturo and Sadie were fun POV characters, and the remaining cast really rounded out nicely. My favorite was Suki, the kitsen xenoanthropologist who was intrigued by and trying to document every little detail. And of course, I adored the slugs. The taynix always steal the show for me, but even more so because in this book they had their own little interlude chapters!

Can't wait for more in this world, as this one set up the next phase of Skyward universe so well.

Five stars, highly recommend (but please read the first series beforehand, or you'll be massively spoiled).

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