Dark romance is a subgenre of romance, and these texts are called “dark” because, though they tell the story of a romantic relationship, they often feature morally ambiguous characters, heavier themes, and even trauma and/or violence. A thriller is a kind of fiction that usually contains a mystery and provokes feelings of suspense, excitement, and anxiety in the reader. Thus, a YA dark romantic thriller is a work of fiction that portrays a romantic relationship, often between characters who are relatively young, and features some characters with questionable morals, weighty themes, and a suspenseful mystery meant to appeal to an older adolescent and young adult audience. Sloan Harlow’s Everything We Never Said fulfills these expectations.

First, Sam Wilkens and Sawyer Hawkins, both of whom were physically abused by their fathers, embody the potential moral ambiguity of characters that is typical of the genre; similarly, Phoebe’s emotional abuse of Hayley highlights the trauma inflicted by some mother-daughter relationships. The novel explores the consequences of childhood abuse on one’s adult and young adult relationships. This is one aspect of the dark romance that differentiates it from regular romances, as “most romance keeps its characters unequivocally good and its themes light, [but] dark romance is not afraid to explore the darker aspects of human nature and relationships.