No Way Out

Darkling, beloved. #1

by Santana Knox

THERE’S NO WAY OUT OF THE MAZE.

There’s no way out of the maze, there is no way out of the maze. No way out of the maze. No way out.

None.

A teacher.

A student.

A scarecrow.

One dangerously lusty halloween night in a small Ohio town that will never be forgotten.

No Way Out is a horrific romance that is not suitable for readers under 18. Please check content warnings before proceeding.
For the reader: This is a novella, is intended to be a short read, light on the plot and heavy on the spice and horror elements meant to scratch a very specific itch. Beware.

Genres: Dark Romance, Horror, Novella, Halloween, Dark, Romance, Smut

121 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2024

About the author

Santana Knox is a Brazilian author, a South American immigrant, a mother, wife and witch.

Santana got tired of letting the voices in her head drive her crazy, and decided to write down the stories they were begging to tell instead. A lover of the unusual, and a hopeless romantic when it comes to toxic villains, Santana's books should always be taken with a grain of salt, specifically the kind that keeps demons away.

Reviews

[megan :) · Rating 1 out of 5]

What. And I cannot stress this enough. The fuck

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I read it. And I put some thought into it. But I literally have no idea what I just experienced. If someone asked me to explain what the plot was, I legitimately couldn’t say. I was honestly just hoping there was a filthy scarecrow demon with a corn cob appendage doing some serious damage to an unsuspecting woman. What I got was some sort of jumbled scenario with several men, an unethical professor, a female psychopath, tons of violent sex, and a plot that seemingly got lost in itself. Not necessarily a sensory blitz, but it was just all extremely hard to follow what was supposed to be going on. I can’t even necessarily critique anything, because I’m at a loss here. The only thing that I can surmise is that this probably would have been a lot better off being longer and fleshing out all the rapid fire plot points out, rather than trying to squeeze it all into a hundred pages, alongside a ton of unnecessary sexual content. Just my take…Topside signing off…

[Koryne · Rating 5 out of 5]

this novella was the perfect embodiment of “I’m horny and scared” “Fuck around and find out” and “what the actual hell did i just read.” and i read it in one sitting😂😂😂

there are so many things going on! it has student/teacher, blood and gore, slight necrophilia 😳, DVP, butt stuff, some MM, murder, A PLOT TWIST, unhinged ass characters, OHIO, and more soooo def check those TW because wow. it is definitely horror and it is definitely erotic 😏😏😏😏

thank you Santana for the arc of this 😍

[Celia {Semi Hiatus} · Rating 5 out of 5]

•| ⊱✿⊰ |• 5 Stars •| ⊱✿⊰ |•

This is a short story (104 pages), but it's so good (at least, for me).
It's crazy, unexpected ending, I confess I didn't see it coming…
If you're looking for a deep story, forget it.



It's Halloween!
Camila and her best friend Naya are going to the town maze at night, this has all the ingredients that I love in a story, it's a creepy one.
A lot of gore, sex…



If you love craziness, you will love this story.
Be careful with the TW, this is not for everyone.

[Ravens Dark Romance · Rating 1 out of 5]

Idk how this got such high ratings this was messy and awful. A girl is a serial killer who killed her ex and then a new guy shows up, she gets trapped in a carnival or funhouse idk where he professor is a scare actor and he fingers her only for new guy to catch them and force them into a 0rgy and then surprise we find out she’s a killer and the professor helps gets rid of the bodies we have 1 chapter from new guys POV detailing why he came to the school only for the next chapter he gets killed by the girl as she’s riding him while getting bare backed by the professor and then the professor sets new guy ablaze they walk out like they were the victims lie and say the new guy was the killer and to let the funhouse burn down they move in together after she’s finally no longer a student and the end. And she’s no longer hates Ohio? Whaaaaaa🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suddenly I’m interested in corn mazes

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok I want you to think of the most FUCKED UP horror romance you can think of. Got it? Now make it darker. Go on. Make it a little more fucked up. Even more. More. Yup, EVEN more. And that friends is how you end up with a horrerotica novella by the beautiful and clinically insane Santana Knox.

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was certainly...a book. I was having an okay time with this until the first twist hit and it just kept going downhill from there. It just makes 0 sense because there was no foreshadowing that anything like that was going on.

All we got was Camila walking around scared in a maze and having sexual encounters with scarecrows, and then it's like a switch was flipped and the book became something else entirely.

And it was dark, do check the tws, they're very important!!!

But I don't know, when I saw the content warnings I knew this was going to be wayyy out there so I didn't let my mind get too much into it, like I read it "from a distance" so even with the most disgusting, gory scenes I could keep reading on. I suggest you do the same if you can, because there's one scene that's probably one of the worst I've ever read in a book, it might make you nauseous.

