A Friend in the Dark started strong. Eden Miller is struggling: her husband Dave has filed for a divorce, and their seventeen-year-old daughter Ava, newly off to college, seems to blame Eden for the split. On impulse, Eden reaches out to her college crush, Justin Ward, with a Facebook friend request.

To her delight, he accepts the request and admits he’s never quite gotten over her. They start exchanging sexy messages online, and despite a few red flags — he seems to know where she is all the time, he pretends not to know her when she unexpectedly drops by his house — Eden decides to trust him and follow her happiness. After all, his reluctance to acknowledge her in person is just because his wife (really his ex, who just happens to still live in the same house as him, just in a separate wing) is mentally ill, and he doesn’t want Eden to be a target of her jealousy.

See where I’m going with this? Eden doesn’t, and while I can appreciate that her loneliness can lead her to act out a bit, there’s a point where her naiveté is just a bit too much to believe in anymore. There’s a moment where Justin stands her up on a date, and yet almost immediately afterwards, Eden gratefully accepts his offer to help with a serious situation involving her daughter. Seriously? Eden is in her mid-40s, so she’s a bit too old to be this naive. And despite her divorce, she has a pretty solid support system: two best friends who are often mentioned but barely actually make an appearance, and Dave himself who may be her ex but is still a decent co-parent. So why she would turn to an online booty call for support during a personal emergency makes zero sense to me, especially since he’s already proven himself unreliable at least twice.

The story picked up again for me when it switched to the point of view of Justin’s wife, Olivia. Through her, we learn the reality behind their marriage, and the actual motivations behind Justin’s Facebook conversations with Eden. I found Olivia’s part of the story truly compelling and terrifying, and part of me wishes she’d been the protagonist throughout. I felt for her, and even though she did do some truly terrible things, part of me couldn’t help but root for her to succeed.

Without giving too much away, the events in the present-day are somewhat rooted in things that happened during a college party twenty-three years ago. The big reveal wasn’t all that surprising, given all the little tidbits we learn along the way, but it was tragic, and I felt for some of the characters involved.

Like I said, this novel started strong, but the big climax felt like a bit of a letdown. I think I was so invested in Olivia’s story that I wanted to see that plot line level up, but instead, it was Eden’s story that regained top billing. Eden’s daughter Ava also randomly makes an appearance, and honestly, the whole subplot involving her felt both convoluted and unnecessary. I’ll give her a pass because of her age, but the ending didn’t feel quite as triumphant for me as I think I was meant to feel.

Overall, I think the premise had promise. There were also parts that made me hold my breath and keep flipping the page to find out what happened next. But I felt the book focused on the less interesting main character, and as a result, despite some moments of pure thrill, it ended up being a bit disappointing for me.

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Thank you to Firefly Distributed Lines for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.