Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

I no longer have an interest in reviewing this title but would like to thank the publisher and author for the opportunity, it is now far past the publication and archive date. I have awarded 3 stars to keep this review neutral.

A great, thrilling read, which will keep you entertained throughout. A good one sitting read, get the nibbles ready, close the door, and read!

I haven't read anything by ms Engel before, but from the reviews I read on amazon now, I've been missing out. And just by judging this book, that is true. Book was such a thrilling read, that I couldn't wait to finish it, so I can start a next one of hers!

This book was such a good thriller. I enjoyed the mystery behind story and with every chapter, it had me guessing someone else. I was not expecting the ending at all and I thought the book was wrapped up in a satisfying way. The plot of this book was well thought out and the story flowed.

The book was based on a woman called Eve who was brought up in a sketchy part of town within a sketchy family. I found her mother to be very odd and I wasn't sure when to believe her. Eve only has the support from her brother as she gets thrown into this situation of her daughters murder. After having to sit through the painfully slow process of the police she decides to take matters into her own hands. She finds out a lot of information, but this information may not be as reliable as she thinks based on the people who tells her it.

The first part of the book explained the situation in a wonderful way, it was easy to know what was going on and follow the information we were given. We got to understand Eve and her brother Cal, as well as learn about Eve's daughter, Junie's life. As I got into the second part, everything was building up to working out who done it. I was literally sat on the edge of my seat while finishing this book. I could not believe the ending, it was a complete shock to me.

I loved the authors style of writing, it was very emotive, I felt sorry for Eve as she was experiencing this. I got through this book quickly due to the build up of the suspense. I would love to read more from this author.

I read and LOVED the Roanoke Girls so couldn’t wait for this one!

This was such a fantastic read, and I was hooked from the start...a good plot with lots of twists and turns, I’d defo recommend this book to my friends it was brilliant.

Good writing, a fast paced plot and well thought out characters. An enjoyable read that kept me hooked

It is surprising to encounter such an immersive experience in a title like this. Usually, short strokes build the world before pushing the shocking twist onto us. In this case, we are left to simmer.
The book begins with the crime being committed. Immediately after we meet the primary protagonist, Eve Taggert. She has clawed her way up to living a semi-decent life in comparison to the one she grew up with. It is an entirely dark book, with no lighter shades to ease the emotions. Once Eve finds herself in a future which she never expected, things progressively get more convoluted. She has always known the way life would have turned out for her if it had not been for her daughter, and this plagues her waking moments.
There is not much more that I can say except that the writing was pretty great. I was not expecting to 'enjoy' the read as much as I did, given the subject matter. I would have found the ending annoying if it wasn't for the writing that had me siding with Eve and all the people who were on her team.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

A brilliant fast paced read that will have you captured from the very first page till the last! Would absolutely recommend to anyone!

I had read a previous novel by this author which I enjoyed, so knew of her work already. I had high hopes for this one, and I was right! Brilliant, fast paced and a very engaging read.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I read and loved The Roanoke Girls and so had very high hopes for this novel and I can say that it easily exceeded them. I read this book in one sitting, I just couldn’t put it down even as it was breaking my heart. The novel follows Evie in the immediate aftermath of finding out that her daughter and her daughter’s best friend have been murdered. Evie is utterly broken by this news but she steels herself to go back to the darker parts of her community where she grew up because she wants answers. She is so angry and so hurt and I was rooting for her all the way through. There are twists and turns along the way but this is really a novel about the darkest elements of a community and how hard it is to escape. This is a gritty, dark novel but Evie is so real and I adored the writing. I recommend this one!

"The world might be changing in some places, but not here. Here it was still the same old merry-go-round of drugs and poverty and women being chewed up and spit out by men." (p. 54)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I’m hooked on Amy Engel, #TheRoanokeGirls was one of my favourite recent reads and her newest book #TheFamiliarDark has cemented her as an immediate go to author for me.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The setting is small town Missouri Ozarks, and tells of protagonist Eve’s thirst for revenge after the shocking double murder of her 12 year old daughter Janey, and her best friend Izzy.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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This is a hard book to review without spoilers. It’s so much more than your average whodunnit. Engel takes the small town murder mystery genre by the scruff of the neck and plunges it head first into a seething pot of painful raw emotion. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The book is a brutally honest social study of the fallout from these types of murders we see on television everyday. It’s raw, uncompromising and similarly to The Roanoke Girls shines a light in the face of darkness we don’t want to acknowledge. It’s about grief, it’s about revenge it’s about how society treats women and it’s about family that you can’t escape from, however hard you run. It’s so much more than your average thriller and I can highly recommend.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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A stunning, powerful, thought provoking murder mystery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The Familiar Dark follows Eve, a young mother whose 12 year old daughter is violently murdered at the beginning of the book. Eve deals with this inconceivable loss with a singular determination to find out the truth of who killed her daughter and why. It is an intense, devastating and brilliantly written thriller that at it’s core is about motherhood and the strength, but also the darkness that can be drawn from it.

