Reviews

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

cobaltbookshelf's review against another edition

4.0

As soon as I saw the cover for Where Darkness Blooms I knew I had to read it. The story is easy to follow and I liked pacing from the very beginning. I can't say much about the world or things that happened, but this book definitely brings mystery/horror vibes.The atmosphere and the characters were great.
The imagery was also really done well. Overall I would highly recommend checking this one out. It's new and fresh.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

atvreads's review

3.0

Where Darkness Blooms is plenty creepy, atmospheric, dark, and a good thrilling read...if you don't read too closely.
Don't get me wrong! A lot of readers will find the premise and the execution well developed and well executed. But like other reviewers here, there were chapters I struggled to distinguish the narrators from each other. I kept having to go back and re-read chapters because I felt like I was missing details.

Ultimately, I do recommend this for classroom libraries because teen thrillers are all the rage right now and my students will enjoy this a great deal.

humblebee20's review

2.0

I wanted to like this book, I really did, but this book makes it so hard to care, or even remember who was who. I can tell you vaguely what each main girl is like, but please don't ask who has which mom, what any of them look like or who the boys are (I could not tell the difference between brothers, father/son, uncles). The story had a creepy premise but the only thing it does with its sunflowers is give you a hundred different ways of saying "buttery yellow". The book drags its feet the entire time and no mystery felt there. It was either too obvious or an out of nowhere twist for everything, and the book tends to lean on the former. Give me more creepiness, show me more deaths, I hated just hearing about them and nothing else. There's a good skeleton here, but the themes of generational trauma and silenced women are crushed under a whole bunch of nothing. I can not for the life of me tell you why this book was 300 pages with how little stood out. The LGBTQ romance was cute, but cute can't save fundamentally lacking everywhere else.

nissaz's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

atlasrising41818's review

4.0

The plot was predictable in my opinion, but I absolutely love this kind of fast-paced horror/small-town novel. It's a fun and quick read and the supernatural aspects tied into the story well, but I wish that part was a little more fleshed out.

izzys_internet_bookshelf's review

4.0

4/5

I really enjoyed this book. The plot was so different and the town was so mysterious. I felt like the characters fell a little short though. I wish there was a little more character background and to just know the characters better.

zagsreads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense

4.5

agenderfox's review against another edition

dark mysterious

3.75

marieintheraw's review

3.0

I need more books that give of Children of the Corn vibes. I feel this struggled with having too many perspectives, but was overall creepy enough to make up for it.

I received an ecopy of this through Netgalley; however, all opinions are my own.

mimmrqz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75