In the Dark

I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at the ‘hot girl next door’ premise—until Seraphine Valentine’s voice slinked into my earphones like a blade wrapped in velvet. *In the Dark* works because it’s *not* the story you expect. Gabriel isn’t a lovable rogue; he’s a legitimately flawed kid whose narration (Jack DuPont nails the ‘I’m too smart for this’ sneer) makes you wince as often as it makes you laugh. The real surprise? How Murphy uses the audiobook format to weaponize subtext. DuPont and Valentine don’t just *read* their lines—they *fight* them, especially in the early chapters where Gabriel’s biting internal monologue butts up against the girl’s tight-lipped responses. The result is a listening experience that feels more like eavesdropping on a psychological chess match than a typical YA romance. That said, the pacing stumbles in the middle. The repetitive cycle of Gabriel’s self-loathing and the girl’s cryptic push-pull grows wearying around hour six, and I found myself fast-forwarding through a few of his navel-gazing rants. (DuPont’s performance is stellar, but even he can’t salvage a monologue about ‘the pointlessness of it all’ the third time around.) The production is otherwise flawless—crisp audio, seamless transitions between POVs—but I docked half a star for a climactic scene where the emotional payoff feels rushed, as if the editors trimmed crucial beats to hit the 10-hour mark. Still, the final act lands with a gut punch, and Valentine’s delivery of the last line? *Chef’s kiss.* This is for listeners who like their coming-of-age stories dirty, clever, and just a little cruel—with narrators who refuse to sand down the edges.