Until the Last Light Goes Out by Courtney Gould

The quick cut: A massacre 25 years ago plays an unexpected role when one of the survivors' daughters goes back to the scene of the crime - and finds herself trapped. 

A real review: 

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review. 

When crime occurs, it can create a lot of attention. The more horrifying the crime, the more attention society can give it. The Kaleidoscope Key massacre killed 183 students and 25 years later, it may have caused the death of a few others. 

 Paige Keller has been trying the best she can to get away from the Kaleidoscope Key massacre. As the daughter of one of the survivors, she's been unable to escape it or the multiple people who are fascinated by the horrifying deaths. Nearly 200 people don't die without a reason right? Well, it seems that Paige will need to deal with the fallout when her ex-best friend KJ takes off and she can only be in one place: Kaleidoscope Key. Will Paige be able to escape and save her friend KJ? Or will they both end up trapped and possibly killed? 

 The description for this book really captured my interest, especially considering what a fan I am of horror and true crime. While it starts out on a solid note plot wise, it ends up leaving the reader easily confused and puzzled by what they actually read. Even at the end, I don't feel like I really understand what happened. The resort really messes with your head and it's difficult to really know what happened. 

 The story bounces back and forth between the characters in the present and the characters in the past, when the massacre happened in 2001. While seeing moments of what occurred back then did give better understanding of how so many people died, it certainly didn't help the overall confusion as a reader in the end. A lot of elements ended up feeling repetitive, which made it harder to really stay absorbed in the story. It just felt like a way to add more pages. 

 I've thoroughly enjoyed her writing previously, so this doesn't make me not want to read the author's work in the future. I just think the writing style here didn't help and the repetitive nature of the material only made it worse. 

 A puzzling horror story that feels unnecessarily long. 

My rating: 3.5 out of 5