★★★★☆
“The dead don’t care if you’re religious.”
Haze by Rebecca Crunden
Unexpected phone calls in the middle of the night are usually either creepy or scary. The phone call Eliza Owens gets late one evening from her fiance’s ex is no exception, especially since the girl on the other end of the line has supposedly been dead for five years.
Eliza tries to forget about the call until her sister Sam, who is not a fan of Eliza’s fiance Erik, brings up an encounter she had with Paige a few weeks before. A dramatic fight ensues, destroying Eliza, Erik, and Sam’s lives, and resulting in Erik abandoning Eliza and their hometown for five years.
Although I didn’t agree with many of their choices, the characters and how they handle the events that transpire are what make this book compelling. Given her drug use and the deep emotional turmoil she experiences, Eliza makes for a likable yet unreliable narrator. I was never quite sure whether to trust her take on what was happening.
The lifelong relationship between Erik and Miles added depth to the story. I was glad to see their opening scene in the introduction was significant to the overall plot.
I appreciated the book’s themes of family and friendship and felt it came to an interesting resolution fitting for the story.
Overall, this was a unique and interesting read. I recommend it to readers who enjoy dark paranormal love stories with a touch of humor.
Crunden is a prolific writer and her novels and short stories are available on Amazon and through her website.
My review of Crunden’s short story, The Man and the Crow, is linked here.