i loved this book so much that i finished it and then that afternoon borrowed the audiobook from the library for a reread.

i'm not super well-read in horror but this has all my fave horror elements so far:
- phobia-based setting
- exploration of grief and trauma
- psychological horror
- unreliable narrator

though this is a five star read for me because of how much i enjoyed the hell out of this story, i do still have to voice a criticism - why go with the romance storyline? *cringe* okay yeah i can see how it worked to show some of the MCs trauma but even that could have been done better through other avenues. it felt completely unnecessary and was a weak way to wrap up the ending.

for fans of into the drowning deep and the luminous dead.