Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$12.58$12.58
FREE delivery: Tuesday, Oct 3 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $11.32
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
The Restless Dark Hardcover – October 4, 2022
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $22.96 | — |
Purchase options and add-ons
Enter Cloudkiss Canyon at your own risk.
Sadie meets Wilder Girls in this unnerving tale about the struggle for survival, the twisted satisfaction of revenge, and the darkness hiding in all of us. From Erica Waters, the acclaimed author of Ghost Wood Song and The River Has Teeth,this mystery will haunt you to the end.
The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones.
Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide.
All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets.
But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.
Praise for Erica Waters’ The River Has Teeth and Ghost Wood Song:
“Potent, atmospheric, and wholly satisfying.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“A backwoods murder ballad of a book. [The River Has Teeth] is well worth a listen.” —NPR
"The River Has Teeth is the perfect story for anyone who is tired of feeling helpless. This book has teeth, too." —Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
“A gorgeous, creepy gem of a book. Ghost Wood Song weaves a captivating spell you won’t want to break.” —Claire Legrand, New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn and Sawkill Girls
"Ghost Wood Song will make your heart dance." —Jeff Zentner, Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
"The perfect balance of atmospheric chills, dark familial secrets, and a yearning for the warm comforts of home." —Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperTeen
- Publication dateOctober 4, 2022
- Grade level8 - 9
- Reading age13 - 17 years
- Dimensions5.75 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100063115905
- ISBN-13978-0063115903
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Review
“A classic Erica Waters blend of tension, setting so real you can feel it in the room with you, and language so beautiful you can taste it.” — Wendy Heard, author of She’s Too Pretty to Burn
“Attentively acknowledges the appeal of true crime while confronting the ways in which it can be exploitative. Employing a touch of the supernatural to create a consistently creepy environment, Waters crafts a smart and memorable thriller.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A satisfyingly twisty and refreshingly self-aware examination of human desires for self-knowledge and survival.” — Kirkus Reviews
This young adult, Sapphic love triangle is great for horror fans, and does a great job of centering victims in the conversation on serial killers. — School Library Journal
“Waters’ (The River Has Teeth, 2021) atmospheric, creepy psychological thriller combines true crime fandom, a queer love triangle, and a wilderness survival story…. [a] compelling, twisty novel where perception is compromised and reality is illusive.” — Booklist
Praise for Erica Waters: “This genre-blending contemporary thriller offers a searing indictment of men who prey on women while the book’s fantasy elements offer a form of revenge and resolution… Potent, atmospheric, and wholly satisfying.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A backwoods murder ballad of a book that draws from the old songs and legends that underpin so many areas of rural America. [The River Has Teeth] is well worth a listen.”
— NPR
"Soft and seething, with an undercurrent of longing and rage, THE RIVER HAS TEETH is the perfect story for anyone who is tired of feeling helpless. This book has teeth, too."
— Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
"Waters weaves a spell on the page, seeped with dark and murky magic, both beautiful and terrifying, just as her girls are beautiful and terrifying. Set loose upon the Bend, Natasha and Della are two forces crashing into one another with a strength that makes their world tremble."
— Emma Berquist, author of Missing, Presumed Dead
"Packed with monstrous magic and a wicked bite, The River Has Teeth is the perfect read for fans of Beware the Wild and Wilder Girls. Fierce and flawless."
— Kat Ellis, author of Harrow Lake
“Full of fierce women and wild magic, The River Has Teeth is a captivating story of love, grief, and the power of anger. From its eerie opening pages to its gripping finale, it kept me enthralled.”
— Kate Alice Marshall, author of Rules for Vanishing
“The River Has Teeth is one of those books I could not put down—even when I knew I should. The lush, haunting story gave me the most gorgeous nightmares I’ve ever had.”
— Kylie Schachte, author of You're Next
“With its witches, monsters, and missing girls, The River Has Teeth is a hypnotic, suspenseful read.”
— Wendy Heard, author of She’s Too Pretty to Burn
“This horror-tinged tale from Waters (Ghost Wood Song) spotlights issues of racial and socioeconomic injustice…. [A] lushly written story.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A cathartic portrait of two girls’ anger toward a world whose cruelty and injustice forced them to fight back. The River Has Teeth delivers ferociously good thrills.”
— BookPage
“Waters’ southern gothic thriller cleverly uses magic as a metaphor for the ways women resist the harm that men do.”
