First, this cover! *GASP* Absolutely stunning and really draws you in.

Second, the blurb, yes! Drew you in again.

The story.. fell flat. I think the main reason for this book just not hitting right for me was the fact that there is about 50 characters to try and keep up with. I was constantly having to back track to see who was who. The plot developed nicely but a bit lackluster.

WAR IS OVER! I began reading this in August, and it is now January.

This cover is stunning in every way. Even for someone who doesn't frequently read horror or thrillers, the plot was quite compelling. But as I've already mentioned, it did take me a while to finish because it revolves around so many people that it's difficult to fully develop them in a short period of time. I still don't remember everyone. However, I believe my opinions are a little biased because I read this book just before my final, and finishing a book you've been reading since August is a tremendous relief. Additionally, that little acknowledgment was the perfect finishing touch. Although I believe there could have been improvements made, concentrating more on a single character to really develop their personality and connections to create the creepy universe would undoubtedly make this novel much better. The climactic moments also needed to be clearer and continue longer because I felt like they were lacking and left me hanging.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A big thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and of course Andrea Hannah for providing me with an eARC of this book. I am voluntarily leaving a review, all opinions are my own.

I wanted to absolutely love this book, I mean the cover is gorgeous and it sounds so good when you read the description, but it just fell short for me in some ways. I felt like the execution just wasn't quite there for me, with some plot holes throughout and muddled character convictions.

It was interesting, and as things started to come together, I definitely enjoyed the last little chunk. But I guessed so much of it from nearly the beginning and it took away a lot of the experience of the book for me. It was dark and twisted though, and I know that many people will enjoy this book.

The one thing I liked the most was the friendship, the family bonds amongst the girls.

Absolutely amazing! This gripping tale will sink its teeth in you and not let go until you are done. The story of 4 girls and their fight to save themselves and the town, but also avenge women and girls throughout the town's founding. This book will stick with me for a long time and will be recommended to anyone who is a fan of dystopia/mystery.

First off can we take a minute to appreciate how beautiful this cover is?!
Who doesn’t like a book set around a small town filled with secrets?
I love a book with multiple POV’s, but sometimes less is more. When you get into more than 2 characters POV it’s hard to keep track sometimes. I felt that way a bit with this books 4 POV’s.

Overall I did enjoy the book though, and would recommend it to others.

I get what this book was trying to do, but I don't know how successful the execution was. It is riddled with plot holes and motivations that don't make sense. It is clearly trying to evoke similar themes to The Handmaids Tale (the book is explicitly referenced in the text if it wasn't obvious) but I ultimately felt very meh about it. The prologue is great, creepy and very intriguing. But then it went sideways.

Where Darkness Blooms is a YA horror novel set in a mid-western small town with a long history of women disappearing and creepy sunflowers that want blood. It follows four girls who are kind of like sisters (two of them are actually twins) who live together after their mothers disappeared two years ago. It's a novel trying to tackle murdered and missing women, rape culture, and patriarchy writ large albeit through unexplained supernatural means.

Some of the problems with this book are more general. These include the fact that the four perspective characters are not very distinct (this might have done better with just one or two perspectives) but I'm not sure how to really talk about this without being spoilery, so here is your spoiler warning...



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Here are some of the things I had issues with:

- The fact that ALL THREE of their mothers left their kids behind knowing how dangerous it was was just not believable. And then the fact that they are easily forgiven and we get this female utopia ending is is even less believable.

- The fact that the men at the center of this had some kind of magical attraction capability really muddies the waters. It is an attempt to make the women less culpable for things like cheating with a sisters boyfriend, and explain how it went on for so long. But it never really made sense and sexual assault or violence against women don't require this kind of magic.

- Really? No one in the town figured out there wasn't a hospital? Stuff like that is strange and unexplained.

- I can't tell if the ending was breaking the curse by killing the villainous men (hmm, interesting choice for a YA novel) or the one surviving boy spilling some of his own blood to the flowers (also doesn't make a lot of sense?). It's unclear, which is part of the problem. If this is going to be a revenge story, at least be decisive about it.

- Why do the flowers crave the blood of women? We don't know. Does this make the men less culpable for their own choices? What about the ones who knew about it and supported it? Is this actually justice? I don't think so but I'm left with a lot of questions.

- What happened to all the other people in town??? What about justice for everyone else? I hate novels like this that are pseudo-feminist but end up with these very individualistic endings. Technically there's a small group of survivors in this case, but the point stands. I don't think this book is actually doing what it thinks it's doing.

