Call Off the Dark by Hallie Shepherd: REVIEW

Brittani

Sep 21

2 min read

Imagine losing the love of your life, marrying a near stranger, moving completely off-grid… and then having a dead man show up at your door.

My rating of Call Off the Dark: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

My thoughts:

The cover of Hallie Shepherd's book, "Call Off the Dark"

Call Off the Dark by Hallie Shepherd is definitely a twisty genre-bender.

I was lucky enough to receive the audiobook early from William Morrow and Harper Audio in exchange for my honest review, so thank you so much to them for letting me listen ahead of its September 22 publication!

This story follows Helen, who loses her husband Tyler when he’s suddenly murdered.

She’s completely devastated, and not long after, she impulsively marries Wade and moves off-grid with him to this farmhouse in rural Washington. And suddenly, she’s living this completely different life — a trad wife life — while also still grieving the husband she actually loved. And then Wade’s brother Isaac shows up. Except… Isaac has been dead for years.

And from there, things get VERY weird. You really don’t know what to believe.

It took me a little while to become invested in this one. I also HATED the whole tradwife situation Helen was being put through. So I appreciated that the book didn’t stay there the entire time.

We get flashbacks to Helen and Tyler’s relationship, and I liked getting to see the love they had before everything fell apart. It gave the story an extra emotional layer that went beyond just the mystery of what was happening.

And then there was a connection to a pretty famous poem by a famous poet, and that added even more to what was happening. And then there was also some unexpected sexiness!

Overall, this was dark and sad and mysterious and atmospheric, also a mix of psychological thriller, horror and love story. And I recommend it!