I’m really pleased to day I have a blog tour on the blog on behalf of The Write Reads today. The Dark Matter of Natasha by Matthew R. Davies is a coming of age psychological thriller. Thanks to The Write Reads and the author for the copy of the book.
Natasha stalks the quiet streets of dead-end Lunar Bay like doom in a denim jacket. She’s a grim reminder that some teenagers can never escape the ever-tightening noose of their lives. Burned out and benumbed by a traumatic past, dogged by scurrilous small-town gossip, she finds solace in drugs, sex and Slayer.
What horrors have her flat eyes witnessed? And how far will she go in pursuit of the one tiny spark of hope that still flickers in her haunted heart?
When a naïve transplant crosses her path, he’s drawn into shadow and doubt. With his girlfriend ghosting him, Natasha’s fresh introduction to her half-lit world is darkly appealing. Now faced with confusing quandaries—connection or convenience, relationship or exploitation—can he help any of the women in his life? Or is he just helping himself?
The untold tragedies of Natasha’s lonely life may be more than he can handle. And in a town whose history is littered with dead girls, there may be no happy ending for anyone.
A tar-black coming of age story, this gritty psychological thriller from Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Matthew R. Davis, eloquently chronicles the crushing gravity of small-town hopelessness, the double-edged catharsis of sex, drugs, and heavy metal, and the brutal weight of youth’s first lessons in accountability.
A novella that I read in one sitting, by an author that I haven’t heard of before. A coming of age story that’s powerful, full of emotion and even trauma. It is a dark story but, wow! It keeps you truly gripped until the final word.
A teenage boy is our main character, one whose name we never learn. He is just learning about life and love as he goes. He has a girlfriend, who is on his level, they slowly start to try out sexual things together. Then Natasha arrives on the horizon…and she becomes his obsession.
One of them girls that everyone’s mums warn them against, our teenage boy just cannot get enough of her. She introduces him into a world of sex, drugs and a darkness so black you cant even imagine finding a way out.
Natasha is a girl that’s been used and abused so she is floating through life, feeling numb, sad and defeated. Our teenage boy does not know what he is getting caught up in until he is in the eye of the storm that is Natasha.
The characters are what glue you to the page. The teenage boy is really well written, and excellently fleshed out so I was totally invested in his story. Natasha is a character that tore my heart apart. Everything about her screamed lost and broken to me. I wanted to scoop her up and make her see someone cared. The author definitely wrote her so well.
A novella full of sensitive and intense issues that aren’t shied away from. The skilful way it has been presented, makes it a read that you cannot help but be compelled to keep reading. Even after I have finished this I couldn’t get the story out of my mind. If you enjoy dark, intense thrillers that make their mark quicker in a novella than a 500 page novel. This may just tick all your boxes too.
Buy Link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09XFGGYBF/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_8ABJQDNFW84HE6FXCJQ3
Author Bio
Matthew R. Davis is an author and musician based in Adelaide, South Australia.
His work has been shortlisted for, and sometimes won, the Shirley Jackson Awards, Aurealis Awards, Australian Shadows Awards, and the WSFA Small Press Award.
He plays bass and sings in heavy rock/metal bands such as icecocoon and Blood Red Renaissance, dabbles with poetry, video editing, and visual art, and works on projects with his photographer partner.
He is the author of Supermassive Black Mass (novelette, Demain Publishing, 2019), If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (horror stories, Things in the Well, 2020) and Midnight in the Chapel of Love (novel, JournalStone, 2021).
He loves all kinds of metal from Mötley Crüe to Pig Destroyer and his favorite Slayer album is Seasons in the Abyss.
Find out more at
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 
Fab review!
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Thanks Ellie! Again
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