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A review by wjreadsbooks
The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas
4.0
The Darkest Corners was a book that I had placed on my Goodreads to-list a while back and then I promptly forgot about it until recently. This may have partly been because I found the first book that I've read from Kara Thomas, [b:Little Monsters|40670509|Little Monsters|Kara Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530296046l/40670509._SY75_.jpg|52952419], to be kinda middle-of-the road: like it was pretty serviceable but nothing particularly memorable. However, with the hype surrounding Kara Thomas' [b:The Cheerleaders|30969755|The Cheerleaders|Kara Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508532886l/30969755._SY75_.jpg|51586861], I thought that I'd pick up The Darkest Corners to see if I'd misjudged her - ultimately I think that The Darkest Corners was a better, more tightly plotted story and the way that the mystery gradually unfolds was actually very compelling. The twists and turns also seem far more realistic and I actually think that this may be one of the better YA mysteries that I've read in recent memory.
The story occurs is written from the perspective of Tessa, around the moment when she's on the way back to her hometown of Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa moved away when she was around nine years old, in the aftermath of the trial where she was the key witness to putting a man behind bars for the murder of a teenage girl, Lori Cawley. Tessa's best friend at the time, Callie, was the other key witness at the time and the both of them have not kept in touch after that trial and the things that they saw were never discussed with each other again. Ghosts hide in every corner of Fayette, especially now that Tessa has grown up and begins to question her memory of that night and whether Callie and her really understood everything that they saw at that point in time.
Tessa's return to Fayette this time is triggered by her father's illness, as he has been incarcerated ever since she was a child and Tessa initially believes that this would just be a quick trip home. However, her return triggers even more questions to her mind and as Tessa begins to ask some inconvenient questions about what truly happened that night, her doubts about whether everything had happened as she understood that night become more persistent than ever.
The Darkest Corners was initially a very slow read, as Tessa acclimates back to Fayette and to that uneasy feeling of having multiple things change in her hometown, yet with many people still recalling what had happened that summer. Things get off to a bad start when Tessa's father passses away without seeing her and Tessa's strained relationship with Callie, who has transformed herself into a real party girl and whose drinking seems designed to suppress anything else that she may feel. But when one of their childhood friend gets murdered, it definitely seems like Tess and Callie may have made a mistake in naming Wyatt Stokes as Lori's murder and as the serial murderer behind all the girls that had appeared all those girls ago. This central mystery then begins to pick up pace. Of course, aside from this central mystery, there are multiple other questions about Tessa's past too - for example, why did her mother disappear so shortly after Tessa's older sister, Josie, left as well? What did her father know before his death? And most of all, was Josie's disappearance linked to her friend Lori's death?
Spoiler
though towards the end things get pretty bonkers and a little bit too crazyThe story occurs is written from the perspective of Tessa, around the moment when she's on the way back to her hometown of Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa moved away when she was around nine years old, in the aftermath of the trial where she was the key witness to putting a man behind bars for the murder of a teenage girl, Lori Cawley. Tessa's best friend at the time, Callie, was the other key witness at the time and the both of them have not kept in touch after that trial and the things that they saw were never discussed with each other again. Ghosts hide in every corner of Fayette, especially now that Tessa has grown up and begins to question her memory of that night and whether Callie and her really understood everything that they saw at that point in time.
Tessa's return to Fayette this time is triggered by her father's illness, as he has been incarcerated ever since she was a child and Tessa initially believes that this would just be a quick trip home. However, her return triggers even more questions to her mind and as Tessa begins to ask some inconvenient questions about what truly happened that night, her doubts about whether everything had happened as she understood that night become more persistent than ever.
The Darkest Corners was initially a very slow read, as Tessa acclimates back to Fayette and to that uneasy feeling of having multiple things change in her hometown, yet with many people still recalling what had happened that summer. Things get off to a bad start when Tessa's father passses away without seeing her and Tessa's strained relationship with Callie, who has transformed herself into a real party girl and whose drinking seems designed to suppress anything else that she may feel. But when one of their childhood friend gets murdered, it definitely seems like Tess and Callie may have made a mistake in naming Wyatt Stokes as Lori's murder and as the serial murderer behind all the girls that had appeared all those girls ago. This central mystery then begins to pick up pace. Of course, aside from this central mystery, there are multiple other questions about Tessa's past too - for example, why did her mother disappear so shortly after Tessa's older sister, Josie, left as well? What did her father know before his death? And most of all, was Josie's disappearance linked to her friend Lori's death?