3.5 ⭐️

I thought this was a really cool premise and definitely an intriguing read!

The creepy, eerie cave setting was great and I loved the aspects of archeology and historical discovery that were included. The author did an excellent job of building tension. The isolation and mystery created a great unsettling atmosphere and a sense of being watched at all times, which really heightened the stakes of the book.

The prose was also great and I thought the writing was super strong, especially for a debut novel! The dialogue in particular felt natural and helped to further the sense of unease and doubt between the characters. I'll definitely be on the lookout for anything written by this author in the future because I think she has huge potential.

However, I felt like all of the characters were pretty shallow and none of them got much development or exploration. Other than two or maybe three characters, they were all completely forgettable. It honestly took me a really long time to figure out who each of the main characters were and remember their roles, which is even worse considering how short the book is and how crucial it therefore was to define the characters early on.

It was also pretty male-centric and I felt like the (only) female main character didn't get any development beyond her relationship to the men on the archaeological dig with her, which was a shame as she seemed like a cool character. Learning more about her personal ambition and thoughts on their discoveries would have been nice rather than focusing solely on her confusion over her feelings about a guy. To all the characters who she interacted with, she only seemed to exist as an object or potential partner which felt weird to me. I just wish more time had been spent adding depth to the characters and actually exploring the cave and its secrets rather than worrying about who wants to sleep with who.

There was loads of stuff here that was great, and if you like well-written, short books with a lot of creepiness and mystery, this will probably be a great read! I just wish the characters had had more depth and that the FMC especially had more development outside of her relationships with men.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Unnamed Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.