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yvo_about_books 's review for:
Dark Corners
by Megan Goldin
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Finished reading: June 23rd 2025
“We're so desensitized to evil, so obsessed with finding out what makes the likes of Thomas McCoy tick, that we forget about the victims. Not just those they kill, but those they leave behind.”
I loved my first meeting with Rachel Krall back in 2020, although I didn't realize at the time that there was going to be a sequel. I love a good podcast thriller, so I was very excited to hear that this character was going to return in a new story... And I'm still not sure what took me this long to finally pick it up. I guess my TBR jar had similar thoughts, and while my reading experience didn't turn out to be a good as I thought it would be, I'm still glad I finally read Dark Corners. It might have been that I simply set my expectations too high, but I wasn't as impressed by this sequel as I thought it would be. Instead of the podcast episodes of the first book that made the story stand out, we only get brief glimpses of Rachel Krall's Special Report entries that didn't do enough to satisfy that podcast element craving. Instead, there is a LOT of focus on social media influencers, which isn't my favorite topic in the first place and in Dark Corners it overshadowed the potential of the rest of the plot. There were SO many cliches involved when it comes to the influencers and the BuzzCon event, and it had my eyebrows working overtime. I get that the missing person is an influencer and Rachel going undercover had potential, but I just wasn't a fan of how this element was developed in the plot. I wasn't a fan of Rachel's attitude in this sequel either, and she sure made some very stupid decisions along the way. There were also a couple twists that were SO obvious that it honestly doesn't speak well of Rachel and Joe's detective skills... Sure, I can't say that I guessed everything right, and there was a surprise or two near the end, but as a whole Dark Corners turned out to be a lot more predictable than I thought it would be. There was also something about the pacing that felt off, and it took me a lot longer than expected to actually make it to the final page. When you keep putting your kindle down to do other things instead, it's never a good sign... I'm not saying Dark Corners is a bad read, but it wasn't able to hold my attention either. Definitely stick with The Night Swim if you still have to meet Rachel Krall!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail