#the restless dark | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thereadingchallengechallenge · 3 months

Text

JOMP BPC - February 4th - Cover Lust

it must be nice to keep winning the cover lottery the way Erica Waters does 😂

#the river has teeth #the restless dark #all that consumes us #erica waters #justonemorepage #jompbpc #booklr #bookblr #trcc original #portraits

57 notes · View notes

bones-clouds · 20 days

Text

best books i read in 2024:

"the restless dark" erica waters

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, 5

genre: horror/thriller, mystery, wlw

synopsis:

Enter Cloudkiss Canyon at your own risk.

The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones.

Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide.

All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets.

But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.

Perfect for fans of Sadie and Wilder Girls, this newest novel from Erica Waters follows three girls at a true-crime contest to find the bones of a lost killer—even as a mysterious force pulls at the contestants’ darkest desires.

#horror literature #horror #thriller #book recommendations #booklr #the restless dark #erica waters #the restless dark moodboard #the restless dark aesthetic #book moodboard #book aesthetic #horror aesthetic #sapphic books #wlw books #lesbian books #lgbt books #litedit #books and reading #my moodboard

10 notes · View notes

bookishlyvintage · 6 months

Text

everything I read in october (& what I thought about it)

21 notes · View notes

aurorawest · 1 year

Text

Reading update

The Restless Dark by Erica Waters - 4.25/5 stars

Genuinely good YA thriller.

The Stagsblood Prince by Gideon E Wood - 4.25/5 stars

This one ripped my heart out and I am going to be PISSED if there isn't a happy ending in the third book in the trilogy.

You First by JC Lillis - 4.25/5 stars

You'd think a book that is essentially an Incredibles AU would be lighthearted, right? You wouldn't think you'd practically be sobbing by the end? Haha! You thought wrong!

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton - 4.25/5 stars

I initially rated this 4.25 stars but honestly I might bump it up to 4.5. It's a zombie story but it was really well done, and I ordered the second book in the series the minute I finished this one.

The Falcon and the Foe by AJ Truman - 3.75/5 stars

Felix Silver, Teaspoons, & Witches by Harry Cook - DNF

This one was too Middle Grade for me.

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers - 3.5/5 stars

So I won my local indie bookstore's trivia in March and the first place prize was a bunch of books that I never would have picked up on my own, including this one. I bumped it to the front of my TBR pile because I thought it would make a good comp for the manuscript I'm editing - it's about a woman who meets and drunkenly marries a stranger in Vegas, then falls in love with her afterwards. The book is really not a romance though, and is actually about burnout. I might have rated it higher if it didn't sell itself as a romance.

All the Better Part of Me by Molly Ringle - 4.25/5 stars

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley - 5/5 stars

"What if France won the Napoleonic Wars because of time travelers" shouldn't have shattered me the way this book did, but of course it's a Natasha Pulley novel so it absolutely did. There isn't a single one of her books that don't live in my mind rent free for apparently the rest of time after I read them, but man. I'm not sure if this one hurt as much as The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, but it's pretty close. Missouri Kite is the most Gay Little Man™. And Joe, poor Joe. The PINING. The YEARNING. When the reveal happens, I had to go back and read prior sections of the book and good god do they hit different. Different and SADDER. AKDJF;AKDJFKDAFJ;D JUST PLEASE READ IT PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

A Destiny of Dragons by TJ Klune - DNF

Not only did I DNF this, I removed the rest of the series from my TBR pile and will be offloading them at my local indie bookstore's next book buy-back. I think the worst part of this one was that he dedicated it to his eighth grade English teacher, who apparently told him his stories would never amount to anything. And like. What an awful thing for a teacher to tell a kid (sidebar, my eighth grade English teacher is one of the reasons I started to really take writing seriously, she was amazingly supportive - thank you, Mrs. Brzezinski!). But reading this series is like...you know, she might have had a point. I KID I KID WE ALL KNOW KLUNE ACTUALLY CAN WRITE but holy shit again, this series is so bad. The writing was a little better than The Lightning-Struck Heart but the characters are so fucking annoying. The term Mary Sue gets thrown around a lot and I'm generally not a fan of its application (since usually it's used to tear down teenage girls) but Sam of Wilds is such a fucking Mary Sue (or Gary Stu, I guess, but down with the gender binary, let's just have one word). Everyone wants to have sex with him and while it may have been sort of funny at first (it wasn't), by book 2, the joke has worn extremely thin. Also there's a prophecy about him, because of course there is. And he's the most powerful wizard ever. And yeah, I've read a lot of books where there's a prophecy about the MC and they're the Most Powerful Magic Person Ever, but they're usually not this annoying.

Chainbreaker by Tara Sim - 5/5 stars

This is book 2 of a really interesting and original fantasy/steampunk series. I really enjoyed the first one but this one was even better. It takes place in a world where time running correctly is controlled by clock towers. The main character is a clock mechanic (obviously an important job) who falls in love with the clock spirit of the town of Enfield (delightful, since my wife is from Enfield and it's not a place you often see mentioned in fiction). This book raises the stakes of the first one and takes place largely in India. Highly recommend.

Stormhaven by Jordan L Hawk - 4.25/5 stars

Game Changer by Rachel Reid - 4/5 stars

Is this the OG m/m hockey book? There was something very quaint about it haha.

The Best Man's Problem by Sera Taíno - DNF

I'm beginning to realize that I don't really like books where the family is given equal importance to the romance.

Arctic Wild by Annabeth Albert - 4/5 stars

Hummingbird Heartbreak by Max Walker - 2.75/5 stars

I found Dusty's reaction to the reveal of Brandon's past to be over-the-top and unreasonable (like, unreasonable within the context of the story - obviously characters can react unreasonably to things, but it still needs to make sense for them!). I probably would have rated this 3 stars if not for that, because it's a sweet enough love story.

The World We Make by NJ Jemisin - 2.5/5 stars

NK Jemisin, please do not read this. Jemisin has been open about how difficult this book was to write, and about the fact that she couldn't handle the trilogy she'd planned and took it down to a duology, and…unfortunately, it shows. I loved the first book but this one was a disappointing finale. The pacing was uneven and the character development stalled. Plot threads were introduced and either vanished (Bronca's new girlfriend) or were resolved in a way that felt unearned (the mayoral race, Manny's true identity, honestly the whole big conflict). Aislyn was an interesting character who ultimately felt underutilized. I actually, physically cringed at a couple points during this book—the coda was really just one long cringe, and the other moment was when Brooklyn calls...Beyonce. Who is an old friend. But then Beyonce is never brought up again and I couldn't tell you what the purpose of her inclusion in the book was. I'm sure some people love that kind of stuff but I can't stand it.

I did really love the other cities though! If Jemisin ever returned to this universe, I'd read a book about Faiyum in a heartbeat. His snark and his gay little crocodile earring were chef's kiss.

Jemisin is a fabulous writer and all my issues with this book feel like the result of an author forcing herself to write something she wasn't feeling and just wanted to be done with. Disappointing all the same since I had really been looking forward to this one.

The Sugared Game by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

It is not possible to go wrong with an AJ Charles book and this one is no exception. I love Kim and Will so much, and I really really hope the third book builds on the trust they established in this one.

Sixteen Souls by Rose Talbot - 3.75/5 stars

I liked this book but I did find myself, at the climax, wondering why on earth living people would sacrifice themselves to save ghosts from...being more dead? Like. They're...already dead.

28 notes · View notes

ace-artemis-fanartist · 1 year

Photo

My piece for @rainbowcrate’s October book box.

Erica Water’s The Restless Dark.

#the restless dark #erica waters #rainbow crate #commission #lgbt books #my art

52 notes · View notes

lgbtqreads · 2 years

Text

Fave Five: New Queer YA Horror

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White The Restless Dark by Erica Waters These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

View On WordPress

#Andrew Joseph White #Erica Waters #Hell Followed With Us #Kate Alice Marshall #Kayla Cottingham #My Dearest Darkest #Ryan La Sala #The Restless Dark #These Fleeting Shadows

27 notes · View notes

daphneblakess · 2 years

Photo

books i read in 2022: the restless dark by erica waters

Apparently, most true crime enthusiasts prefer their gore from the safety of their cars while they commute home. Few are willing to take a trip to north Georgia, to climb through rough terrain, to camp outdoors in all weather, to touch a corpse. The ones who are willing to come are diehard Beastie Babes, as fans of the Human Beasties podcast like to call themselves.

I’m pretty sure I’ll hate every single one of them.

#the restless dark #erica waters #horroredit #storyseekers #booksociety #my edits #2022books

30 notes · View notes

the-final-sentence · 2 years

Quote

But, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and give it a try.

Erica Waters, from The Restless Dark

#Erica Waters #the Restless Dark

28 notes · View notes

stardustandrockets · 10 months

Text

(CW: talk of religious trauma and Christianity)

One thing I've come to think about while putting these recs together to combat the bigotry of #JesusJune has been how growing up in church shaped me as a person. From a young age, you're taught not to do certain things because you'll be judged when you die and potentially go to Hell. Don't do drugs or drink under age; don't have premarital sex; etc. Those things made sense to me. Especially not having premarital sex.

When all of my peers seemed to be engaging in relationships and alleged sexual activity in high school, I had no interest. Even when I did start toying with the idea of dating in college, I hid behind "no sex before marriage" because it was easier than examining my feelings around why sexual situations made me so uncomfortable. I didn't have the language for what I was feeling and a lot of that has to do with the lack of queer rep in media. Sure, there were gay characters at this point, but they were generally caricatures and the butt of the joke.

It wasn't until 2015 when I found a tumblr post about asexuality that things finally started to click into place. I felt a little more whole. Once I found a term for what I was feeling, it started a whole other mess of issues in my personal life. The beginning of the end for several relationships, one of the worst semesters of college, but in the end, things turned out for the best.

Seeing these bigots try to "reclaim" a symbol that's been around longer than their religion is wild to me. The rainbow means so many things to so many groups of people. It's a natural, beautiful thing. If you're dealing with religious trauma, know that you are loved and the Jesus I came to know before becoming exvangelical would support the queer community because he preached love and acceptance. 🌈✨️

5 notes · View notes

aroaessidhe · 1 year

Photo

2022 reads // twitter thread

The Restless Dark

spooky sapphic YA horror/thriller

a true crime podcast runs a competition to find the bones of a serial killer whose body was never found

the girl who was his last almost-victim & a true crime fan with her own trauma, enter looking for answers

#The Restless Dark #erica waters #aroaessidhe 2022 reads #I enjoyed this a lot! not much to say about it idk #i always suspected ___ lol #it has a kind of messy love triangle vibe - though i'm not sure any of them 'end up' together

8 notes · View notes

biblionerdreflections · 1 year

Text

I got some exciting book mail today!

#books #lgbt books #lgbtq #sixteen souls #rainbow crate #the restless dark

3 notes · View notes

free-air-for-fish · 1 month

Text

[13] Chapter 16 Review Syndicate: The Restless Dark

Every once in a while, I’ll read a book for Chapter 16 that turns me on to a new author, and in this case, that author is Erica Waters. Her YA horror novel The Restless Dark had me hooked once I saw the cover, and it only got better from there. Her other novels are on my TBR list, and I hope to get around to Ghost Wood Song very soon. Cover of The Restless Dark by Erica Waters The Restless Dark…

View On WordPress

0 notes

bookishlyvintage · 7 months

Text

"I'm alive and Kincaid isn't.

And now I'm going to find his bones to prove it."

The Restless Dark, Erica Waters

☆☆☆☆☆ | full review

9 notes · View notes

bookcoverbeauty · 2 years

Text

the restless dark

#the restless dark #book covers #book cover art #book cover details #book cover design #ya book covers #ya lit

1 note · View note

authorunpublished · 2 years

Text

Book Review: The Restless Dark

Title: The Restless Dark Author: Erica Waters Genre: Paranormal, Horror, Thriller, Young Adult Rating: 4 Stars Description/Synopsis: The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones.Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. All…

View On WordPress

#author #authorunpublished #book #erica waters #horror #paranormal #review #the restless dark #thriller #unpublished #young adult

0 notes

ahhrenata · 10 months

Text

I’m having an ‘oh’ moment while you bandage my hand, man

MY THOUGHTS FOR THIS ONE ARE IN THE TAGS :)

#steddie #steddie fanart #eddie munson #steve harrington #its late.. or early depending how you look at it #neither of them have been sleeping much or spending time on their own #the nightmares you know #an especially brutal one has eddie a little out of it #his bandages (from injuries that could have been worse) have become loose or soiled from his restless night #so steve sits him down and helps fix them up #he can see eddies still shaken so he just.. talks #about anything really #and eddie slowly comes back to himself #and now he’s just looking at steve.. who’s huffing out a laugh at whatever he’s said.. smiling at the memory of it #eyes crinkling at the corners and thats when it kind of hits #the ‘oh’#not an ‘oh shit’ this time but a simple ‘oh’#a happy one for now too #because he is.. happy. he’s not alone.. he doesn’t have to be.. and Steve’s showing him that #through late night talks.. matching dark circles and grounding touches #with stories and music and late night drives #and thats enough.. more than really #he’s at the tipping point.. knows the fall will be coming in the next few weeks- maybe months #but he doesn’t care #not when steve finally looks up at him… wide eyed and cradling eddies hand between two of his.. soft smile on his face and asks ‘you ok?’#and when eddie (who’s a little misty eyed) smiles back and replies ‘all good’#right here.. in this moment- he really is #:)#THANKS FOR VOTING FOR IT

3K notes · View notes