Navessa Allen’s Lights Out is the kind of twisted, pulse-racing dark romance that doesn’t just blur the line between love and danger—it smears it with blood, kink, and psychological intensity. First released in serial format and now part of the Into Darkness series, this debut novel in the duology sets the tone with unflinching honesty, morally gray characters, and a central romance that plays out like a game of “Would You Rather?” between two trauma-twined souls who find catharsis in each other’s chaos.
With a cocktail of stalking, primal lust, emotional damage, and gallows humor, Lights Out by Navessa Allen is unapologetically bold. This book is not for the faint of heart. It’s for readers who crave the dangerous edge of intimacy, where consent flirts with darkness and healing comes dressed in black.
Plot Overview: When a Drunken Text Unlocks a Nightmare Fantasy
Aly, an overworked trauma nurse in a high-crime city, finds solace scrolling through social media fantasies that involve masked, tattooed men wielding knives. These aren’t just thirst traps; they awaken something dormant and dangerous inside her—a yearning for primal dominance that’s matched only by her own buried darkness.
Enter Josh, a mysterious stranger who wears the ghost mask a little too well. Their entanglement begins with a drunken message sent to a masked man online, and rapidly descends into a chaotic blend of home invasions, knife play, and emotionally laden sex that borders on therapeutic. As Aly and Josh’s twisted connection deepens, secrets unravel—ones that involve serial killers, masked identities, dark family histories, and vigilante justice.
What begins as a stalker-fantasy-turned-reality unfurls into a full-blown mission of vengeance and redemption, culminating in a scheme that feels one part Mr. and Mrs. Smith and one part Dexter fanfiction.
Characters That Haunt and Heal
Alyssa (Aly)
Aly is not your average romance heroine. Cynical, emotionally burned out, and fighting compassion fatigue as a trauma nurse, she is refreshingly self-aware and brutally honest about her desires. Her descent into kink is not played for titillation—it’s a coping mechanism, a controlled outlet for chaos in a life dominated by human suffering.
Josh
Josh is every dark romance reader’s dream: morally gray, emotionally tortured, dangerously competent in both physical violence and cyber manipulation. His father was a notorious serial killer, and that legacy poisons his every step. Yet, beneath the mask (literally and figuratively), he is deeply vulnerable. His scenes pulse with dread and desire, often at the same time.
Side Characters
- Fred the cat deserves an honorable mention. Fred’s reactions serve as both comedic relief and a psychological barometer for Aly’s love life.
- Nico and Moira (Aly’s mob-connected family) ground the story in gritty realism while amplifying the morally ambiguous atmosphere.
- Brad, the villain, is a textbook predator who meets a vigilante’s justice—brutal, graphic, and necessary.
Thematic Exploration: Desire, Consent, and Revenge
This is a book about duality. Aly and Josh exist in the shadowlands between good and evil, pain and pleasure, control and surrender.
Core Themes:
- Trauma and Recovery – Both leads carry immense emotional baggage. Aly’s inability to prioritize her mental health and Josh’s inherited shame form the psychological foundation of their dynamic.
- Fantasy vs Reality – The masked man trope is dismantled and rebuilt in terrifyingly seductive ways. What begins as fantasy turns physical, then existential.
- Justice Outside the System – The revenge subplot feels satisfyingly raw, targeting a rapist who would likely never face consequences otherwise.
- Embracing the Dark Self – Both Aly and Josh must confront the aspects of themselves society deems “broken” and find healing in mutual acceptance of their shadows.
Writing Style: Viciously Funny and Emotionally Razor-Sharp
Navessa Allen’s prose style is brutally witty, achingly intimate, and searingly erotic. She writes like a woman possessed—by lust, trauma, and the clarity that comes after surviving the worst. The banter is sharp, laced with gallows humor that never feels forced. The sex scenes are intense, but always grounded in character development and emotional stakes.
Allen uses alternating dual POV chapters (Aly and Josh) to dive deep into each character’s psyche, letting readers feel the whiplash of trauma and the euphoria of desire. Her knack for tension—both sexual and narrative—is masterful, often letting the slowest burn lead to the hottest combustion.
The Romance: Dangerous, Dirty, Deeply Human
Unlike typical dark romances where the kink becomes the personality, Lights Out by Navessa Allen is far more introspective. The sexual chemistry between Aly and Josh is unrelenting, but what elevates the romance is their mutual understanding of each other’s darkness. Their scenes of submission and control are laced with care, not cruelty. It’s not about pain—it’s about permission to unravel.
There’s no insta-love here, but rather an intense emotional acceleration. The love story unfolds in adrenaline-fueled bursts, heightened by danger, secrets, and raw vulnerability.
What Worked Brilliantly
- Character Depth – Both Aly and Josh are multi-dimensional, walking contradictions who feel achingly real.
- Authentic Dark Romance – The darkness isn’t superficial. It comes from a place of psychological realism.
- Dialogue – From snarky one-liners to breathless confessions, the conversations sizzle and sting.
- Trigger Warning Transparency – The book opens with a detailed TW list, a responsible move given its graphic nature.
- Narrative Boldness – The story leans unapologetically into its themes without trying to sanitize or redeem its leads for reader comfort.
What Could Be Better
No book is without its flaws.
- Length and Pacing – The book occasionally meanders, especially in the mid-section, where some introspective monologues and side missions slow the momentum.
- Suspension of Disbelief – The logistics of some revenge scenes stretch credibility. The cat-and-mouse dynamic sometimes turns into outright fantasy.
- Lack of Outside Perspective – Everything is seen through Aly and Josh’s hyper-traumatized lenses. A neutral POV could’ve provided contrast and grounded the narrative further.
Author’s Evolution and Comparables
Navessa Allen, known for her serial work and Patreon exclusives, has delivered something uniquely addictive with Lights Out. Though she’s relatively new to the full-length novel format, Allen writes with the confidence of a seasoned author. Fans of her Patreon stories will find this book a more polished, complete offering—one that doesn’t shy away from exploring dark eroticism with psychological precision.
If You Enjoyed Lights Out, You Might Also Like:
- Caught Up by Navessa Allen (Next installment)
- Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
- Praise by Sara Cate
- Twisted Love by Ana Huang (for a lighter take on morally gray leads)
- The Mindfck Series* by S.T. Abby (for its vigilante-vs-serial-killer tension)
Final Verdict: A Deliciously Dark Debut That Dares You to Look Away
Lights Out is not a romance that coddles or comforts. It’s a brutal, deeply erotic dive into the psyches of two people learning how to heal through control, chaos, and kink. Navessa Allen doesn’t ask readers to approve of her characters—just to understand them. And in doing so, she crafts a narrative that is both provocative and profound.
If you like your love stories drenched in darkness and laced with danger, Lights Out belongs on your TBR immediately.
