Then Things Went Dark book review

 I am a massive fan of Bea Fitzgerald’s YA mythology books so will happily read whatever she publishes, meaning when she announced Then Things Went Dark I knew I would need to pick it up. I did however have slightly lower expectations for this book as it is not the sort of book I gravitate towards as much. That being said I did really enjoy my reading experience of Then Things Went Dark. 

Then Things Went Dark is a thriller following six characters, Araminta, Isko, Jerome, Kalpana, Theo and Rhys, who are making their reality show debut on a desert island. But 3 weeks in twelve million people in the world are watching when Rhys Sutton dies, the day after he was the most hated man on television. 

I was hooked into the story from page one by the format of the story, the plot and the very much unlikeable but interesting characters. Everything about this book was built up to be a really tense book that I was unable to put down. 

In the conversation with Bea at the end of the ebook Bea says that she wanted to write a book full of unlikeable characters and that was definitely something she was successful at. There was no character that I liked the whole way through, as while I liked one character at one point we would then learn something new about them and I would no longer find them to be a likeable character. There were also some characters that I didn’t like at any point during the book. 

The format was something about this book that I really enjoyed and found to be really unique and interesting. It was written in a format of each episode being a chapter and at the end of the episode there were social media posts from those watching and part of the investigation by those investigating Rhys’s death. The format worked really well for the book and made it really interesting to read, hooking me into the story more. 

Many of the twists were really unexpected but had me turning the pages quicker. While there were twists I didn’t see coming they all made sense when looking back at the hints. There were also twists that I did see coming however it didn’t ruin the story for me and I still wanted to keep reading which isn’t always the case. 

I really enjoyed this read and while it wasn’t the sort of book I would necessarily always gravitate towards I will definitely be recommending it in the future. I look forward to reading both A Beautiful Evil releasing next year and any future thrillers that Bea Fitzgerald releases.