The Verdict First
This is my spoiler free review of Lights Out by Navessa Allen, the first book in the Into Darkness series. My verdict, up front: it is funny, fast and very explicit, and I’d give it four out of five. It is also not for everyone, and I’ll tell you exactly who should skip it.
What It’s About
Aly is an emergency room nurse in an inner city trauma hospital. She works endless shifts, her love life is on pause, and she has developed a fixation on masked men online. One account in particular catches her eye, a creator known as the Faceless Man, who posts shirtless videos in a balaclava.
In the first chapter she texts one of her old hookups a screenshot of his video and asks him to wear a mask. He says no. What she doesn’t know is that the man’s roommate, Josh, is the Faceless Man. Josh already knows a great deal about her, and he decides to give her exactly what her comments asked for.
That’s the setup. A woman with a kink and a man with a secret, and a home invasion that she half invited. What comes next I won’t spoil.
How It’s Built
The book has twenty-six chapters and an epilogue, and by my count it’s around one hundred thirty-five thousand words, so it’s long. The point of view alternates. Aly narrates the odd chapters, and Josh narrates the even ones.
That structure is the best thing about it. You get a stalker who is constantly second guessing himself, and a heroine who is constantly outthinking him. Each one assumes they are the one in control. The reader gets both sides and enjoys the gap between them.
The book was first shared as a serial on the author’s website, according to her own acknowledgments, and it feels like it. The chapters are long, but each one has a clear turn at the end.
What Works
First, the voice. This is a rom-com, even if it’s a very dark one. Aly’s narration is quick and sardonic, and Josh is anxious, literal and often funny at his own expense. The jokes keep landing even in tense scenes.
Second, the chemistry. The two leads feel matched. Aly spends her whole working life caring for other people, and the book keeps coming back to how badly she wants somebody to look after her. Josh, who has a complicated family history, has spent his life afraid of what he might do to people. Watching them settle into each other is the heart of the story, and for me it works.
Third, the supporting cast. There’s a cat named Fred who deserves his own review. There’s Josh’s roommate Tyler, who is loyal and mostly clueless. And there are Aly’s coworkers, who give the hospital scenes some warmth between the emergencies.
Fourth, it knows what it is. The trigger warning page at the front calls it a dark stalker rom-com with heavy themes, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
Pacing and Plot
The first third is the strongest. The setup is tight, the messages between the two leads crackle, and the book keeps escalating without losing its sense of humor. In the middle, the story widens, and other threats come into the picture, which changes the tone for a while. I won’t say more, because the shift is part of the fun.
The plot is a little looser than the romance. A few things happen because the story needs them to, and some choices the leads make would never survive a sober second look. But the book is upfront about being a fantasy, and I found it easy to go along with.
How Spicy Is It
Very. I’d put it at five out of five on a spice scale. The sex is explicit, on the page, and it is a large part of the plot, with scenes in many of the chapters. A fair amount of it involves power play, a knife used as a prop, and the heroine being tied up or blindfolded. The leads talk about what they want and what they don’t, and the book repeatedly makes the point that she can say stop at any time, so consent is part of the story. My content guide lists the chapters.
What Doesn’t Work
My complaints are fair but small. This is my opinion, and you may disagree.
The book is long and repetitive in places. A lot of chapters circle back to the same conflict, with one of them nervously deciding whether to trust the other, and the heat scenes are frequent and long. If you’re not reading for the heat, the book could be shorter.
The tone also shifts a lot. The hospital scenes include serious injuries, death and sexual violence, and the next page is a joke about a cat. Some readers will find that charming. Others will find it jarring, especially when the subject is something heavy.
And the central premise asks you to accept a lot. A stalker who installs a camera in someone’s bedroom is not romantic in real life, and the book knows it, which it says out loud. I think it handles that by making her an active partner and by having him hold a line he won’t cross. But if the premise bothers you, the book will not change your mind.
Compared With Other Dark Romance
If you’ve read other stalker romances, this one sits at the lighter end of tone and the heavier end of heat. It is less brutal than the grimmest titles in the genre, because the heroine is never helpless and the narration is constantly joking. But the sex is more detailed than in most mainstream romances. That mix is why it found such a large audience, and why it divides people.
Content Warnings
Here is the short list, taken from the book’s own warning page and my read of the text. There is a lot of explicit sex, including anal play, breath play, knife play and a chase scene. There is stalking, invasion of privacy, a home invasion, hidden cameras and hacking. There is violent death, medical gore in a hospital, a limited description of a mass shooting, off page rape mentioned in the story, remembered child abuse, and the death of a parent in a car accident. For chapter by chapter detail, see my content guide.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you like dark romance with a sense of humor, if you want a couple with real chemistry, if you like two narrators who misread each other, and if you can handle explicit sex and violence. It’s also a good pick if you enjoy books with an animal sidekick.
Skip it if explicit sex is a hard line, if stalking in a romance is something you can’t enjoy, or if the heavier topics on the warning page would hurt. Those are all fair reasons.
My Rating
My score is four out of five, and this rating is a draft opinion. For me the first half is great, the middle drags a bit, and it recovers for the ending, which I’m not going to spoil. I’d call it a wild ride that mostly works.
The plot summary, with spoilers, is the next video if you want it.
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