I so want to love this book.
In the end I had suspense, danger, on the edge of my seat action.
The beginning could have had more though. The worldbuilding was about confusing, but I got the hang of it.
If the introduction chapter was not in the book, I think the book would have had more suspense. Or they included it later in the book.
I still really liked it, and the cover was brilliant. It was the main reason I requested this book. If you are going to pick this up, stick around till the end. The ending is so worth it.

Where Darkness Blooms pairs eerie atmosphere with coming of age teenage angst creating a tale that is enjoyable but a bit drawn out for my liking.

There's something strange about the town of Bishop. Amongst the endless fields of sunflowers the community endures extreme weather and a proclivity for missing women. The story follows four girls who's mothers are among the missing. While they are all roommates and sisters ( some literal some proverbial) the sinister town and its inhabitants have slowly created fissures in their union. We watch as each girl seeks answers in their own way wondering if it will pull them further apart or reunite them.

This story grabbed me immediately. As a self proclaimed atmosphere junkie, I found the storm imagery spectacular. Hannah surely has a way with bringing words to life. I also found the characters to be complex and likeable. Unfortunately around the fifty percent mark, I think, most readers will have a clear grasp of whats what. This makes the back half of the book feel a smidge redundant and boring. Knowing whats happening ahead of a character can be used brilliantly to add suspense and true moments of glee when the character do eventually catch on. I dont think that was achieved here.

I think this lands at a 3.5 for me. It was successful enough that I hope to read the authors future works but all in all this one will land in my forgettable pile.

The cover is beautiful which is why I requested it. The story is an interesting concept but I'm... not quite sure about so many things. There were quite a number of plot holes that didn't make me confused, but also made me stop.

The four povs were also a bit much - they all felt very similar (except Bo stood out) and at times I confused them. 

I dunno! It was a lovely written book but I would put it down and do something else instead of reading, which says a lot to me about a book.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for a chance to read and review.

Title: Where Darkness Blooms
Author: Andrea Hannah
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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.

This was a very strange novel. Very atmospheric and evocative, but strange. The sunflowers creeped me out tremendously—like the corn field in The Stand—and even when I got an explanation for them, that didn’t make them any less creepy. The relationship between the four girls was realistic, with their fighting and arguing and defending each other, but I didn’t really care for them. This was a very dark and bloody story, and I didn’t find much hope in it.

Andrea Hannah is an award-winning author. Where Darkness Blooms is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

This book appealed greatly to me. it is right up my alley, from the cover to the description to the tone. unfortunately it fell a bit flat to me — i think the author was a bit too ambitious having so many perspectives. they got a bit confusing and weren’t as distinct as i would have liked.

i would recommend it to someone new to thrillers/horror but don’t think it’s one that will stick too closely with me.

Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms was a slow brooding atmospheric blend of supernatural thriller and intense family drama. The setting was outstanding, an isolated Kansas town eerie oozing with secrets (but no answers) where there are frequent weird goings on with very localised vicious storms and sunflowers which seem to be both alive and threatening. The supernatural element simmers in the background and it was interesting to see where it fitted into the main story of four teenage girls trying (and failing) to get over the disappearance of their three mothers (two of the girls are twins) two years earlier.

Where Darkness Blooms focusses on the wreckage of how the teens deal with their loss and never give up their painful search. We have Delilah, who is dating Bennett, but there are intimacy issues, and the fact that one of the other girls, Jude, had an earlier summer fling with Bennett to complicate things. There is a very good LGBT+ storyline with Whitney both trying to recover from the death of her girlfriend six months earlier, whilst also attempting to move forward with somebody new. Finally, there is Bo who is desperate for answers and is sure the town locals are hiding something. Even though this was a thoughtful book, all the men and boys in it were painted too negatively, making it easy to see where it was heading (just blame the guys). AGE RANGE 13+

I wanted to like this book but I think it’s just not for me. I liked the actual writing but I felt like I didn’t have enough time to get to know all of the characters. Having four povs was too much for the amount of pages that were in this book. The story itself was compelling though but i’m still wondering what my thoughts on bennett are supposed to be. I don’t like him but the end of the book makes it seem like i’m supposed to.

I received an arc through netgalley.

This was a good example of intriguing concept, poor execution. Where Darkness Blooms has been on my radar since the cover reveal—because, seriously, how haunting is that cover? The premise (queer girls investigating missing women in their rural town) sounded promising; I was thrilled to receive an ARC.

I’d seen a few people with ARCs posting about how much they loved the prologue, which made me all the more excited to read it. But the voice really fell flat for me. It lacked clear and unique emotion, which I think is ultimately this book’s downfall.