This is the kind of book which almost demands to be read non-stop. I finished it in less than 48 hours because I became so involved in Eve’s reckless and dangerous search for her daughter’s killer. Eve is a fairly harsh character, who has lived through a harrowing childhood with a violent, cruel and uncompromising addict mother. However I immediately liked Eve and respected the way she created a different life for her own daughter despite still living with money problems and numerous challenges. It makes her grief for her child all the more gut-wrenching because her love for Junie is so obviously all-consuming. Her entire life is about her child and once Junie has been brutally taken from her she falls back into the darkness of her past and merciless way she was raised.

Engel writes in an incredibly atmospheric way. The small and appropriately named town of Barren Springs is completely brought to life, showing it’s harsh reality but also the love and tight sense of community that is also present. Engel writes intelligently about the class lines, drugs, judgements and also the stereotypes many people believe about places like Barren Springs. Every character is compelling and intriguingly layered. This is not a cheerful read, but it is such a human and piercing look at the limits of love and loyalty, which will find it’s way right into the mind of it’s reader and stay there.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton for a free galley in exchange for my honest review. Too many times, suspense and thrillers are wrapped up with a nice little bow at the end that leave readers with warm fuzzies despite all the wreaked havoc that has happened along the way... but not this book. The Familiar Dark is disturbing, dingy, and dirty straight out of the gate and stays true to this theme through the very end. Amy Enge's vivid prose drops us straight into the gritty poverty-stricken, drug-laden Missouri Ozarks as grieving mother, Eve, sets out on a quest for justice. As those around her begin to reveal their true nature, she realizes that there is truly no way to escape the seedy underbelly of the life she has tried to leave behind and her quest moves from justice to vengeance. This psychological thriller is quick page-turner that will keep you up late until the bitter end. I will definitely be backtracking to Amy Engel's previous thriller - The Roanoke Girls.

The Familiar Dark is very intense and gritty new novel by Amy Engel. We follow a tragic story of a grieving mother trying to find out a truth behind her daughter’s murder. Her grief is driven by the revenge and she won’t stop until she finds the killer.

As the tile suggests it’s an incredibly dark and heartbreaking story of not only losing a child but also a of traumatic childhood of our main protagonist filled with alcohol, drugs and poverty. Set up in a small town gives an additional claustrophobic atmosphere to the book that already keeps me at the edge. The book explore the complexity of dysfunctional family and difficult relationship between mother and her kids. A way the author portray Eve’s loss is very realistic and raw; her tears are replaced with anger that leads her to make some difficult choices and nothing is going to stop until she gains some closure. The reader almost feel her loss and tragedy. A huge plus for me was the sad and emotional ending which I did not expect at all.

This is a very powerful and emotional story, definitely one of the books that will stay with you for a longer time.

Hauntingly Dark And Gritty!

Taking place in the Missouri Ozarks, the story opens with a freak snowstorm in the middle of April where two savage and heartbreakingly brutal murders are taking place in an almost non-existent run down park where there will be no witnesses to these senseless crimes. The story centers around Eve Taggert a waitress and her beloved brother Cal who is a policeman and have grown up together with an abusive and drug and alcohol addicted mother and yet they still have that love, hate relationship with her no matter how hard they have tried to break their familial bonds. Eve grew up dirt poor, hard edged in extreme poverty never having enough food in her belly and knowing never to trust anyone except Cal until at the young age of seventeen her beautiful baby girl Junie was born and Eve promised herself and to Junie that she would try to put the past behnd her and give her baby girl all the love and affection that she had never known while growing up and especially she promised to always keep Junie safe. Eve kept every one of her promises until that fateful day in April when a freak snowstorm descended opon the small town where Eve lived.

This book hit me hard and deep and will stay with me for a long while. This is not a pretty story, there isn't any humor or light touches. This is a dark, gritty, slap in your face wake up call for the reality of some people and places that you choose to ignore until you read a book like this. Eve is a special woman who tried to outrun her past and did everything right but somehow fate decided against her. This book covered everything from physical and sexual abuse, addiction, adultery, extreme poverty, murder, beautiful love, hate, and anything else you can think of. Amy Engel has a gift for writing because her words just resonated to my core and many times I would find my eyes filling with tears and experiencing an ache in my heart and that doesn't happen too often, even when books are very well-written. Excellent storytelling and stellar writing. This book should not be overlooked because it will give a powerful punch.

I want to thank the publisher "Hodder and Stoughton" and Netgalley and to the fantastic author "Amy Engel" whose writing made me experience such deep emotions!

I highly recommend this haunting novel and have given a rating of 5 Darkly Emotional 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stars!

I received a free ebook version of this book through Netgalley. Thankyou to both the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this! My review is still honest.

