Scan barcode
erinreadsstuff's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
patricktreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
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.
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
Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Stalking, Body horror, Gaslighting, Animal death, Body shaming, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Violence
enchantressreads's review against another edition
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
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
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, and Grief
Minor: Police brutality
theknitterwithabook's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
🌻🌻🌻
I would like to thank @NetGalley and @stmartinspress for an electronic copy of this ARC for an honest review.
This YA novel was FANTASTIC! It started slow but quickly picked up. There was mystery, supernatural events, betrayal, found family, a cursed town and happy ending with a little bit of unanswered questions to keep the mystery up. If you want a YA book that's a bit creepy, mysterious and right in the feels, this is it!
I finished this book during my lunch break and let's just say that having a meeting scheduled right after wasn't a good idea. I was in tears. I shouldn't have wear mascara today. 😂
It was beautiful and touching. I don't want to spoil anything but I'll just say that I liked that no-one was perfect. Everyone had their own little flaws and other characters respected their limits by forgiving but never completely because they were hurt. That was very human and real.
🌻🌻🌻
The Blurb
Bishop, Kansas, is known for windstorm and endless sunflower fields. But also women dying unexpectedly or disappearing mysteriously. Bo, Jude, Whitney and Delilah saw their mothers disappear on the same night, two years ago. The town is finally setting up a memorial but the wind has other plans.
It's finally time someone digs into the town's secrets and find out what happening. Are the girls in danger? Will they find out what happened to the women and heal their own wounds?
🌻🌻🌻
Please check the TW as there are mentions of rape, gaslighting and violence against women.
🌻🌻🌻
🌻🌻🌻
I would like to thank @NetGalley and @stmartinspress for an electronic copy of this ARC for an honest review.
This YA novel was FANTASTIC! It started slow but quickly picked up. There was mystery, supernatural events, betrayal, found family, a cursed town and happy ending with a little bit of unanswered questions to keep the mystery up. If you want a YA book that's a bit creepy, mysterious and right in the feels, this is it!
I finished this book during my lunch break and let's just say that having a meeting scheduled right after wasn't a good idea. I was in tears. I shouldn't have wear mascara today. 😂
It was beautiful and touching. I don't want to spoil anything but I'll just say that I liked that no-one was perfect. Everyone had their own little flaws and other characters respected their limits by forgiving but never completely because they were hurt. That was very human and real.
🌻🌻🌻
The Blurb
Bishop, Kansas, is known for windstorm and endless sunflower fields. But also women dying unexpectedly or disappearing mysteriously. Bo, Jude, Whitney and Delilah saw their mothers disappear on the same night, two years ago. The town is finally setting up a memorial but the wind has other plans.
It's finally time someone digs into the town's secrets and find out what happening. Are the girls in danger? Will they find out what happened to the women and heal their own wounds?
🌻🌻🌻
Please check the TW as there are mentions of rape, gaslighting and violence against women.
🌻🌻🌻
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Rape, and Misogyny
hollyk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Where Darkness Blooms focuses on four girls--Delilah, Bo, Whitney, and Jude, trying to figure out what happened to their mothers, who disappeared 2 years earlier. In doing so, they discover that women mysteriously go missing in Bishop and the girls take it upon themselves to find out the truth.
I wanted to love this book. I truly did. I love a creepy small town vibe with paranormal elements. But this book had so many flaws and inconsistencies that it wasn't enjoyable.
There's a fair amount of diversity--a Latina main character, lesbian MC, two sapphic LIs, and diverse side characters/townspeople. I also enjoyed the girls' friendships, although we don't see how exactly these bonds were forged beyond living together, and the strife within their friend group doesn't make sense at the beginning.
All four girls' POVs read the same way, and the only way to differentiate them was to remember the chapter number (the book cycled through the four in the same order, no complaint there) or the general plotline of each girl. Personality-wise, they all seemed the same because their personalities felt underdeveloped.
In terms of plot, the underlying plot of a curse in a small town was really interesting, but all of the moving parts solely created confusion and did not enhance the plot. A list of examples:
-Timeline: When everything happened is confusing--That Night seems to refer to several nights which defeats the purpose of there being "That Night." Unless I'm missing something, which is fully possible because of the lack of clarity.
-Lack of exposition. Normally this isn't a huge problem, in media res is a thing, but since the plot goes from 0 to 60 at the 60% mark, at that point, the reader still doesn't have a baseline or enough information to piece together the underlying story before being thrown into the action despite ample time to do so.
-Inconsistencies: When Whitney and Eleanor started dating is very confusing--it sounds like they met the night of the bonfire, but Whitney's mom was aware of Eleanor and wanted to meet her? And then immediately after the bonfire Eleanor dies? It was very unclear how their relationship developed and there was no reason to be emotionally invested in them beyond a surface level.
-Psychic powers?? Suddenly the girls seem to have psychic powers?Delilah is a Bloom, whatever that means, but it isn't ever explained beyond one sentence by the villain. Bo can talk to sunflowers or communicate through them? But it's really the telephone of the afterlife? And she also apparently can't die?? I couldn't tell what was metaphor and what was reality. Whitney doesn't seem to have much in terms of power except maybe communicating with the wind like her twin. And Jude can talk to the wind? Which is just an extension of the villain? If these powers were more fleshed out and utilized more, especially Delilah's identity as a Bloom, it would be more compelling and less confusing. Perhaps a plot point could be figuring out which one was a Bloom.
