Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Daisy Darker

Daisy Darker has a bit of a dysfunctional family. No-body gets along but they have all gathered on Halloween to celebrate their Grandmother's 80th birthday and hear what she plans to do with her will and belongings. As the tension grows in the house on an island cut off from the mainland, someone is found dead, and every hour after that someone else is killed off. But who is the killer, someone in the family or is there someone else in the house?

This was a fun, fast-paced read for me and I enjoyed being transported from a rare sunny week in Dublin to a rainy, stormy island off the coast of the UK. Daisy's family makes any other family drama look tame and for this I also liked it - a representation of a not so perfect family, and one that is so imperfect they all fairly calm when they start being killed off one by one.

This felt like a Knives Out-esque type of novel mixed in with a bit of Agatha Christie which resulted in a fun time.

I did have some issues with the characters - Daisy felt very immature a lot of the time, and I couldn't understand the infantilization of Trixie as well who was 15 years old but often treated as if she was 8. The others in the family are so bad and over the top, that they did feel a little but unrealistic from Rose's superior attitude to Lily's downright terrible behaviour towards everyone. But in saying all of that, I still enjoyed the pace and plot of the book and I was very intrigued as to what was going on.

There was a good twist near the end of the book that I'm surprised I didn't see coming, but also helped explain some of my issues with the book at the start. I love twists that make you want to reread the book all over again armed with the new information to spot all the clues and this definitely made me want to do that!

Content Warnings

mysterymom40's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

listened to ALC

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neniacorcoran's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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librariangeorgia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

Bloody hell. I did not see that twist coming!

I absolutely loved the short chapters - I find it so much easier to stop and start a book when it has short chapters, not that I was doing that for this one. It took a few chapters for me to get into the swing of things with this book, but after that point I was completely roped in.

I will say, it is a AND THEN THERE WERE NONE copycat but then, how many other authors have used the same plot idea? This one just had a more interesting twist.

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Alice Feeney is a master of suspense. I didn't think there would be any topping Rock, Paper, Scissors but Daisy Darker surpassed my expectations (which were high to begin with).

Speaking as someone who comes from her own brand of dysfunctional family, there was something cathartic about this story for me. It's filled with miscommunication, revenge, bitterness, justice, as well as the complicated love that comes along with a toxic family dynamic. The book is told from Daisy's perspective but we get a good glimpse of all of the characters and why they might have a motive to kill.

There's a great mix of suspense, twists, and even a little bit of creepiness. Even while I did predict each part of the ending, I couldn't have imagined it as a whole. I had plenty of suspicions, but it was a situation with so many possible suspects that I didn't want to cling to any one theory for very long.

The narrator for the audiobook did a wonderful job, putting emotion in the right places but never over the top in her delivery. Her voice was a compliment to Daisy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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