Hallie Shepherd’s debut novel, Call Off the Dark, is the perfect genre-bending combo.
It follows a woman named Helen, whom we first meet deep in the woods with her husband Wade. Helen’s lifestyle mimics that of a tradwife, but with Helen, the vibes are a little off. She sews her own dresses, hand-washes laundry, and tends to the gardens, but her heart just isn’t in it. She’s not quite cut out for the simple life deep in the woods of Washington. There is a darkness that casts a shadow around Helen’s life as she is plagued by paranoia, insomnia, and flashbacks.
Helen met Wade shortly after the murder of her first husband, Tyler, the love of her life. She agreed to marry Wade and move off the grid. She needed to escape that apartment and that city where people were stabbed and killed for no reason. Sometimes Helen finds the quiet of the woods peaceful; other times it’s unsettling.
The story jumps back and forth between timelines. Helen’s past life with Tyler is a sweeping love story with a tragic ending that leaves Helen feeling unmoored. In the present timeline, Helen struggles to adjust to the isolation of her and Wade’s off-the-grid lifestyle. Both Wade and Helen are haunted by their past, but as a chilling mystery unfolds, Helen discovers just how haunted Wade truly is.
The contrasting timelines each portray a very different version of Helen. With Tyler, Helen would sneak kisses in the elevator on their way to their corporate jobs and order Chinese takeout for dinner. With Wade, Helen is expected to help him with his boots after a long day at work, prepare a freshly cooked meal each evening, and draw him a bath at the end of each day. Before, Helen was a strong, independent woman who held her own in marketing meetings and had big goals for building the career she wanted. After, Helen walks the halls of her house in the woods each night, reading Edgar Allen Poe and talking to the dead.
Helen still grieves deeply for Tyler each day. She talks to him and hopes he will send her a sign. Hopes he will, by some miracle, turn up on her doorstep. Instead, another strange man shows up at her doorstep—Isaac, Wade’s brother, who brings a dark secret of his own.
The woods act like a cage, trapping Helen in this place of darkness where no one can hear her scream. To Helen, it is both liberating and terrifying.
Playing with themes of love, grief, identity, and isolation, Shepherd delivers a moving story about how easy it is to lose yourself when you lose the one you love, and how much bravery it takes to find yourself again. Call Off the Dark addresses mental health, paranoia, and fighting off the darkness of your own thoughts to see that there can still be light and life after tragedy.
Call Off the Dark has such an atmospheric vibe. Dead birds and empty graves, a beautiful woman stalking through the woods in a nightgown with a gun. The coyotes and the wolves, the poetry—Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath.
Whether a fan of romance, mystery, psychological dramas, or paranormal thrillers, Call Off the Dark has something for you. The vast array of genres and themes provides an exciting, multifaceted story. It is sexy, funny, cute, chilling, mysterious, and sad all at once.
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Image taken from Amazon
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