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A review by pagesplotsandpints
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
3.0
Read Completed 3/3/25 | 3 stars | Book #25 of 2025
Well, curiosity got me here. This was a disappointed 3 stars, but it wasn't a horrible book. It just felt like the kind of books I got forced to read in school that I never connected to and ended up being forced to analyze to pieces.
This was a character driven MYSTERY -- not a thriller. It's so hard when mystery & thriller are lumped together because I find mysteries to be much slower and sometimes the answer to the mystery doesn't really pay off for me. Seeing so many places call this a thriller really did it a disservice -- well, to my reading experience, anyway. I can be all for a character-driven mystery (see my previous enjoyment of DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DIE), but this one didn't do it for me. I have to care about said characters and while the intrigue was there, I always felt like there was this big wall between me and the book where the author wasn't quite letting me in. Some of the narration was a little dry. The third person narration didn't really work for me. It wasn't bad, but it did keep me from getting to feel for the characters as much as I wanted to.
The mystery was... fine. I thought there was going to be this huge reveal at the end based on the reviews and it really wasn't anything huge. It was just okay. Not really worth being encouraged to wait for the ending and see. I probably could have been more satisfied DNFing and just spoiling the ending for myself.
I'm giving it three stars though because I wasn't really ever BORED. I wanted to know what was going on, I was curious, and I cared enough to keep reading. It wasn't a bad book, but it was mostly 100% not my style. I kind of figured it wouldn't be going in, but I don't know until I try! I love when books surprise me and sometimes surprises make the reading experience that much more enjoyable. This was a little swing and a miss, but I can't love them all.
Well, curiosity got me here. This was a disappointed 3 stars, but it wasn't a horrible book. It just felt like the kind of books I got forced to read in school that I never connected to and ended up being forced to analyze to pieces.
This was a character driven MYSTERY -- not a thriller. It's so hard when mystery & thriller are lumped together because I find mysteries to be much slower and sometimes the answer to the mystery doesn't really pay off for me. Seeing so many places call this a thriller really did it a disservice -- well, to my reading experience, anyway. I can be all for a character-driven mystery (see my previous enjoyment of DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DIE), but this one didn't do it for me. I have to care about said characters and while the intrigue was there, I always felt like there was this big wall between me and the book where the author wasn't quite letting me in. Some of the narration was a little dry. The third person narration didn't really work for me. It wasn't bad, but it did keep me from getting to feel for the characters as much as I wanted to.
The mystery was... fine. I thought there was going to be this huge reveal at the end based on the reviews and it really wasn't anything huge. It was just okay. Not really worth being encouraged to wait for the ending and see. I probably could have been more satisfied DNFing and just spoiling the ending for myself.
I'm giving it three stars though because I wasn't really ever BORED. I wanted to know what was going on, I was curious, and I cared enough to keep reading. It wasn't a bad book, but it was mostly 100% not my style. I kind of figured it wouldn't be going in, but I don't know until I try! I love when books surprise me and sometimes surprises make the reading experience that much more enjoyable. This was a little swing and a miss, but I can't love them all.