Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy
Release Date: February 21st, 2023
Pages: 320
Publisher: St. Martins Press
My Rating: DNF
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.
The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.
With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney’s twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah’s boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.
Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.”
My Review:
Ugh, I hate writing these because it makes me feel like the bad guy, it’s a yucky feeling. I promise, I’m not here to hate or be negative and contrary. But I still have to be honest with myself and everyone about my personal experience with the story. And I’m sorry to say that this one just failed to engage me. There’s not really any particular thing that is inherently wrong or bad about it. I just didn’t connect with it on a deeper level and so it lost my interest. I was really excited about this release and really looking forward to reading it. I would still consider future books by this author. I did like the writing in general, just not the story so much I think.
Maybe it’s one of those cases where it just isn’t for me. I don’t think it’s a bad book. In fact, I can objectively see how a lot of other readers may even love it. But for me, the plot was slow, and the characters were lacking that spark of connection. It could use a little more work on the pacing and development in my opinion. I wanted more from the relationships, from the creepy setting, from the fantastical elements of the story. I liked the vibes, the context, but the content and execution less so. I also think some of the disconnect for me is because the genre is a little bit of everything, and yet somehow not really anything at the same time. Nothing was very memorable to me. I wish it would have leaned more heavily on the fantasy elements and eerie atmosphere, rather than the drama.
I hate giving up on books (momma and daddy didn’t raise no quitter) but I made a promise to myself that, with so many on my to be read list, if I got over a hundred pages in and still wasn’t feeling it, I’d move on and that it’s ok to do that. People always talk about being a “mood reader” and, while I still don’t fully comprehend exactly what that means, maybe I’m beginning to feel like I’m one too? Or maybe I’m starting to fall out of love with the young adult genre in general.
Honestly, y’all, I’ve been in quite a slog with books here lately. I’ve had numerous two and three star reads back to back and it’s starting to put me in a slump of not even wanting to read at all. To save my state of mind and motivation, I just had to put this one down. And I’m really hoping to find something next that will lift my spirits because it’s all becoming a bit of a drag right now.
I will probably be in the minority with this one so take my review with a grain of salt. I’m leaving this review starless because I don’t want my DNF to negatively affect the success or opinions on this book. And that makes me feel like less of the bad guy for this one.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This post may contain affiliate links that I may earn a small commission from with no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support 🙂
Have you read this book? Planning to add it to your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
I love a good book discussion. 🙂
Leave a Reply