-Mother Abandonment:At the end, it's revealed that Indigo, Ava, and Cori (the girls' moms) escaped the town because they realized that one of them would be next and that the villains realized that they figured out what was happening. However, this doesn't make any sense, as these mothers (with the slight exception of Indigo) are incredibly dedicated to their daughters--why wouldn't they take their daughters with them? Instead they abandon them in a town that will inevitably target them with no information to help the girls. Even if they knew the girls were supposed to be the ones to break the curse (which makes no sense-this idea doesn't come up until the girls are forced to confront the villains), it's hard to believe these moms, who gave their all to their daughters, would simply abandon them and hope for the best. For 2 years. They knew another girl/woman was taken and sacrificed every six months--that's enough time for all of their daughters to be sacrificed. And only Cori half heartedly tried to get back to her daughter? Terrible mother awards all around.
-Medical inconsistencies:Whitney passes out, but then in the next chapter Jude says she can tell Whitney is conscious. Even if this was a twin telepathy sort of thing, Jude emphasizes that they don't have that multiple times throughout the story. At the end of the story, Jude is shot in the leg--why didn't the sunflowers save her like they did Delilah? Even if it was because she was too far away, how come she never goes to a hospital once she escapes? At the end, Jude's bullet wound never makes a reappearance after its removal and (likely unsterile) suturing up by Alma.
-Deeper subjects relegated to surface-level: SA and police brutality as plot points.
-The SA of Bo seemed like a way to differentiate her from the others. It did not add anything to the story other than bringing up that Caleb would never face consequences because of who his dad is. It's also unclear why Bo was targeted? Again, this just felt like the author wanted to make an important point but just skimmed the surface of the complexities of SA. I did appreciate the trigger warnings for this at the beginning of the book.
-Police brutality: Alma is taken by the police for Whitney resisting arrest? And Whitney is concerned about Alma being beaten and harmed because she's Black, but then when Whitney goes to bust her out, Alma is just sitting in a chair perfectly fine? This felt completely unnecessary--while it's important to acknowledge police brutality, Whitney does nothing to try to help her crush and just says that she's worried because of police brutality. It seemed very performative and was brought up for no real reason other than to bring it up?
-The curse was broken so easily by the semi-not bad guy bad guy, which begs the question, if he knew how to break the curse and was so against getting involved with it, why didn't he break it in the first place? He also got off scot-free as far as I could tell, but his ending is ambiguous. It was an anti-climactic ending that let a man break the curse that was harming women instead of the girls who actually did the heavy lifting and killed the men responsible (except aforementioned semi bad guy bad guy). If this book was meant to be feminist, it failed on that front.
I don't think this is the worst book ever, I will reiterate that I enjoyed the underlying plot, but there were a lot of moving parts that took away from the potential of this book.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review:)
I wanted to love this book. I truly did. I love a creepy small town vibe with paranormal elements. But this book had so many flaws and inconsistencies that it wasn't enjoyable.
There's a fair amount of diversity--a Latina main character, lesbian MC, two sapphic LIs, and diverse side characters/townspeople. I also enjoyed the girls' friendships, although we don't see how exactly these bonds were forged beyond living together, and the strife within their friend group doesn't make sense at the beginning.
All four girls' POVs read the same way, and the only way to differentiate them was to remember the chapter number (the book cycled through the four in the same order, no complaint there) or the general plotline of each girl. Personality-wise, they all seemed the same because their personalities felt underdeveloped.
In terms of plot, the underlying plot of a curse in a small town was really interesting, but all of the moving parts solely created confusion and did not enhance the plot. A list of examples:
-Timeline: When everything happened is confusing--That Night seems to refer to several nights which defeats the purpose of there being "That Night." Unless I'm missing something, which is fully possible because of the lack of clarity.
-Lack of exposition. Normally this isn't a huge problem, in media res is a thing, but since the plot goes from 0 to 60 at the 60% mark, at that point, the reader still doesn't have a baseline or enough information to piece together the underlying story before being thrown into the action despite ample time to do so.
-Inconsistencies: When Whitney and Eleanor started dating is very confusing--it sounds like they met the night of the bonfire, but Whitney's mom was aware of Eleanor and wanted to meet her?
-Psychic powers?? Suddenly the girls seem to have psychic powers?
-Mother Abandonment:
-Medical inconsistencies:
-Deeper subjects relegated to surface-level: SA and police brutality as plot points.
-Police brutality: Alma is taken by the police for Whitney resisting arrest? And Whitney is concerned about Alma being beaten and harmed because she's Black, but then when Whitney goes to bust her out, Alma is just sitting in a chair perfectly fine? This felt completely unnecessary--while it's important to acknowledge police brutality, Whitney does nothing to try to help her crush and just says that she's worried because of police brutality. It seemed very performative and was brought up for no real reason other than to bring it up?
-The curse
I don't think this is the worst book ever, I will reiterate that I enjoyed the underlying plot, but there were a lot of moving parts that took away from the potential of this book.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review:)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Alcohol, Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Sexual violence
Minor: Colonisation and Police brutality
calaqua's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The ARC of this book was given to me by the author for an honest review.
I enjoyed this. The book follows the story of 4 girls, and each voice was unique and distinct. The pacing was good and I wanted to keep going to find out what happened next.
The story had a creepy atmosphere but enough to keep the story thrilling and not overdone or tipping into horror.
I enjoyed this. The book follows the story of 4 girls, and each voice was unique and distinct. The pacing was good and I wanted to keep going to find out what happened next.
The story had a creepy atmosphere but enough to keep the story thrilling and not overdone or tipping into horror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Minor: Rape
More...