Review by mahaliahp - All the Colors of the Dark

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

mahaliahp 's review for:

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

2.5

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I picked up this book because I saw several readers hyping it up on social media. I personally don't see the hype. The writing style, though quite stunning in sections, felt contrived. I felt hyper-aware of the writing style in a way that sometimes took away from the reading experience. Not sure if others will relate to this. I wished characters would have normal conversations instead of constantly saying the most philosophical, perfectly-phrased reflection on the nature of life. Especially the child and teen characters. Just felt off to me.

This book was extremely slow paced. Like it's a "thriller" in the sense that they are tracking a serial killer, sure. And the chapters are short to artificially make it feel like a page turner, but it was much too slow of a burn to truly be a thriller. Though I never read thrillers so maybe I'm wrong. The middle section was hard to get through. I kept wondering how this book could possibly be almost 600 pages, and I SAVOUR a long book if it's good. I gave it an extra .5 star for the last 50 or so pages that gave a satisfactory ending (though too many loose ends were tied up, in my opinion). Interested to hear what people who loved this book have to say.

Content Warnings