Thank you @NetGalley and @BooksGoSocial for the ARC of this book by Brandon Hughes.

This is the first book based on the Dark Web that I have read and it scared me, tbh. The extent of cruelty and brutality those people at dark web were willing to watch and commit was horrifying, to say the least.

For someone who has heard numerous incidents happening on Uber/ other cab services, this book takes the fear to another level.

However, on the whole it was about a dark and evil Red Room being used to entertain those in power with enough money to spare with the most gruesome crimes.

Starts with an ordinary couple in which the wife is looking for something productive when she stumbles upon an crime in her father’s old cabin and how Kayla, a college student stumbles upon a video she was not supposed to even watch and spread in any way.

It is about solving the mystery behind the Red Room by going against the most powerful and calculated group of people who sponsored this whole thing on the Dark Web.

The suspense was great, I kept guessing if her partner whom she met on the night of stumbling upon the video was somehow involved or if those scary people will get to her. Or if this case could be solved eventually or not?

The details of the horrors behind the victims’ abduction were absolutely scary. But the only problem I had was the repetition of things and the focus on the descriptions of countless mundane happenings. Plus, the protagonist, the crime solver, Kayla was an English major, but she had skills better than the police? I mean, yes, watching crime shows or reading true crime novels can teach you a lot, but still.

But I am also glad that no matter how, but she could find stuff that others could not. The ending makes you think about numerous possibilities, given the fact that we are talking about Dark Web.

Lastly, it was actually an interesting thriller to read, the best thing is definitely the fact that author has real life experience of criminal cases and it always makes the details mentioned about how things go in the real world better.

This book had me hooked from the beginning, I was immediately drawn in with a mouth gaping OMG after the first few chapters. The "Red Room" is a dark web service where people sign in to watch some cruel things, in this case, someone getting murdered. College student Kayla comes across one of these videos accidently and is intent on figuring out what this video is, is it real, and who are these people. She is fully immersed into this and befriends a police officer and helps guide them to the scene. She then does some more research and ends up down the rabbit hole of the Red Room and missing girls. I was hooked and could see myself in Kayla as wanting to solve these and playing detective. After reading the "About the Author" and seeing that Brandon brings in his personal knowledge of the criminal justice system makes this story even more believable. I was very happy with how the book ended and how everything tied together. This is a great fast paced thriller that makes you grip the edge of your seat!

The Red Room is a story about the dark web. It begins with a married couple Tess and Marvin. Tess travels back to an old family cabin in the woods that has been sold to someone else. Tess is hoping to find some painting supplies that she had left in the basement. What Tess finds in that basement is more than supplies….
With a cryptic message to her husband, Marvin is left trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
Meanwhile university student Kayla, stumbles upon a video that was on another students computer. A horrific video. Not knowing if what she saw was real, or fake, she confides in her new love interest Marty. The two then try to piece together what she actually saw on that video.
This book was a good, quick read showing the terrible things that happen on the dark web. The fact that this stuff happens in real life, to real people, makes it even more chilling.
My biggest gripes with this one was, I wanted to know more about the actual world of the dark web, and I found Kayla and Marty’s involvement in the case very unrealistic. But overall, I enjoyed it.

Thank you to Publisher BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, in exchange for my honest review. Publication date - April 16, 2024

This was a pretty interesting mystery book and loved the ending. I was fairly annoyed by some of the beginning of the book, but I don't want to ruin any of the book by saying why. I will say that eventually the kids did the right thing, but took them longer than I thought it should and it always annoys me when kids are the main characters and they're doing something dangerous because they feel they can do it better. Although, the author does kind of fix that problem a little later with the police giving a kind of go ahead for something specific to the story. I did enjoy the later part of the book with some other characters and though, about time! It was a good mystery/thriller book, though, and I think if you like that kind of story, you'll enjoy this one. I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily and honestly.

The Red Room was a nice page-turner! I couldn’t read it fast enough! I was so curious to find out what was gonna happen. It was fast-paced and short chapters, just how I like books!

I love books that have a realistic element of something that could actually happen. That’s exactly what The Red Room was. The scariest thing about it was the idea that something like this could actually be happened in the world, and probably does happen. And the fact that there are people who are deranged enough to watch. It reminded me a bit of the Hostel movies.

While, I wouldn’t say there are twists in this book, it is very suspenseful. It’s a lot of cat and mouse action, trying to figure out how to stop the Red Room murders from happening. I thought there would be some big twist reveal, so I was a little sad that there wasn’t. However, it was still an exciting read.