I see what the intended project of this book was, but ultimately it kind of failed in execution. The prose itself is reasonably good and there are definitely some creepy or interesting moments, but overall it was disappointing and just okay. The audio narration is done well though. I received an audio review copy of this book via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

2.5/5 stars! The cover of this book is absolutely stunning. I can't stop staring at it. When I read the premise about a creepy, maybe supernatural, town that craves the blood of the females who live there, I was excited to jump in. My issue with this book is the pacing. You immediately are thrown into the action, which is ... umm fine I guess. But then the rest of the novel is so darn slow you can barely wade through it. The conclusion was interesting and pulled me back in. Overall a decent venture into the genre but the pacing was a major factor.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Delightfully creepy and full of feminine rage. I am quite a wimp when it comes to scary stories, so I had to take this one slowly. Until it hooked me in and I sped through the last few chapters.

[1 Star]

if only this book had been as amazing as its cover

Pros:
- the cover is gorgeous

Cons:
- everything else

no seriously

- all 4 POV's that we follow sound exactly the same. I thought the audiobook would help since there are separate narrators for each POV, but it didn't. The characters just lacked any sense of voice or distinction from each other.
- the plot was so predictable. I guessed everything that would happen within the first couple chapters. This made all the 'reveals' incredibly lackluster and even the process of getting to said reveals was boring.
- there were so many illogical (or straight-up impossible) events. And I know there's a certain amount of magical realism in this, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about things like how there were 4 minors who were allowed to just live in a house by themselves for 2 YEARS after their mothers disappeared. No one in the town thought "hey, maybe someone should watch over them"? How did they even provide for themselves? For the sake of avoiding spoilers I won't give more examples, but I really found a lot of events in this book to be frankly absurd in a way that detracted from my overall enjoyment.
- instalove exists


Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. While my review is honest, I apologize for it not being very positive.

3.5* rounded down

This was a thriller with a mystery and I thought I’d enjoy it a lot. The biggest problem was that it felt like the author gave the entire story away in the prologue. I went into the story assuming I’d learn something different. While we did learn mostly backstory, it felt like the main twist was missing. As a thriller or a mystery, I expect a twist, even if I’ve guessed it along the way.

Despite the above, the story was interesting. The “sisters” didn’t feel two dimensional. There was conflict there, but not a ton of change. There was growth and communication. Their relationships kept me reading. The town and the wind felt very alive. The villains were awful people but too obvious, not just in who they were but in their motivations. If the author was trying to parallel patriarchy and how it holds women captive, she did so. I think it could have been handled more delicately and elegantly.

All in all a nice read with a unique plot. Definitely would have gotten a higher rating from me if the prologue had been moved into the story.

A startling debut full of dark magic and spiraling twists. Perfect for fans of Alexis Schaitken's "Elsewhere!"

This was an amazing book that kept my attention to the very end. The realness of the characters is astounding.

This was a very interesting premise for a book. Very atmospheric and mysterious. The use of the flowers was very original and kept my attention. The characters were very well developed and you definitely cared where the story went for them.

Bishop is your typical small, flyover mid-western town and the author's description of the wind and the ever watching flowers really sells this. They're description are tense and creepy in a way that kept me invested once the story got going. Unfortunately, getting there was painful. We spend a lot of time switching between 4 POVS of grief stricken girls who's mothers have gone missing without much fuss from their neighbors. It also didn't help that these POVs all sounded the same. I also think that the inclusion of the prologue was a mistake since after that you basically know why everything is happening and it takes the suspense out of what is otherwise a solid mystery.

This YA Dark Fantasy novel had such a beautiful cover, and the story sounded so interesting. I was hooked by the first 5 chapters, but it didn’t keep my attention long. The middle was paced strangely, with a lot of “then” and “now” parts that weren’t really separated and it made it hard to keep track. Also, the POV of the 4 girls were very similar, so it was hard to follow there. The ending picked back up, and overall I enjoyed the book. But I think the pacing could use some work. Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah is a mystery horror YA book with some fantastical elements. The town of Bishop is known for two things: huge sunflower fields and women disappearing so when four girls lose their mothers unexpectedly, no one really thinks much of it. But there are secrets in the wind and when things start unraveling, the girls find themselves right in the middle of a town that wants their blood.