I absolutely loved The Roanoke Girls by Engel, and was very excited to see she was coming out with a new release. This is a story that on the face of it, sounds unoriginal-a mother trying to discover who murdered her daughter in a small town setting-but Engel makes the plot feel so fresh and different. She's an author whose releases I will always read now!
Engel's writing is just so compulsively readable, I couldn't put this book down! The characterisation was spot on, with each character feeling very vivid. The main character Eve is self destructive and harsh and blunt but you can't help but really adore her and become invested in her story. The plot itself was very intriguing and I didn't see a lot of the plot twists coming. The pacing and resolution was spot on and I found the setting to be brilliant, a different kind of small town to what I'm used to reading about in thrillers.
My one gripe that has taken a star off is a little bit of a strange one and I don't think it was intentional. Without spoiling anything, there is a comparison at the end of this novel between raising a child in an abusive environment and making said child strong to face the cruel world. I don't think this book was trying to send the message that this is okay at all, but the comparison itself I think is inappropriate and I don't think it necessarily sends a good message. Not a huge flaw and I don't think it was intended to be this problematic, but something to keep in mind perhaps.

I was excited to read this mystery/thriller as I loved Amy Engel's previous book 'The Roanoke Girls'.
However I have to say I was disappointed in this effort.
The things I adored from The Roanoke Girls - the lush descriptions of the small-town American landscapes, the aching adolescent friendships and the constant feeling of edginess - were all missing from this formulaic and seemingly half-hearted novel.
The 'twist' was blaringly obvious from a mile away, and all in all I felt like I was reading a substandard Karin Slaughter book.
I will continue to sample Engel's writing in the future but this one was a miss for me.
2 stars.

Eve is a young single mother who grew up in the Ozarks; a rambling community set around a huge lake in Missouri. Miles from anywhere, if you’re not a tourist staying in a holiday home then you’re probably dirt poor and living on seasonal work, if you’re lucky. It’s a tough place to grow up and Eve’s mother was also dependent on drugs and alcohol. Eve was determined never to fall into the same trap as her mother. She has stayed on the right path for Junie. So, when 12 year old Junie and her best friend Izzy are found dead in the playground, with their throats slit, Eve has to make a decision. In a frenzy of grief she’s determined to find her daughter’s killer, but can she do that by staying in the light? Or will she have to risk delving into the darkness?
I felt drawn in by Eve’s narrative voice straight away. Her grief is raw and I felt it. She’s a strong woman but willing to be vulnerable. She narrates to us everything she’s been through with past relationships and her abusive childhood. From a therapist’s point of view it’s a fascinating story of whether we can escape our pasts and live differently. The complexity of the mother -daughter dynamic is portrayed well. I also enjoyed the impact of class on our family relationships and our own prospects. Eve is willing to go to some very dark places to find the truth. It leaves her so strong she can face the most darkest evil of all, her mother. However, she does have to admit that there is something of her mother’s character in her, but she can use it in a more positive way than she did. This is a very dark story and I loved the quote ‘ the world was ugly; especially for girls’. It has a world weariness about it. That even little girls have to be tough to survive here. It tells a truth that isn’t often acknowledged - that girls in poverty have it harder than boys. They find it harder to escape. This isn’t a pretty read, but it is rewarding and honest.

This was such a beautifully written crime thriller. I know that probably sounds like a strange way to describe a book written in this genre, but it’s true. The author’s wonderful writing style just absolutely bowled me over and I can’t believe that I’d never heard of this author before. Well, she’s now most definitely on my radar and I’ll be reading whatever she comes out with next. (I’ve also subsequently learnt that she’s the author of The Roanoke Girls, which is a book that I’ve heard about but which I haven’t read. I’ll be on the hunt for that one now too).

But back to this book…oh man, I just loved this quick but very atmospheric crime thriller. This is a book that had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through even though it’s a thriller that’s very much character driven. The focus of this book is on Eve Taggart, and the terrible upbringing that her and her brother had at the hands of her uncaring, cold and heartless mother. When Eve’s 12-year old daughter is brutally murdered in a park, together with her best friend, Eve wants revenge. And as much as she’s tried to distance herself from her mother, and to hide the traits that her mother might have passed on to her, she starts to realize that perhaps they weren’t all bad. Her mother was, after all, fiercely protective of her brood to the extent that no-one messed with Eve and her brother for fear of what might happen to them at the hands of Eve’s mother. Eve realizes that although it’s too late to protect her daughter, it’s not too late to track down her killer and to extract her revenge.

The characters in this book are so fascinating, and so real. The world that the author describes, in which people live from hand to mouth, in dingy trailers, drinking, drugging and generally acting like lowlife scum, was just so utterly compelling. The author has a wonderful knack of writing in such a way that Eve and her world came to life. And I might just add that the author didn’t give herself much time in which to create this whole world and to develop the plot as the book is only 239 pages long.

I’ve given this one a 5-star rating because I was so taken with it. I think that the plot and the story were incredibly solid, and had it not been for how much I fell in love with the author’s writing, this would have been a 4-star read for me. But the great plot together with a writing style that I fell in love with means I can’t help but award 5 big, fat stars to this book! Loved it.