— Booklist
Praise for GHOST WOOD SONG: “What a gorgeous, creepy gem of a book, brimming with magic, mystery, music, and so much love that you’ll ache as if these characters were your actual friends. Ghost Wood Song weaves a captivating spell you won’t want to break.” — Claire Legrand, New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn and Sawkill Girls
"Ghost Wood Song sings a high and lonesome love song to family, to place, to music, and to love itself. It will make your heart dance."
— Jeff Zentner, Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
"These haunted pages are full to bursting with intricate family dynamics, a nuanced queer romance, and a crescendo of an ending readers won’t see coming. With notes of southern gothic and mystery, Ghost Wood Song will strike a chord with fans of The Raven Boys and Beautiful Creatures."
— Rosiee Thor, author of Tarnished Are the Stars
"Strikes the perfect balance of atmospheric chills, dark familial secrets, and a yearning for the warm comforts of home. I could hear the cicadas' call and feel the smothering humidity, even as I shivered!"
— Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author, House of Salt and Sorrows
"Ghost Wood Song is a dusky, haunting daydream of a debut that hits all the right notes."
— Dahlia Adler, author of Under the Lights and editor of His Hideous Heart
“A gorgeously written debut filled with ghosts, a queer love triangle, a murder mystery, & a healthy dose of bluegrass. When you finish, you’ll want to turn back to page one and start all over again.”
— Amanda Lovelace, author of The Princess Saves Herself in this One
“Waters' debut features a bisexual lead with both male and female love interests, an atmospheric southern gothic setting, and, for the musically inclined, lots of folk and bluegrass references. For teens with a penchant for eerie ghost stories, this lyrical tale will hit the spot.”
— Booklist
“Debut author Waters weaves an intense and spectral atmosphere with vivid prose…Haunting and alluring.”
— Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Erica Waters grew up in the pine woods of rural Florida, though she now resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with her spouse and two terrible dogs named Nutmeg and Luna. She has a Master’s degree in English and works as a college writing tutor. She is the author of the Bram Stoker Award winning novel The River Has Teeth, as well as Ghost Wood Song and The Restless Dark. You can visit her online at ericawaters.com.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperTeen (October 4, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0063115905
- ISBN-13 : 978-0063115903
- Reading age : 13 - 17 years
- Grade level : 8 - 9
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #215,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Important information
To report an issue with this product, click here.
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The story is told through two points of views, Lucy and Carolina. Both of the narrators are unreliable which really helps build the plot of what's going on. I love Carolina. Honestly, I would have been happy if the whole story was from her point of view. She comes to this event to see if she is evil as her father made her believe. Lucy was alright. I didn't like her as much but her story is very important to this book. The final person in the trio is Maggie, who has an instant attraction to Lucy and tries to help Lucy get over her fear. Honestly, I think I would have been happier if there was no romance in this book. It was just so fast and felt like it was just needed for the story.
Overall, The Restless Dark was an interesting book but with a more solid plot than characters. I really enjoyed the unfolding of the book. It was predictable but I still flew through the book itself. The only character I really liked was Carolina but they are all unreliable narrators due to their own trauma. I didn't buy the "romance" in this book but I pushed past it since I really didn't care for the characters as well. But with a great atmosphere, the plot is set up for a great story where paranoia is everywhere and who will surrender to it.
This queer YA horror (which I think very much feels more like a thriller to me) was an action packed ride. The Restless Dark from the very beginning has a strong sense of fear. Of that eerieness we feel when we think we are alone. That transformation from, "I'm just hiking alone in nature enjoying the solitude" to "I'm hiking isolated and vulnerable from help alone without any knowledge of where to run". Paired with this very real fear which sets in, Waters introduces just enough of a supernatural. There's that distinct feeling of something about nature just being one step away from the supernatural.
The fog that descends in a moment into a valley. How it can obscure our very presence, reflect our own thoughts like echoes in glittering caverns. The Restless Dark never lets us forget that fear. And Waters only takes it further. Introducing the element of true crime, and the very real fear of being murdered, The Restless Dark introduces a cast of characters you can never quite trust. Especially our very own narrators in this dual POV story. Lucy wants to put her ghosts to rest - almost literally - while Carolina is too busy running, but from what?
It wasn't perfect, though. Though the story was well-written from a technical standpoint, and the characters were well characterized, I found the story to be a bit of a slow read. The pacing dragged on, even with the thrilling events of the story, and there were times when I was a little bored - not because the story was uninteresting, but because it was taking so long to get through the narrative.
Overall? I liked the book. The story was unique in a lot of ways I haven't encountered in other stories, and it put forward a lot of questions for the reader to ponder over, but this is a book you're going to want to be able to sit down and read in a quiet place because the pacing will make it easy to get distracted if you aren't prepared.