I’m not gonna lie, this is a book I was very interested in because of the cover and when I read the synopsis, I thought it would be the perfect book for me. Unfortunately, it was not the case. I was not a fan of all the points of view thrown at you right at the beginning of the book. It made it very hard to differentiate between the four girls and their moms. After finishing the book, I’m still not 100 percent sure I kept every character right in my head. I think this is more to do with the style that this book was written in so I know some people won’t have an issue with it.

I also feel like the pacing was very fast. As soon as something was revealed, we would move onto the next thing without really any time to think about that the reveal meant. There were also a lot of characters that made really silly decisions that just felt like ways to move the plot forward as opposed to the way the characters would actually behave. A lot of the characters felt very bland to me because we didn’t really get the time at the beginning to learn more about each character.

I wish that this book would have taken the time to really set the world up but unfortunately, this was a miss for me. It seems like I am in the minority as a lot of other people are really enjoying this book so that’s good to see. I just wanted something a little more atmospheric and creepy.

I received this book from NetGalley as an eARC in exchange for a review.

This was a super solid read. The only reason I didn’t give it a full five stars is because the starting was too slow of a burn for me and I almost DNF’d. That being said, once you’re into the meat or the book you won’t want to put it down.
The characters don’t necessarily stand out from each other but that’s ok for me on this one.
Story was definitely spooky and would make a good fall read.

Thanks to NetGalley & Wednesday Books for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

This mystery is set in a small midwestern town focusing on four girls who are struggling with the loss of their mothers they discover a sordid mystery that will haunt them all until they solve it together.

It was a pretty entertaining story from start to finish, though I kept struggling with the 4 POVs. Their voices all sounded the same and it was hard for me to keep track who was who again. Bo was the only one I enjoyed the most and was able to tell her apart easier from the others.

I was really grossed out by the one main guy in the book and I didn't get why we were supposed to have sympathy for him, he isn't really being forced into a repeating cycle of murder, his father literally walked out of it, so why couldn't he? So, I found his stuff very whiney and annoying for that reason. I also hated how 2/4 of the girls were in love with him. Whyyyy!

It's annoying because there were a lot of good ideas in this book but it wasn't always executed well, but I think this book would work really well as a Netflix mystery mini-series. Maybe that's what it was designed for, ha.

MY REVIEW: 3 Stars

The beautiful cover is what lured me to this book and of course it sounded good.

The prologue was really interesting and disturbing, but the story jumped ahead. I thought it was okay. I liked most of the characters. I just wish there was a bit more to the story.

Overall, I would recommend it.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for a digital copy of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for my arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Where Darkness Blooms" by Andrea Hannah takes us to a dusty town in the middle of Tornado Alley where there are plenty of sunflowers and missing women. The story follows four teen girls still reeling with the sudden disappearances of their mothers years earlier. Delilah, Bo, and twins Whitney and Jude live together in the same house that they and their mothers lived in together before everything. As they deal with the loss, they must also contend with their town's bloody and supernatural history.

I honestly thought the summary/set-up was pretty interesting and with this being a YA-aimed horror/thriller, I think Hannah did a great job of setting the vignetted and creepy tone. This novel does deal with pretty heavy and real topics like rape and class differences/preferential treatment due to class but Hannah does a good job of utilizing those topics in a way that doesn't feel exploitative and instead, it helps to ground the story in reality in spite of the magical realism. I thought the curse of the town and the sunflowers' connection to blood was pretty cool and well done. The tool of blood as water for plants is one that I like, especially when it's done well...like here.

I will say that while I liked the characters of Whitney and Bo, I had issues with the way the four main girls were written. While we would get alternating perspectives of each girl, they fell pretty flat to me as characters. Amidst everything happening, I thought that the girls needed to be fleshed out beyond their one signifiers (Whitney: queer, Bo: temper, Delilah: type A, and Jude: quiet). While everything that happens in the novel to the girls and to the women, it just didn't quite HIT because of how shallow the four girls were. That made it difficult for me to really connect with any of them. I will say that towards the end, I did find myself really loving Bo. Overall however, the girls just didn't feel realistic to me. I felt like Hannah gave us peeks into more fleshed out versions of them but for whatever reason, they'd just revert back to that one signifying personality trait and that was it.

"Where Darkness Blooms" is overall an enjoyable book with great spooks and a fun premise. While it falls short of its main characters, it almost makes up for it in atmosphere, lore, and story.