Wow, what a wild ride this was!

I absolutely loved my time with this. It was eerie, mysterious and so atmospheric. It definitely had me on edge at points and I did not want to put it down. It's absolutely the type of book to keep you reading until the early hours of the morning. (And I'm one hundred percent talking from personal experience)

I really hope Courtney Gould publishes more in the UK in the future, because if this is anything to go by I will be devouring them all.

4.25 ⭐ I thoroughly enjoyed this one, this was just so eerie and atmospheric and the author did an amazing job just immersing you in both the story and the characters. This whole book was so trippy and I had the best time, definitely a must read for those who want to dip their toes into the horror genre as this was YA but still so good!

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan MacMillan for this early copy.

Queer girls, an evil hotel that seems to be alive, split timelines like Yellowjackets? I’m there!

I’m in my own kind of horror renaissance right now, and this one was a great addition to the spooky books I’ve read. An endlessly hungry entity is a perfect main character to drive the scary plotlines, and I say main character because it was the only one in basically every scene.

Each of the characters, the kids and the parents, felt really truly scared and angry on the page. It made them easy to root for and easy to get to know.

Honestly, it’s a shame some of the characters weren’t in for longer, I’d have loved to read a bit more about everyone.

I think the level of gore and scare in this book is just right, if Grady Hendrix stuff is a bit too much for you then this might be the perfect horror level for you. There’s some, but it’s not overwhelming and in your face.

Overall I was spooked and loved the mystery, the spookiness, and the relationships between characters. A great read!

A real mystery, loaded with darkness lurking from the start. It opens with the past colliding with the present and the loss of a survivor of a tragedy. As they gather to remember the victims, they add one more name. Paige has tried to live her life without the suffocating history and events of the tragedy that none of the survivors will share stiffling her. But returning for the memorial opens old wounds and reveals fresh ones. The nightmare of Kaleidoscope Key destined to be a part of her and KJ's lives in reality as terrifying as the unknown. Fabulously tense and jumpy read.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Pan Macmillan for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

If you enjoy liminal-space/impossible-maze narratives, only with a heart, it doesn't get any better than this. Told in a double-timeline narrative (Paige's POV in the present, her mother Casey's in the past), UTLLGO blends atmospheric/body horror (but also the horror of being a teen and inherently straddling a different kind of liminal space - the one between victim and abuser, popular and outcast), generational trauma, coming of age, fierce friendship/lesbian awakening, on the backdrop of a labyrinthine, impossible building that is not a haunted house, but a haunt in itself. Rooms shift, time breaks, violence erupts, the resort feeds, and a bunch of friends (in both timelines) try to find a way out: what's not to love? But the human angle is equally compelling, with themes of guilt, atonement and sacrifice, but also hope and strength - including that of rising above the sins of your parents. The ending is...interesting, and while it doesn't wrap things up in a convenient ribbon, it at least offers some (provisional) closure and a tendril of hope. Once more, Courtney Gould proves to be capable to write the type of supernatural horror populated by genuine teens that even more mature readers can enjoy.

TW (list provided by the author): body horror, self harm, death/harm of a child, gore/violence, suicide, homophobia; (more): death of a parent (off-page), near-drowning, animal killing (bird), vomiting.

Until the Last Light Goes Out is a horror novel about a mysterious Florida resort where almost an entire high school class was massacred. It is twenty five years since most of the Ripley Memorial High School senior class were killed at the Kaleidoscope. Paige's mother was one of the survivors, but Paige has tried to put that behind her, even as her best friend KJ obsessed over the place. However, when Paige returns for the anniversary of the massacre, she discovers KJ is missing, and it is time for the survivors' children to face the Kaleidoscope and what happened there.

This is a very atmospheric horror novel that creates a very vivid Backrooms-esque resort that feels like the images of the poolrooms you see online. I loved that sense of the Kaleidoscope as something unknowable, whilst its labyrinthine structure allows for questions about the price you pay to get out. The character relationships were also good, with the two generations offering space for parallels and building good structural tension as it cut between then and now. I also liked the romantic tension between Paige and KJ and how that compared to the treatment of another character from the parents' generation.

I was really picturing the events and the resort as I was reading this book and I think it would be great adapted into a film. It was described as YA on Netgalley, but I honestly think this book is good for any age if you like its style of horror, which is more existential and survival-based rather than anything scary. If you're a fan of cursed vibes in horror and the idea of something bad lingering across generations, Until the Last Light Goes Out is one to try.

This book is fascinating. The first half moves like a rocket, through action, horror and overall chaotic confusion as we find ourselves trapped in a Backrooms-style resort building where time moves differently and rooms change without warning... ok, I'm all in! There's so much going on, I found myself halfway through before I knew it.

But after a certain point, things slow down. The second half of the book is much more philosophical, contemplating what needs to be done to survive, relationships between friends and parents, just how far we would go for those we love. This felt more 'Lord of the Flies' meets 'Final Girls' for me.

I did appreciate the time jumps, so that we get to see two generations of teens dealing with the building. However, I was a little frustrated that we focus so much on two protagonists who aren't the most relatable. Casey admits she always stays back rather than stepping up to help, and Paige may be 'pragmatic' but she's also pretty selfish until the very end. Great plot arcs but hard characters to like. I found myself wondering what the book would look like if written from KJ's point of view.

Overall a great ride, even if the speed gets a little bumpy in places.

This is a creepy and atmospheric gothic horror novel that kept me wanting to find out what happened next. The story follows Paige Keller, whose mother was one of the five survivors of the mysterious Kaleidoscope Key massacre, and KJ Collins, Paige’s former best friend who becomes obsessed with the abandoned resort.

I really enjoyed the eerie setting of Kaleidoscope Key and the mystery surrounding what happened there twenty-five years earlier. The story also includes Caleb and Mateo, who join Paige in searching the resort for KJ. The characters are interesting, and I liked seeing how their parents’ past affected their own lives.

The story builds tension really well, and the combination of mystery, supernatural horror and family secrets made it difficult to put down. I also liked the way the book explores grief, friendship and the effects of trauma being passed between generations.

Some parts were a little confusing, especially when the story moved between different time periods, but overall I found it gripping and memorable.

Overall, Until the Last Light Goes Out is a chilling, atmospheric and emotional horror story with a fascinating mystery.