A review by ksheathebrave
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There was a lot to dislike about this book (most notably the poor editing, especially for repetition), but I didn’t initially feel the need to review it. I mean, why yuck someone’s yum? Who cares. I don’t even care that I guessed the main twist within the first few chapters. Plus, it was engaging enough that I read the whole thing within a few days, and I have no qualms with DNF-ing books. 

But then I got to Chapter 38, and wow, big yikes. The fact that I haven’t seen this issue mentioned in any other reviews is absolutely *wild.* Like, y’all. It’s concerning. 

Spoiler re SA 
In Chapter 38, an 18 year old man attempts to sexually assault Daisy, a 13 year old child. Thankfully, he stops when he sees her scar, calls her a freak, runs away, etc etc.

The scene is completely unrelated to the plot and does nothing to move the story forward. It’s just gratuitous and disgusting. By this point in the book, the author has well-established that Daisy feels like “freak” because of her broken heart, so there’s no purpose for this scene, other than that the author wanted to write it.

If the author isn’t clever enough to come up with an alternate way of occupying Daisy’s time before the next scene without resorting to the SA of a literal CHILD, she really should not be writing. The editor likewise needs to do some serious self-reflecting on the content they’re approving.
 

Spoiler re safety of the dog
Poppins survives! Yay!
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