Where Darkness Blooms is a young adult thriller/horror story set in the bizarre mid-western town of Bishop - an eerie place with a reputation for devastating wind storms, endless fields of anomalous sunflowers . . . and a long history of women mysteriously disappearing without a trace. The story follows the lives of four unique girls (two are twins) who've all lost their mothers to a mysterious phenomenon.

Bo, Whitney, Jude and Delilah lived together with their mothers on the outskirts of town until the day their mothers vanished. Now, two years later, the girls gather to honor their mothers' memories at a memorial when disaster strikes. Long buried secrets blowing on the wind escape leaving the girls questioning everything they thought they knew about this creepy, supernatural town with sunflower fields that appear to be threatening. It's soon apparent that each girl has her own buried demons and secrets that threaten to destroy them all. However, it's what the girls don't know that has the most power over them.

Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural horror story that gives off vibes of The Handmaid's Tales as well as Children of the Corn. Readers are immediately drawn in by the super creepy prologue and then thrust full force forward into an unearthly tale of corruption, murder and patriarchy. The author's expertise at creating an immersive setting through her descriptive prose is nothing short of brilliant. The town's buildings and surrounding land and plants take on a menacing, blood thirsty life of their own. I swear the hair on my neck stood up as I raced through some of the scenes, losing myself in this strange little town alongside the characters. The imagery evoked transports readers to a mysterious, magical place where all is not as it seems. The characters are well fleshed out and authentic. I found the girls' relationship with each other to be a strength that garnishes empathy for their collective struggles as they investigate the murders of their mothers. Readers are privy to their dark secrets even as each one is forced to face some terrifying truths.

Where Darkness Blooms is a dark, twisted, eerie paranormal thriller that fans of the genre will devour. Hannah's control of setting, plot and characters is highly impressive as is her descriptive prose. I have to say that I'll be keeping a wary eye on my own garden of sunflowers this summer. While their heads may follow the sun, I'm now aware they're also watching me! Highly recommended to fans of young adult fantasy and horror.

Beautiful writing. I loved how the author wove the 4 characters together. It was emotional and each chapter left me wanting more.

This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts in this review are my own.

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. Between a cover that you can drool over and a promise of mystery in the description I was hooked from the start.

Unfortunately, this one didn't take long to fall flat for me. I found it to be missing excitement and suspense which made the entire book drag. There were no characters who stood out for me and nothing that happened really grabbed my attention. This is just one of those books I most likely won't remember in a week.

Content Warning: rape, violence

I wanted to read something creepy and look at this cover – it’s totally creepy. This is what I thought of the story:

+ I like the four different main characters. Four girls, who’s mothers are gone/missing or dead – the town assumes they are dead. So these four girls: Bo, Whitney, Jude and Delilah all live together and basically are trying to move on with their lives. They had distinct personalities and their lives are intertwined with certain events that culminated at a bon fire party. There is a big mystery in this story and these girls are the ones trying to figure out what is going on. I like the feminism theme in the story

+ The town of Bishop is strange. Women and girls go missing or end up dead every few months – but why? There is no “hospital” even though one of the girls had to be brought to one. There are the Harding boys who seem like they are the popular boys in school who can get whatever they want, but what they is to mess with these girls. There are these random storms or tornados but they are in a small town so that doesn’t seem totally mysterious…or is it? And what’s with the sunflowers?

~ A few things didn’t work for me – I was thrown into the story and left to figure things out. And it took me awhile to care about what was going on in this town. All I knew was that the boys were awful and two of the girls were in love with one of these awful boys, and that sucked. I knew right away this town was killing it’s women, but why? And why didn’t anyone else in town care about missing women?

~ I’ve read a few books similar to this but I don’t think I enjoyed the execution of this one. Everything is a big mystery but it didn’t creep me out as much as I wanted it to and it had all the potential to do so. I didn’t know what the connection was to the tornados, sunflowers and missing women and when the mystery is revealed I wasn’t super surprised. I wanted to know more about the town and get a better feel for the people, even the villains. I just wanted more from the story and I wanted to be spooked. Sunflower fields and a strange, small town with missing women has such a big potential to scare me, but this didn’t.

Why you should read it:
*you like lite-horror and magical realism
*the feminism message in the story

Why you might not want to read it:
*didn’t scare me enough
*slow start

My Thoughts:

This one didn’t work for me. I liked the concept and I like the creepy town, and the sunflowers fields, but it wasn’t as scary as I was expecting. I also feel like the story just didn’t flow easily. The bright spot for me in the story is the one about the girls working together to figure out why the women were going missing. The girls survive what is coming for them together, which is awesome, especially because it is such a dark story.

How was it possible that 4 teens were living alone, and where had their mothers disappeared to, two years ago? In the grand scheme of the book, that should have been the least of my worries. But, wow, talk about a story that draws you in from the very start. There is something incredibly creepy and bizarre happening, but you don’t know what. The story leisurely unfolds, and with each new piece of information, an eerie feeling creeps up your spine, and it settles there, blooming, much like the sunflowers in the novel.

I enjoyed the alternating perspectives with this one. I liked that I had no clue what was going on and that Hannah wasn’t going to give up the plot easily. This is an incredibly atmospheric novel that has you distrusting everyone. Things go spectacularly awry in a way that keeps you riveted to the book, willing you to keep reading long after bedtime. This was such a fun read. Thank you, St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books, for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book overall. I had a hard time keeping it all straight at times but it finished strong. I love the plot. It was so well done and feels ancient yet modern. I haven't read anything like this in a long time and I'll be recommending it for sure.

This was enjoyable overall but I didn’t really connect with it. I didn’t care for some of the main characters and found the side characters to be very flat.

I liked the creepy stuff and the lore behind the town. I didn’t love the ending of this and it felt like a bit of a cop out.

Loved how things turned out for Bo though. Bo and Delilah were much more entertaining than Whitney and Jude.

i was initially drawn to this book because of the cover, and then the synopsis sounded interesting as well. the prologue is a nice interesting hook into the story but at the same time gives away the entire mystery surrounding the town and disappearing girls?

i didn't really feel connected to any of the characters, i liked Bo the most but other than that didn't feel very strongly about anyone lol.

i get what this book was trying to do but i'm not sure how well it was actually executed. idk i wish more developed other than just the girls figuring out the "mystery" which wasn't much of a mystery to us as readers.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing this ARC.
Where Darkness Blooms is a great novel for fans of Rory Power's 'Wilder Girls' or anyone who loves a good small town mystery. Over all I really enjoyed this novel and it's depiction of sisterhood; Hannah creates the feeling of being trapped in the town of Bishop feel truly unnerving to the reader. The only part I struggled with the step up for POV as the third person limited can be difficult when the character that is being narrated for is not listed. Over all this is a good read for storm season in the mid west.
P.S be careful of the sunflowers.

What an inventive new spin on the patriarchy and how it comes to its demise. The characters interaction created great dynamics for the intensity of the outcome. Watch out for the sunflowers blowing in the wind! Highly recommend reading Where Darkness Blooms.

I was drawn to this book by its horrifyingly beautiful cover first and sold by its summary. I'll admit that the story was okay but the plot could have been expanded upon further. I did enjoy the characters!

What a hauntingly beautiful tale of friendship, sunflower fields, and love.
Four girls live together in a house on Old Fairview following the disappearance of their mothers two years prior.

Delilah—the mother of the group, a mantle she took up because she felt she had to, despite her all-consuming love for her boyfriend, Bennet—and the growing pain she feels in his presence.

Whitney—plucky, intelligent and kind. Haunted by the disappearance of her mother and devastated over the death of her girlfriend Elenor six months ago.

June—Whitney’s twin sister and the mousiest of the group. The winds torment her, pushing her further into herself with every new storm. And in the middle of Kansas, there are many.

Bo—fiercely independent and changed by the events of the last two years, she fights everything—from her own anger to the neighborhood bullies.

Their mothers are gone. The sunflower fields whisper. The town needs to feed.
Can the girls look beyond what’s in front of them to see the curse below?
Can they save themselves from becoming four more names on the ever growing list of missing women in Bishop, Kansas?
Can they find out what happened to the women of Bishop, and their own mothers?

Andrea Hannah beautifully spins a unique story of a curse, fate, love, and how far one will go to be free. A story I won’t forget any time soon.
4.5 stars!

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley.
All opinions are my own.

