There’s something sinister under the surface of the idyllic, suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it’s not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives.
The six couldn’t be more different.
- Maddy, a devout member of the local megachurch
- Kelly, the bookworm next door
- James, a cynical burnout
- Casey, a loveable football player
- Padma, the shy straight-A student
- Jia, who’s starting to see visions she can’t explain
When they realize that they can’t trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions escalate in town to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact each other again. Their plan works – almost.
Twenty years later, Jia calls them all back to Wesley Falls—Maddy has been murdered, and they are the only ones who can uncover why. But to end things, they have to return to the mine one last time.
My Review:
As someone who is not from a small town, it seems like small towns, when controlled by a small group of people, can be very corrupt. Depending on how cut off they are from the rest of the world, what happens in a small town is everyone’s business and it’s the talk no matter what.
Jia has never fit in living in Wesley Falls. Not only was she one of the only Asians in town (her mom was the other one), but her mother ran a new age type of store. It’s the reason she got out the minute she could. But what brings her back is that there’s a little bit more to her mom’s interest than just stones. It turns out, psychic visions run in the family.
Jia has been helping out the town Sheriff, who she fondly recalls from high school, for several years. When she’s called back to help investigate a disappearance and happens on a body, one-time mean girl, Maddy, it sets of a chain reaction of events that has been 20 years in the making.
Jia calls six friends who swore they would never set foot in Wesley Falls again back home to finish what they started in high school.
It took me longer than usual to read A Step Past Darkness. It wasn’t until I finished that I realized the book is almost 500 pages long (Kindle problems). While it was a long read, I will say it was meatier than most of the books in this genre. It wasn’t just a surface story with twists and turns. We really got to know the 6 characters and were really a part of their story from beginning to finish.
Vera Kurian did a superb job really painting a picture of the setting and developing the suspense in the story. It kept my attention all the way to page 448. Special thanks to Netgalley and Park Row publishing for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now.
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