Gray After Dark

By: Noelle W. Ihli

“I would have cried tears of joy to trade the past two days for a chance to face off with a bear instead of these two monsters. ”

Gray After Dark

*This post contains spoilers for Gray After Dark

Overview:

When a tragic accident sidelines Miley’s dreams of Olympic gold, she takes a summer job at a mountain guest lodge.

The Frank Church Wilderness is remote, but it’s the perfect place to train and recover. Local lore about a staffer who died years ago doesn’t scare her. But it should.

Miley’s plans take a terrifying detour when she’s abducted during a morning run. Held captive in a desolate off-grid cabin, she’ll have to use her athletic prowess, cunning mind, and courage to survive. But as the nightmare at the cabin escalates, Miley is forced to form an unlikely alliance and attempt a risky escape.

Can she outwit her captors and survive the wilderness before it’s too late?

Gray After Dark

This book wastes no time in getting to the tension of the story. It only takes 58 pages before Miley starts her struggles for survival.

The author created tension in a realistic way. You feel for Miley the entire time and her fear becomes yours. Coming upon danger in the woods when no one is around is a real fear.

This book is basically a whole novel about the viral question “would you rather meet a bear in the woods or a man”. Miley is told by Wes that she should be concerned about bear attacks and she doesn’t fear it at all. The second she sees the two men on the edge of that lake, she knows that she is in danger. Had a bear met her there, she could have gotten away but she stood no chance with Fred and Hamish. This was through no fault of her own. If she had fought back or ran, they would have killed her immediately.

Something that I find frustrating in some fiction survival stories is the protagonist having an unreasonable amount of skills. In Gray After Dark, Miley is pleasantly average even though she is an Olympic athlete. She is good at two things: cardio and shooting a gun. She doesn’t whip out random knowledge out of thin air or have all these hidden skills. Some authors rely on the “they picked the wrong person” trope and that would have ruined this story. The only survival knowledge Miley has is that she should follow water which she struggles with and almost messes up.

Something I didn’t enjoy was the ending. The ending was a little cheesy. I didn’t need to know that they all lived happily ever after in a saccharin sweet way. Ending it as Miley rescues herself, Rayna and Brent would have been a much cleaner ending. The epilogue was not necessary.

I would have actually liked to hear more about the real story behind the book. There is a small write up about the real victim but I would have love for the pages wasted on the epilogue to go into more depth.

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Overall,

Great story that kept the tension and fear going throughout. If I had to classify this book into a category it would be survival/thriller. It’s not quite The Most Dangerous Game as we don’t see Miley being hunted but it does have similar vibes.

I was recommended this book from a local bookshop and it did not disappoint. I am interested to read more from this author as her style is more realistic and less twisty than most thriller books are these days. A lot of authors are looking for that shocking moment and Ihli weaves tension throughout the book. Her writing style causes your body to be physically tense and that is something hard to find.

Rating: 5/5 stars