Title: All the Things We Do in the Dark
Genre: Young Adult Thriller/LGBT
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication: October 29th 2019
Cover Rating: 4/5
Reading Format: Provided eARC - Edelweiss
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All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell is the story of Ava and how a horrible event that happened to her at the age of 9 will forever shadow her decisions she makes in life. This is a story about her highs and lows, her PTSD and the scars this event left her with, both internal and external. This story is about pain but also about healing. This story is about the horrible things we as humans do to each other. This story IS.
I am going to be upfront with you guys, I could not connect with Ava AT ALL. That made the book a bit hard to get through. It took me over two weeks to read this short book but I knew I had to finish it because even though I didn't connect with the main character the story/meaning behind this book was still important. Ava is the product of her tragic past but she is also the product of her attempts to heal from her past.
Ava's past and her PTSD are the main reason why, when she is on her way home and stumbles upon a body, she doesn't call the police. She is afraid and worried about what they will do to Jane, the name Ava gives the poor dead girl. Ava doesn't want Jane to become another statistic to these people but she doesn't seem to realize that Jane is already a statistic just by being born female.
So the book is pretty much Ava trying to figure out what happened to Jane and her chasing ghosts and ending up in trouble. But I think Jane happening to Ava was a good thing because it seemed to break her out of her monotonous path. I think Jane helps Ava heal but she also drives her insane at the same time.
This book has a lot of LGBTQ+ representation and the way the author writes the romance is very natural, as it should be. Most of the time I shy away from queer books because I always get a weird feeling that the relationships aren't natural because the characters have to explain how they ARE queer and blah blah blah but Sandra Mitchell wrote things as they should be. They just end up together, drift towards each other, there is no huge build-up or declaration of sexuality. It. Just. Is. This was one of the reasons I kept reading the book.
This section will be a tad spoilery but not really BUT I loved the idea of the whole 'gamer girl visiting people she met online only to have something bad happen' considering I have been a gamer girl my whole life and I even met my husband on World of Warcraft 10 years ago. This plot right here would make an excellent book on its own and is one of the other reasons I kept reading the book instead of DNFing it.
In the end, the premise itself sounded like it was going to be amazing but with my inability to connect to the main character the story just fell sort of flat. But I did enjoy the romance and how natural it was and I enjoyed the mystery/thriller portion of the book so if you can connect with Ava more that I did then you will definitely enjoy this book.
Overall, I gave the book 3.5/5 stars.
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