Anyway yeah I wanted a lot more development from this, nothing felt like it was connected together properly, the sexual scenes felt like they came out of the blue, and then the next chapter would be all "business as usual" as if nothing happened until the next scene.

Like, I'm sure this author can do better than that. Which is why, even though this is my first book by her, I'm not giving up and I'm planning on giving her other books a chance too.

[alexleasins · Rating 2 out of 5]

crazy shit

[Jan Agaton · Rating 2 out of 5]

there was ONE scene I liked 'cause of how unhinged it was, but otherwise I really did not enjoy my time reading this. the writing was not good, super cringey, and a lot of lines felt out of place in terms of the vibe of the book. sigh, there goes my first book of 2025

[Brittany Ferraro · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/3.75⭐️ what the fuck did I just read and right before bed??!

Well, that was fun

I’m a tad traumatized ….

[Aliki (semi hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

No words, just-wow

[OliviaG. ☕︎ Liv Among The Pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know what? It's my fault for having eyes. 💀

[Darlene I read WAY to many books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a twist!!! Now, before going in, please check Triggers. This has a lot, and some many wouldn't enjoy! I don't wanna give too much away about this one. But I'll give you some!!

Camilla gets humiliated by her ex, and she just wants to stay under and get through the rest of the school year along with a new student. Cam is dragged to a corn maze , and the fun is beginning some twist and blackmail happens. That's all I'm giving you, hahah. If you want safety details you can dm me.

Om drama, no cheating, drama, sexy times, no virgins

Recommend-yes
Cover-⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat level-🌶🌶🌶.5


Slowinsta
MF MMF(some)
Sharing
gruesome murders
Strangling
disembowelment
blood-play
dubcon/noncon
No condom
masked sexual encounters
lukewarm necrophilia
Knife play
sexual assault
maiming
bootlicking
light fisting
arson
impact play
DP
DVP
stretching
Hea
Epilogue

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’m sorry but it’s the d*ck the size of a “coke can” for me 😵‍💫

this was fucking awful and vile… let me read it again.

[Анастасія ꒰⁠⑅⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠꒱⁠˖⁠♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Якщо б вони вбивали якихось там злочинців чи подібних, то оцінка була б вищою, але перші спортсмени, я там пам'ятаю, що вони змусили її дивитися як її хлопець трахався з іншою, тут сумнівно але окей. А що було з тим новим студентом, хіба що тільки шантаж, ну вбивати за таке якось і не дуже.

[Dakota · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I fucked around and I found out.

[✨natalie✨]

Wtf did I just read😳

[Mabel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this book would have actually benefitted from being shorter. Skip the worthless character introductions and start the story at the maze itself. End it at chapter 10, so the whole thing is somewhat open. It wouldn’t make the book magically good, but it would waste less reading time.

The entire thing is written in what I can only describe as a clunky fashion. Just… what is this?

She was soft but sharp, dark with madness but filled with a radiant light. Her obsidian-black hair reflected blue in the moonlight, those dark, hooded eyes slathered in charcoal-like makeup with little care, smudging in the corners and somehow making her look even more radiant.

It also has this gross sheen of “I’m not like other girls” bullshit brand of misogyny. The whole cheerleader vs goth girl trope has been exhausted for decades, but I would have been willing to look past it if not for Camila having to describe her bff this way:

Maybe Naya and Kyle were just lost in some other corner, neither of them probably bright enough to figure out how to make it out of here, even if they combined their efforts.

Fucking wow, really? No respect even for the purported best friend? The whole thing was so bloody unnecessary too. Naya is not an important part of the story. This bit could have been removed without affecting anything, but the author clearly considers it of the utmost importance to remind the reader that Camila is the most special girl out there, because she has piercings and likes dark things, unlike those silly, silly cheerleaders.

Cutting it out and working the break-up backstory into the narration when already inside the maze would have improved the book somewhat. The writing was consistently terrible during the whole thing, but the opening misogyny put me in a shittier mood than I would have been if it all had started with the gore.

Which was fine, I guess. Written with all the subtlety of an edgy pre-teen’s first foray into horror fiction, but fine. I don’t know how else to describe it. It didn’t offend me, but neither did it make me feel anything beyond vague apathy. I’m not a horror fan – I need to watch those movies with all the lights on – but this book didn’t stir a goddamn thing in me. Wow, you’re getting dp’d by your murder buddy and your latest corpse, using his blood as lube. How edgy you are. Congrats.

