Until the Last Light goes Out by Courtney Gould

You may not escape, but the truth will.

Twenty-five years ago, the Ripley Memorial High School senior class entered the luxurious Kaleidoscope Key resort deep in the remote Florida Keys. Despite international intrigue and years of investigation, no one truly knows how the 183 students died. And they never will, since the five survivors of the massacre have never spoken a word about what happened to them that night.

Paige Keller, daughter of one of the Kaleidoscope Key Massacre’s infamous survivors, has grown up determined to steer her life away from the resort and the unsolved mysteries her ex-best friend, KJ, can’t leave alone. Paige has moved to a fancy new college and it seems that, finally, she’s banished the shadows of Kaleidoscope Key completely. But when she’s called home on the 25th anniversary of the massacre, she finds that KJ has gone missing.

Paige knows there’s only one place KJ could be: her obsession, the now-abandoned resort. When Paige and the remaining Survivors’ Kids go in after her, they’re forced to confront their―and their parents―pasts once and for all.

Kaleidoscope Key is waiting, and it's starving. Once they find their way inside, there may not be a way out. And one way or another, the truth of the massacre will come to light.

Captivating and chilling, Courtney Gould’s Until The Last Light Goes Out is a horror story, a love story, and an ode to the pain passed between generations that you won’t soon forget.

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PRE-READING

Courtney Gould writes the sort of horror that makes me very happy indeed: creepy, strange, and just a little bit what on earth is happening here? So obviously I was going to want to read this one.

Moving rooms? A building you can't leave? A mysterious sound that seems to bring up your worst fears?

Yes please.

POST-READING

This is really atmospheric horror.

Kaleidoscope Key is exactly the sort of place horror loves: luxurious and beautiful on the surface, with something deeply rotten underneath. The resort is full of colour and excess, but the further Paige gets into it, the less any of that luxury feels reassuring. Quite the opposite.

The mystery unfolds through two timelines, with Paige investigating what is happening in the present while her mother's experiences during the original massacre gradually reveal what happened twenty-five years ago. I really liked the way these timelines worked together. We aren't handed a giant explanation of the rules and mysteries all at once; instead, Gould gives us information at just the right rate, allowing the strange pieces to accumulate until we start to understand what sort of place Kaleidoscope Key really is.

And there are some excellent pieces of horror here. Rooms that shouldn't move. A building that doesn't want to let you leave. A sound that should not be there, and which manages to dig directly into the characters' deepest fears.

That's the good stuff.

There's also a strong generational element running underneath the horror. Paige isn't just trying to solve an old mystery: she's dealing with something that has shaped her mother's life and, consequently, her own. The question of what gets passed down when nobody talks about the past gives the supernatural horror something much more personal to latch onto.

Also, as a completely unrelated complaint, I would like to object to contemporary protagonists having parents who graduated after I did. Twenty-five years ago is not long enough to be making me feel like a historical artifact, thank you very much.

I could see this world supporting another story. There are certainly things that could be explored further. But importantly, it doesn't need one. The story we have here feels complete, and I much prefer that to an ending which exists purely to make sure we're waiting for the next book.

This is creepy, colourful, atmospheric horror with a mystery that keeps pulling you further into a place you increasingly don't trust. If you like your horror strange, unsettling and a little bit surreal, this is definitely one to pick up.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you like atmospheric supernatural horror, creepy buildings, generational mysteries and stories where you gradually realise that the rules are not what you thought they were, this is well worth a look.

MUSIC PAIRING — “WHITE RABBIT” BY JEFFERSON AIRPLANE

A song that sounds almost hypnotic and psychedelic on the surface, but keeps getting stranger and more unsettling as it progresses. It feels like you're being drawn somewhere you probably shouldn't go, which seems very appropriate for Kaleidoscope Key.

VIBE CHECK

Luxury stretched over rot.

Neon colours glowing in rooms that should feel beautiful, but don't. Damp air. Too much colour. The faint metallic smell of something old. And somewhere in the distance, a sound that shouldn't be there.

You don't know where it's coming from.

You aren't entirely sure you want to find out.

TAROT CARD PULLED — THE MOON

This might be the Mooniest book I have ever read.

The Moon is uncertainty, fear, distorted perception and trying to find your way when you can't trust what you're seeing. It's the card of things half-hidden in the darkness and the fear created by what you can't quite make out.

Which is basically this book.

THE TRUE QUESTION

What do we inherit when the truth has been buried?