paperprivateer 's review for:

Darkly by Marisha Pessl

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This book has terrific vibes. I imagine kids who once read Mr. Lemoncello’s Library would eat this up a few years later. It has intriguing puzzle, high stakes, and delicious world building that keeps you turning pages as fast as you can. 

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding aspects of this book. It kept me intrigued to the last page, and the game in this book is something like a mix of escape rooms, board games, and… larping, maybe? It’s unique and confusing in all the right ways. It has great creepy moments, but it never got too much for me (a self-proclaimed wimp on those things). We slowly learn more about the mysterious founder of the company and why she did the things that she did, although I did wish there was even more information about her, particularly the parts of her that were human and flawed instead of this mysterious mythical-like figure.

My biggest complaint about this book was the characters. It seems like there are too many of them to get to know any of them very well. The book is definitely more plot based than character based, but there are moments where it feels like we’re supposed to be invested in the characters for it to work but I didn’t feel any particular way toward them. There are a lot of characters 

Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot and wanted more. I wish some of it had been more fleshed out, but I would read another book if this was a series.