Other reviewers have pointed this out, but there isn’t much at all to distinguish between the four narrators—Delilah, Whitney, Jude, and Bo. They seem to be the same character copied and pasted over and over again. The voice remains the same, the emotions are vague and expected. There’s nothing to draw the reader in and make us root for these characters, nothing in this book that makes me feel what the characters were feeling.

In addition, there are so many characters, and it’s difficult to keep them straight. I think this book needed to cut two of the main characters and their subplots in order to really work.

The plot was interesting, but not enough to really save the story. It focuses on four girls who’ve lost their mothers—and are trying to understand why all the women in their town die or go missing. It was easy enough to get through. The last half was much more gripping than the first half.

This book wasn’t for me, and that’s okay. I think there will be a lot of people who do enjoy it; I’m just not one of them.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All views reflected are my own.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm a sucker for a beautiful book cover. It's what initially drew me in to this novel but I stayed for the twisty, bizarre adventure. I can't say I was particularly fond of any of the characters but the plot had me, I needed to know what happened. Yes, there were quite a few holes but if you sort of put reality aside you can enjoy the journey. This was fun and creepy.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this!

I’ll admit, I find sunflowers pretty creepy, so this cover instantly had me ready to be scared. Perfect for fans of Rory Powers this was some weird, creepy stuff. There were a lot of POVs and characters to keep track of and I kept getting a little confused, but that’s something I usually struggle with.

Where Darkness Blooms was definitely me scrolling through NetGalley and seeing a beautiful cover and requesting without reading the synopsis. Sometimes you DO judge a book by its cover, and in this case, I was not disappointed.

Bishop, Kansas is a small town that was founded on blood, and ever since, they’ve been plagued by horrible storms. While they are indeed in tornado alley, these storms feel different… sentient, even.

This book has SO many things I love in a story:
-a small town
-a cult
-a mystery
-a group of girls solving a mystery
-secrets on secrets
-normalizing queer relationships 🖤

It is a young adult story, so the story is based on younger main characters, but they do have to grow up pretty fast since all of their mothers have gone missing. It’s a horror book with thrilling parts and a sad underlying story. What most people love.

The only problem I had with this story is that it was slow at first, then moved way too quickly. Just a bit of a pacing issue, but it didn’t take much joy out of the story. I also was confused between the timelines.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this advanced review copy. When Darkness Blooms releases on February 21st.

CW for blood, death, murder, grief, injury, sexual assault, rape (not on page), gaslighting, and police brutality

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

If you are looking for a feminist story with a side of spooky, this is just the book for you! I think my favorite part was how it's a story about women surviving and overcoming despite a world that is not made for them. This book contains the stories of women who have such amazing strength and resilience, no matter what they face in the world around them, and it was so inspiring to read.

I loved how suspenseful the book was and how it all unfolds. It did start a bit confusing because there are four POVs, and that made it a bit hard to follow at first. But once I was oriented and acquainted with all of the girls, I needed more immediately. They were all so unique and their stories were all had such depth to them that I wanted all the pieces to each of the girls. The way that this story really embodies all aspects of womanhood is so touching and meant the world to me.

I also loved how unique the story is. I've never read anything like it in fantasy or thrillers, and I absolutely wanted more and more of the world. I really hope that the story will continue, and I can't wait to devour more of it!

I loved this book! It’s got creepy vibe and I love a good thriller. The town of bishop was founded on blood and it’s a town where the sunflowers whisper secrets. This book centers around a group of girls whose mothers disappear is the town of bishop and no one is surprised. Read this book and prepare to be hooked

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of Where Darkness Blooms in exchange for my honest review!

When I first encountered this eARC, I instantly knew that I just had to read it thanks to its eye-catching cover. Its usage of nature as body horror strongly reminded me of Wilder Girls by Rory Power. So it's unfortunate that I dived into Where Darkness Blooms and ended up feeling like its narrative doesn't measure up to the cover. I can appreciate what it's attempting to achieve with its supernatural atmosphere and its themes of misogyny, the patriarchy, and living in a home that stands due to the blood that's been previously spilled to sustain it. But they're not nearly as layered as they could have been, and it doesn't help that the main characters come off as thinly written. I did find Whitney to be a little more nuanced than Bo, Delilah, and Jude, but still, there weren't that many facets of her character for me to latch onto. Even the mood wasn't as thick and enthralling as I'd expected it to be—certainly nothing like Wilder Girls.

Overall, Where Darkness Blooms had plenty of potential, so I'm sad that it didn't fully live up to it.