I went into this book with an open mind and low expectations. It had a good amount of warnings that implied it wasn’t meant to be particularly serious, and the entire Ohio thing made it feel like the author was working through some… Ohio-related issues, I guess? Being from the tropics, that particular theme felt rather alien to me. I don’t know. Maybe if I had experienced a corn maze in rural Ohio I would have found the story masterful. But I haven’t, so I just find the story boring and forgettable, and will not be touching anything by this author ever again.

[Sloth Incarnate 🍉 · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the fuck did I just read 😭

[Charly Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

um..unhinged af

…I liked this a lot…and idk what that says about me🫣😂 so uh yeah..great novella for a spooky read with spice lol

[Olga Rudnitska · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's what I'm talking about ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I don't know- sometimes- a girl needs to know how to off a man in an untraceable way. I still don't see the issue here."

Trigger warnings/ What to expect:
- Corn Maze
- Teacher/Student
- Primal Chase
- Murders
- Disembowelments
- Blood Play
- Masked Men- Scarecrows
- Blackmail
- Necrophilia
- Stabbing
- Sexual Assault
- Light Fisting
- MF
- MFM
- Double Penetration
- Stretching
- Anal
- Arson
- Straggling
- HEA

For a novella, so much went on. I felt like I was on a roller-coaster, I wasn't expecting the twist. I found the plot, even though there wasn't much of one, hard to follow in places. It didn't flow as you would expect. But I didn't mind as I loved the book anyway.

Camila is humiliated after she was publicly dumped by her boyfriend of 3 years. It wasn't going anywhere anyway. What she didn't like was how she was treated by his friends. Her best friend decided to take her out to a corn maze. This is where everything changed.

I would highly recommend reading the trigger warnings before you start. I did not. AS very little affects me and I do like to be surprised, of what was to come. However I do question my own sanity quite a bit.

Favourite Quotes:
"If I catch you, then you're mine to play with."

"This man, who knew me exactly for who I was, had seen my darkest parts as well as my light and thought both were equally beautiful."

"Our little darkling is lost in this big maze. Let's show her how well the corn keeps the screams from escaping."

"You smell delicious, little darkling. Good enough to eat."

[Jade Pietrangelo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this one was gonna be my jam… until I got to the twist and then the story just became messy, gross, and way too unrealistic. I get writing a wild story to make it entertaining, but come on.

[Elizabeth M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is tough because lots of the scenes were good. DARK. But good. Probably the most f*cked up thing I’ve ever read. But the plot? Really confusing. It felt like two separate stories stitched together in a way that didn’t fit.

[Maci!!!!!!! · Rating 1 out of 5]

What in the fuck😭😭😭 this book deserves jail time and so does cam for putting it on my tbr

[Chlo Bolton 🍃 · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the frick did I just read? 😂😭

[Sydni Donahue · Rating 3 out of 5]

No way out ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rating on a novella scale. This started super strong for me I was incredibly intrigued by the FMC and her best friend and the professor and zeke. I liked the storyline of her ex and this being her like post break up sexual encounter but I do think it all of a sudden sped up so fast and skipped so many important details. I didn’t find her and the professors building relationship believable from what we were shown. Also randomly dropping that she murdered all the people but showing us like no scenes of it? And I’m confused what was happening with zeke. One moment she was like sort of into it and he was acting fine that she murdered people and still wanted to fuck her and then all of a sudden he was like this bitch is crazy like sir you knew she was committing murder and you still were into it before? And then you force her and the professor to partake in your fantasy and are surprised when her craziness is pointed at you? The smut was awesome! LOVED THAT. Ate that up. If it was a lil more detailed it would be on my best smut list. I’m obviously going to read the next one. Yeah started strong then went downhill character and plot wise real quick and was a tad of a mess but the smut saved it for me and it had some of my kinks that I barely get in books so yay! Epilogue could’ve been way better. Loved the scene with professor choking zeke tho (if you know you know). Surprised where this went but hey it was fun even with the flaws in plot and characters. Yay insane smut and spooky season

[Isis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect when reading this and let me tell you WTFFFFF 😂

The way Santana writes is ✨perfection✨
If you want something short and chaotic then this is for you 🖤
This is a short erotic horror with a plot twist I didn’t see coming, I loved everything about this 🌽
I will never look at Scarecrows the same and I’m ok with that.
I listened to the audiobook and Tempest and Von did such an amazing job!! That man’s voice 🫠

[Kayla ✧♥︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

uuhhhm haha



3 ⭐

Well this was.... dark af. I heard it was unhinged and unhinged it was. At only 121 pages it sure does pack a punch. 🥴 Out of morbid curiosity, I could not put this down.

The twist had absolutely zero lead up or foreshadowing. Just came out of left field. It felt so random when it was revealed. But sure, why not.