I was interested in the authors input on this subject and it delivered. I was intrigued on how he would handle such a dark subject without the extreme horror element. The other author I’ve seen them deliver this subject before without getting to extremes was Karin Slaughter on Pretty Girls. This was super interesting and while I don’t agree that one will stumble on this stuff like Kayla did. I still liked the conversation about how vulnerable we are and how much of society is part of these “dark clubs”. It leaves you wondering about the missing people out there and where they are now. I recommend this for somebody looking into getting into a dark subject that is handle well and won’t leave you trigger.

The first half of this book had me hooked me a couldn't put it down. After the the pacing was kind of slow and I lost interest so unfortunately I did not finish this book

Absolutely loved this book. I enjoyed the writing style, it was fast paced but still took time to explain important things like scenery and locations. I dislike when the author rambles about a characters past or other things that we don't need to know. That does not happen in this book!
However I think I would have liked a different end for the bad guys but it was wrapped up well.

Wow, what can I say about this book. This is the first book in a very long time that I have read in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down.
Don't get me wrong, some parts of this book were not very believable, a young college woman taking it upon herself to investigate this seems over the top.
However I enjoyed all the characters and I would definitely like to see more of Kayla and Marty.
Overall this book gripped me from start to finish and I would definitely read more from this author.

Thanks to @netgalley & @booksgosocialgroup for the opportunity to read this ARC. The Red Room is a dark web thriller and I was expecting some splatterpunk horror, but alas there was hardly any bloody action at all. The synopsis is that a Red Room video is accidentally seen by a female college student and she obtains a copy of the killings and inadvertently gets herself involved. Her and her friends take on the task of identifying the women and solving the case, which gets them in the crosshairs of the bad guys and bff’s with the police where the killings took place. This would be a good read for someone who doesn’t like the more gruesome scenes. I had issue with the unbelievable premise that #1 Uber rich people pay like 25k to watch the Red Room and the guy on camera shoots the victims within 60 seconds, like no sir.. if I’m spending that much money I wanna see some messed up ish, ya know? Also, the idea that college student is able to locate not just the one, but all of the victims from different states and time periods is insane and not possible. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on missing persons databases and it’s just too far fetched to be believable.

𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗥𝗖 & 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿. 𝗜𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻, 𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!

-Tess Swiderski has Empty Nest Syndrome… Her loving husband Marvin, who is on a business trip in another city, persuades her over the phone to paint again and put her works on 'Itsy' as a way to cope. But for that, she has to make a little trip to get her old painting utensils back. It quickly becomes clear that she should have stayed at home and not let her husband persuade her.
-Kayla is an intelligent student, but her curiosity gets the better of her one night when she gives in and watches a video. Quickly she gets involved with something that is far bigger than she can handle, or can she?
-Amanda is a grieving mother, a mother who wants revenge. But first, she has to endure the waiting game before she could even have the slightest chance of getting what she wants.

Will Tess find a way out of this, more than precarious, situation? Can Kayla trust Marty Jones? Will Amanda return to a normal life, or is it too late and the hatred has already taken hold of her?

The book is divided into 3 parts, each of which has a different amount of chapters. Each part carries a woman’s name, as we have the main protagonists of the respective parts… Tess, Kayla, and Amanda.

To be honest, the topic was a bit harder to read as a woman than I thought. Once again, it made me realize how we girls/women are still too often perceived as the ‘weaker sex’ and only as objects. How something simple as a short taxi ride or a walk in the dark can end up with us still being found on the side of the road, strangled with our own panties or simply never being found again while we have to exist as a sex toy in the basement of a pervert until the end of our lives.

As for the author’s writing style, I must say that it was generally written in a simple and bold way, and easy to read. Unfortunately, there were also parts where he started every sentence with the same pronoun. And sometimes up to over 15 times in one text passage/paragraph. An annoying shortcoming that sometimes made it hard for me to continue reading.

Nevertheless, it's just a 'technical thing' and I liked the book well enough to give it 4 Stars.

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒆𝒃. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕!

Thank you to Tension Books for making the ARC of 'The Red Room' by Brandon Hughes available for review on Netgalley

I once again find myself having started a book in the evening, telling myself that I'd just read for a couple of hours before moving on to something else, only to have kept reading through the night and into the morning in order to finish that book. Clearly, I'll never learn my lesson.

In this case, I can also lay some of the blame at the feet of Brandon Hughes, who wrote himself a compelling and well-paced story.

