Reviews with content warning for Blood - Where Darkness Blooms

Where Darkness Blooms is a dark fiction story based in the town of Bishop. It is surrounded in mystery and turmoil. Every few years women go missing or turn up dead. Now the younger women are left, and they are starting to go missing, and they are the final generation.

I didn't realize going into this exactly how dark it would end up being. I knew it would be semi dark, but it ended up being way more intense. However, it did truly keep me on the edge of my seat. I would absolutely recommend this to those interested in dark thrillers, but please absolutely check the trigger warnings. I kind of wish content warnings were given at the beginning. I feel it would help more readers be more away going in to make the reading experience easier.

My arc (courtesy of NetGalley/Wednesday Books) was an audio, and I greatly enjoyed consuming the work in that way. In regards to the audio portion, I only really had one critique. I wish that at the beginning of the new chapters the character POV name would be given to help with keeping track of the character switches.

Content Warnings

sitreadsip's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

First off thank you Wednesday Books and Netgalley for this gifted arc! This story was so strange, but in a House of Hollow type of way. The imagery was beautifully written! I loved the mystery concept of the story. I just wish it was faster paced. The storyline was great but I felt as if 70% of the book was mainly just the backstories for each character. And then the action was during the last 20% of the book. The last 10% felt like a ton of unneeded fluff. ⁣⁣
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I absolutely loved getting the different perspectives of the four girls, but I wonder if things would have moved faster if the author didn’t focus so much on their backstories. I think if we just had the perspectives of Delilah and Whitney the story would have been perfect. Bo and Jude’s perspectives didn’t add much to the story. It actually felt very repetitive. The parts that were important I think could have been see from Delilah or Whitney’s POV. When things finally picked up I was so enthralled in the story. ⁣⁣
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Then we have the ending… it was… too stretched for me. There was too much summarizing.

I kind of wish things ended at the porch with Delilah seeing her mom and her mom calling for the rest of the moms to come out. This wasn’t a story where we needed to see them individually with their moms. The closure was sweet but it made the end drag on. <spoiler/>

Content Warnings

luckylulureads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

arthur_ant18's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

Content Warnings

enchantressreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Where Darkness Blooms was definitely me scrolling through NetGalley and seeing a beautiful cover and requesting without reading the synopsis. Sometimes you DO judge a book by its cover, and in this case, I was not disappointed.

Bishop, Kansas is a small town that was founded on blood, and ever since, they’ve been plagued by horrible storms. While they are indeed in tornado alley, these storms feel different… sentient, even.

This book has SO many things I love in a story:
-a small town
-a cult
-a mystery
-a group of girls solving a mystery
-secrets on secrets
-normalizing queer relationships 🖤

It is a young adult story, so the story is based on younger main characters, but they do have to grow up pretty fast since all of their mothers have gone missing. It’s a horror book with thrilling parts and a sad underlying story. What most people love.

The only problem I had with this story is that it was slow at first, then moved way too quickly. Just a bit of a pacing issue, but it didn’t take much joy out of the story. I also was confused between the timelines.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this advanced review copy. When Darkness Blooms releases on February 21st.

CW for blood, death, murder, grief, injury, sexual assault, rape (not on page), gaslighting, and police brutality

Content Warnings

dogearedqueer's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

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