Book Review
Title: A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Queer
Rating: 3 Stars
The opening to A Guide to the Dark was definitely interesting and the only thing I can compare it to is the movie 1408, based on a Stephen King short story features a haunted/possessed motel room. We are introduced to best friends, Mira and Layla as they are exploring college options when their car breaks down and they head to the Wildwood motel. They are initially told that there are no rooms but the owner, Elena convinces her son, Ellis to put the girls in room 9 which seems to be the room that likes killing people. From the moment they enter, Mira feels a heaviness and is plagued by nightmare of her brother, Khalil who died the previous year while Layla experiences nothing like this. I really liked the opening and the dynamic between the girls and can’t wait to see where the horror elements come in.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Mira and Layla spend the night in the motel but Mira feels something is off about the place while Layla doesn’t. Mira ends up seeing the ghost of her dead brother several times and she can’t decide if she is going crazy due to grief or whether there is something more paranormal happening at the motel. The town itself also seems to back up the paranormal element since the mechanic fixing her car tells Mira a little about the motel’s bloody past but nothing specific. Due to the car taking several days to fix, they are planning to stay at the motel but Mira wants more information about what is going on. So, when they are out with Ellis and Layla asks him directly why everyone is staring at him, he explains that the town seems to believe his mother killed his father which was a huge bombshell. I found it interesting that the only unusual thing Layla has experienced is her photos of Mira warping when they don’t for other but she thinks it is due to the lens meaning the room seems to have attached itself to Mira.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Ellis comes into the story properly as we learn that his father committed suicide in room 9 and he wasn’t the first. Mira ends up talking to him and learns about the death that have happened because she initially opened up about her brother because he understands what she is going through in a way that Layla doesn’t. After he shows Mira his research, she knows she needs to bring Layla in and does that. Together, the three look at the deaths and realises that there seems to be nothing connecting these people apart from the room. None of them share the same backgrounds, job etc. but from the interlude chapters we are introduced to the Pull. The Pull seems to be the entity in room 9 and we know it attaches itself to people who are experiencing strong negative emotions like depression or grief which explains why Mira has been able to feel it from the moment she stepped in whereas Layla didn’t.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the trio decides to perform an experiment since Mira is the only one experiencing these hallucinations and knows what the room feels like since Ellis has never entered the room. This night is when things begin to pick up pace as Mira hears her brother’s voice coming from the TV underneath the static but Layla doesn’t hear it at all. After this they decide to sleep and use Layla’s camera to record anything else but Mira wakes up after another nightmare unable to move. Layla believes this was sleep paralysis but Mira is sceptical, even the next day when they meet up with Ellis, none of them can hear a voice but they do witness someone breaking into the girl’s room and this happens to be the same man trying to get in early and claimed he had the wrong room. He also happens to be the same man that Mira ran into on the first day they stayed at the motel. This is making me question whether this is going to be paranormal horror or serial killer horror As the premise made me believe that it would be paranormal horror and the writing does as well so for it to turn into a serial killer horror would be very disappointing for me.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, we return to the paranormal element as it turns out the man who broke into their room, Devlin, who looking for information on the room and what happened to his wife. His wife, stayed in the motel after the death of their son and after leaving she got worse to the point where he had to send her to a mental hospital. With Devlin and Izzy helping they begin looking into guests who stayed in room 9 but didn’t die there to try and find a pattern and what they discover isn’t encouraging. Mira is coming to realise that the room’s reach is extending the longer she is close to it and many of the guests that left eventually ended up dying through freak accidents, suicide and other causes. It seems almost like a Pennywise situation but Mira has noticed the warping around her in the photos and in glass, she has also connected that this entity seems to avoid Izzy and Layla but she is also drawn to Devlin and Ellis. However, they haven’t made the connection that the only thing those three have in common is the death of a loved one.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Mira voices her thoughts on how the room influences people and attaches to people and it makes completely sense. Mira is also the one that realises that the warping on pictures doesn’t just affect her, it also affects Devlin and Ellis to be to a lesser degree. Now they know the connection to the people affected by the room is death, they just need to understand how to stop the room and I think it is going to come back to something Izzy said. We know Elena isn’t affected by the room or the warping and Izzy says she has forgiven herself for her husband’s death. I think this forgiveness and absolving yourself of guilt is what breaks the rooms hold on you and therefore each person affected will need to confront the death in their life and forgive themselves in order to release themselves from the room for good and I think Mira is about to test this head on.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we do get the answers to some questions but definitely not the resolution I was hoping for considering this is a standalone novel. I also didn’t appreciate what Metoui did with the ending as I felt there was a lot more that could have been done with it. I also don’t agree with the horror tag on this book since there is barely anything scary in the book and nothing horrific in my opinion. I would class this as barely a paranormal thriller but the way I would describe this is a contemporary romance with a hint of the paranormal which definitely wasn’t what I signed on for. Despite that, this book did have some interesting concepts and good diversity with both Arab and queer characters so it does get points for that. If you enjoy movies like 1408, then give this a try but expect less suspense and definitely less horror than the movie.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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