An incredible read. This book had so many layers. It was challenging to reveal each layer and discover more about the town of Bishop. The curse was a horrible thing to read about and even more awful was how many women had disappeared for this curse. The girls left behind by their mothers were so entwined in the curse , they could not see how to escape. As more is revealed, the girls begin to find out what is happening in their small town. The men responsible for the curse want only to keep people from finding out what was goin on. This book was so well written. The reader could feel all the emotions. I cried, yelled and cheered for these girls. The end of the book was so powerful….that only a person can decide where to go from tragedy.

I have to say, the first thing that stood out to me was the cover. I loved the dark forest horror vibes it gave off!! The mood of this book is so perfectly set. It’s ominous and intriguing from the start. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and seeing how the story played out.

I loved the writing and the story concept, but the actual plot and the characters took a bit too long to develop for me. I was definitely interested in the story, but I found myself having unanswered questions and missing context throughout the book. This was a quick read though, and managed to hold my attention regardless of my own issues with the story.

In this dark tale, four teens living under the same roof band together after their mothers vanish to try and solve the mystery of their disappearance. A disappearance in a very long history of dead and lost women and girls in the town of Bishop. Surrounded by a sea of sunflowers and ravaged by a rough wind, Bishop is an isolated town desperate to keep any of its girls from escaping. I liked a lot of aspects of this book. I love the sunflower imagery, and I specifically love Bo’s character and her encapsulation of female rage. I like how this reads a lot like a dark fairy tale, and I thought the overall concept was really original and really cool. I don’t think it works as a whole for me, but I loved the sisterly bond these characters had and how it was complicated and messy, but overall ran very deep. This is a perfect encapsulation of a three star read for me. Not my favorite, but totally fine.

This review will be posted on my instagram @boozehoundbookclub on the pub date.

This review will be short because I didn't really enjoy this one. I had a very difficult time focusing on the story and didn't connect with any of the characters. At times I had to reread paragraphs because I realized I had completely zoned out. This novel definitely isn't for me but I do think others will enjoy it.

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah was a book I requested because of the beautiful cover and intriguing concept. I hate to post a negative review. Unfortunately I didn’t connect to the story, the bones of the story were there, along with a lot of characters. The concept of the story was great. Personally, something was lacking. I’m not exactly the audience for this book. It has some hard hitting themes including rape, so be warned. Thanks to St. Martins/Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I read tons of horror and YA books, and this is a really creative and original plot and concept. Creepy, suspenseful, great twists and turns. Characters took awhile to develop but were solid and relatable by the end.

Women going missing or being murdered in a small town is a well-known and well-worn trope, as is that small town having a hidden curse that keeps its people close. In Andrea Hannah's new novel, Where Darkness Blooms, the two are effect and cause.

The very ground in this small town is thirsty for blood; this is a reveal late in the book to the girls, but we're told about it in the prologue. The concept is compelling. In a similar vein to Ann Fraistat's What We Harvest, the prosperity of the land is tied to death. And the town has prospered for over a century on this dusty patch of prairie, especially for the Hardings, who lead the town in more ways than one. Hannah has nailed the way power tends to condense in a small town, so often passed down like a royal title through generations. In this era without cell phones, the isolation and stark deviation between those with the power and those subject to them are even more pronounced.

There are, however, a few things I have questions about. First, why were four sixteen-year-old girls left to fend for themselves for two years? Does Bishop have no social services? The girls don't seem to have jobs; how are they funding this Boxcar Children-like existence? Second, there's a reveal late in the book that there's no clinic or hospital within city limits; did this really only come up as an issue for any one of these girls at the age of 18? No one needed stitches or a bone set before that? Third, part of the ending suggests no one leaves the Bishop city limits, like, ever. Where do they get food? How have they gotten vehicles, clothes, the taxidermy or art supplies that those specialty shops sell in a town with no medical facility?

I think I'm reading more closely into the specifics of the story than Hannah intended. Much of Where Darkness Blooms feels like a fable, with its watchful sunflowers that whisper to each other in the voices of dead women. With its broken hearts and slamming cellar doors and bonfires that light up the summer and autumn nights, who needs a backdrop made of flesh and blood instead of mist? This is a book that leans heavily into concept and character, handwaving over details that don't serve those ends. But the concept and character are strong, so if that will sustain you, Where Darkness Blooms might be your kind of book.

(A slightly longer version of this review will appear on RingReads.com on 21 February 2023 at 2:11 p.m. MST and will be available at https://ringreads.com/2023/02/21/darkness-blooms-with-strong-concept-just-dont-look-too-deep/)