This book is as confusing as its synopsis. There were a lot of characters to keep track of. The main four friends were in theory different but had very similar voices. The mothers in turn seemed like the same person as each other. There were plotholes that I just had a hard time getting past. Their mothers disappear 2 years earlier and they are now just deciding to do something about it? Because crime scenes usually still have clues laying around for that long. *rolls eyes*. And don't even get me started on [spoiler] the fact that the mothers are alive and well. They realized the towns secret and how dangerous it was for women and saved each other but left their female children behind. On what planet would that happen? I was infuriated when I got to this point in the story. The mothers excuse was the sunflowers wouldn't let them back in. I would have ripped out every sunflower that was in my way. Honestly, it would have been better if they would have found their mother's dead bodies. (hide spoiler)]

With all that being said there was something captivating about the story. Something that pulled me in. I think the author had a good idea but maybe executed it wrong.

***Advanced copy obtained from St Martin's Press/Wednesday Books via Netgalley***

I really enjoyed this book. I was immediately drawn in the second I saw the beautiful (and slightly creepy) cover and the story definitely didn’t disappoint. The cast of characters were all very interesting and unique. There were a few times the story fell a little flat and didn’t quite live up to the creepy vibes of the prolog, but overall such a fun read!

This book was just the right amount of creepy, but I was really thrown off by the ending. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I was unhappy with the decisions and actions, that we didn’t know about until the end, of some of the characters. Overall, it’s a very intriguing premise, I just think some of the characters were under developed.

This one won’t be for everyone but if you love books that are strange and creepy with strong feminist vibes then pick this one up. It’s a bit of a slow burn thriller but I found it engaging and connected with the characters deeply.

This book focuses around loss and trauma but also highlights strong female bonds. I loved that this book was about women coming together for support and strength and the mystery of the town’s origin and curse really hooked me.

I will always be a fan of found family and Where Darkness Blooms focuses heavily on this. It isn’t always what dreams are made of and this is found in the differing personalities of four young women thrown together by tragic circumstances. Each with a unique take on their surroundings and what led them there.

The author takes her time in the telling, giving each character a voice and allowing the reader to get to know them through their stories of loss. Magical realism is hit or miss with me, if it’s told in a way that doesn’t float right over my head then I love it but if it’s just a magical fantasy that makes no sense, then obviously, not for me. In this case, I enjoyed it. I liked the fact that the town of Bishop was a character within itself and malleable to the evil that resided within it. All it took was a little nudge.

This is a full cast narration and it really works! Rachanee Lumayo, Emily Ellet, Sarah Beth Pfeifer and Lindsey Dorcus do a spectacular job.

Definitely one I’ll be recommending to fans of the genre.

My thanks to Wednesday Books for a gifted DRC and to OrangeSky Audio for a gifted ALC.

This story follows four girls, Delilah, Whitney, Jude, and Bo. They live in a town called Bishop in Kansas that is known for terrible wind storms, however, they never need to evacuate because they dissipate as quickly as they come. Their three mothers were best friends and roommates after each of their husbands took off. Two years ago, though, their mothers disappeared and the girls have tried living normal teenage lives ever since. Until one day Delilah finds a note in her mother's art studio that has a phone number and a note that says "call me". Delilah begins to wonder what may have actually happened to their mothers, especially when Bo finds evidence with a sinister meaning.

First off, this is not at all the usual genre that I personally would read. I don't normally read thrillers or horror novels, especially with a paranormal twist to it. However, I really enjoyed this one! I loved the found family in here with these four girls who are each so different and yet are a family and look out for each other, even when they make mistakes or may hurt the other. Each of them have their secrets, some more heartbreaking than the other, which are revealed as the story progresses and it's heartbreaking and heartwarming to see how each of the sisters react.

I liked Bo the most. Probably because she seemed the most logical of the four girls, and she also wanted answers, she hated having only questions about their mothers' disappearances instead of answers. I would have reacted the same way, and would have been frustrated with my sisters not willing to look into their disappearances further. Her story is the most heartbreaking and I just love how strong she is and just, I just love her!

The horror aspect in this book is very unique, creepy and terrifying, oh and totally messed up! And kept me on my toes through the story, especially at the end wondering how this would exactly play out.

A couple qualms I did have is spoiler-y, so I won't go into detail, but let's just say it's one of the revelations at the end we have that I did not like the revelation, and it did not really make sense to me. The other is I wish there was more doubt-causing situations. I knew who the "bad guy" was immediately, and I wish the story made me think and wonder who could be the "bad guy" rather than just know at the start of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story, and maybe I will start looking into reading more paranormal horror contemporary reads now!

I received a free digital copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.