'The Red Room' follows the accidental discovery of a dark web snuff live streaming operation by college student, Kayla Sinclair. With the help of her friend Christine, and the chivalrous bartender Marty, Kayla is able to solve part of a murder mystery. Rather than bringing her closure, doing so drags her further into danger as she realises that this isn't an isolated incident, but one of many deaths that will continue to happen - unless she can stop them.

Hughes has a history in the criminal justice system, so I wasn't surprised that he was able to construct a cohesive narrative from that side of things. What I was surprised by is that he did this whilst also constructing distinct characters with organic-feeling relationships. It was nice to have what felt like genuine interactions between his characters to break up the more bleak main storyline.

My only complaints are that the final act of the story, while definitely achieving its cathartic function, does require a bit more suspension of disbelief than I was prepared for at this point in the story; and that there were also some missed opportunities to utilise already established characters at times when it would have felt appropriate to do so.

That said, these issues were relatively minor, and I felt mostly pleased by my reading experience as a whole. I would recommend giving it a go.

Rating: 4.5/5
Note: This will be a 5/5 on Goodreads.

'The Red Room' is set to be published on the 16th of April

4.5/5.

Oh. My. God. The Red Room was so good. I need to give kudos to Brandon Hughes in handling so many point of views and intertwining stories. The stories intertwined so heartbreakingly perfect. Loved Kayla and her perseverance to finding the killer. I don't want to name too many characters because I'm afraid I may spoil the story. Just know that each character was brought to life in the best and sometimes in the creepiest ways.

I thought The Red Room would be really gory considering it was about the dark web and we hear just horrible that network can be. Brandon did really well in showing that part of the story in a dark yet not overdone way. Even had me chuckling in some parts. Some parts had me holding my breath or forcing me to toss my Kindle away in the twists or certain creepy scenes. And in some parts I wanted to shed a tear or two. I think murder mysteries can sometimes brush pass a murder and not really have us think twice. From the first story, I knew my heart was going to ache for a character or two. Really enjoyed Brandon letting us get to know each character, especially those that met a really horrible demise.

Honestly this could do well as a series or a movie.

This was a roller coaster of a book! I loved it!! It grabbed me from the start and when a book does that, I know it'll be good. I thought the intensity was perfect. I was a little nervous about some of the characters from the start, but settled into getting to know them. The main character was someone to be admired. I liked how it was fast paced the entire time. Great read!!

I could not get into this book. The writing was pretty juvenile and the story line was very lacking. Things seemed to happen very fast in the book when there was big things with not a lot of time being spent on it, but instead a lot of time being spent on trivial things. Overall the concept of the book is interesting. But the writing could have been better in my opinion.

4.5

I won't lie, I didn't expect this one to be the best. From the first few chapters, I thought it was going to pretty much be torture porn throughout, but thankfully, it wasn't. It was kind of like a good girl's guide to murder but for a much more mature audience.

It could have easily been a full 5 stars, but I wasn't satisfied with how it ended.

I went into this book expecting one thing and got something completely different. This was my first approved ARC and by the description, prepared myself for something disturbing. Instead, what I got was a book that felt genuine and characters I loved.

I didn’t feel like I was left with any questions once the book ended which was great because I had a few of them!

The one area of feedback I have is at times I felt like timeline were hard to follow. This could have been a me thing but I found myself confused / lost on some jumping back and forth.

Other than than I would absolutely recommend.

I came across this one a few weeks ago and after reading the description and some of the reviews I could not stop thinking about it. So I let my curiosity get the better of me and came back and downloaded it. I could not put this book down after starting it. I loved Kayla and honestly wasn't sure where this story was going or how it would end. I felt like the author did a great job at keeping me guessing on what direction he was going to take for the ending as it could have gone a few different ways. The story is told through a few different POVs so you get a bit more insight with each one. I feel like if you are someone who enjoys being an armchair detective then this would be a book for you.

An original and modern premise drew me to this - there is something really creepy about the dark web to me and I’ve never seen another horror about the dark web.

The plot kept me on my toes and there were definitely a few twists I didn’t see coming, which again, is always appreciated.

The writing wasn’t my favourite and was a little bit basic and clunky.

Many thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a story that could be straight from the headlines. A group of college women spend a night of partying and trip across a dark web video on a laptop of a murder committed live and for sick entertainment. The group then starts down the path of determining whether the video is real with real people and try to solve the crime.

I was not sure if this was going to be a 'torture/porn' type of read, which is not my jam or a really good, dark, suspenseful read. Its definitely the latter. I found the pacing to be fast and the story a really quick read. The characters are likeable and well developed. I kept coming back to this one when I had time to read, which is always a good sign.

If you like dark, suspenseful murder mysteries, definitely pick this one up!