Andrea Hannah tells a crafty tale of a strange town filled with sunflowers and windstorms, a string of missing women, and a land that hungers for blood.

Whitney and Jude are twins, unlike in more ways than they have in common. Whitney is lost after the sudden death of her girlfriend, and Jude has a secret that could shatter the relationships she has.

Bo, stubborn and headstrong, knows something they don’t. When everything she knows flips upside down again, her world threatens to come down around her.

Delilah feels responsible for them all. Navigating her attempts at looking after the three girls and herself, and wanting to be closer with the boyfriend who’s touch she can’t stand, she discovers more about herself and others than she ever thought was possible.

Just two years after their mothers disappear, the windstorms in Bishop, Kansas become wilder. When Delilah finds a receipt left behind from the days after her mother disappeared, the girls must uncover the secrets the town was built on, and what that might mean for them.

Andrea Hannah tells a story about the weights we carry. The sunflowers will part, and as Hannah tells us best, there is freedom on the other side.

The cover is stunning, but this book started out super slow. This book had spooky vibes, but had difficulty holding my attention.

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity!

Look at this stunning cover!
I feel really lucky to be able to read this book early cause i feel like once it’s published it will be really popular.
Normally I’m not the one to read scary books but I just couldn’t not read it because of this pretty cover. It definitely wouldn’t given me nightmares if I didn’t read in a week by extending the reading period. I always found sunflower fields scary and this gave me another reason for why i should! Haha
It’s full of suspense and fear inducing but oh so very realistic. It had a stunning prose and i fell in love with the writing. I will check author’s future books for sure. It is a slow burn though keep it in mind. Check the trigger warnings for sure please before reading it. It could be triggering.
If you are looking for a suspenseful horror that’s gonna suck you in and probably give you nightmares and will be perfect for dark winter nights and halloween then check this out once it’s out! Especially if you are a horror fan!
Now I’ll sleep with one eye open haha

Where Darkness Blooms is an incredible book! I mean, right away, look at the stunning and eerie cover that is enough alone to send a chill down your spine. The story really was way more than I expected - the world was lush and beautiful and I cannot wait to make sure we get this in our library! Everyone will love this!

“The boy began the long walk toward the unknown.”

This unlocked a deep fear inside of me that I honestly didn't know I had. I grew up living in and going to visit pretty rural places and have seen my fair share of sunflower fields.

After reading this however, I don't know that I could ever walk through one again without thinking of the events in this book. Its written perfectly to build suspense and a deep-rooted fear, before you even realize its taken hold. Andrea Hannah presents a tale through her writing that is immersive, realistic and suspenseful, taking you personally through the events in the town of Bishop.

There are some content warnings for this book including: (CW) references to abuse, rape and overall violence.

Where Darkness Blooms is set to be published on February 21, 2023. Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, NetGalley and the author for the advanced reader's copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"The flowers see everything."

I am instantly drawn to book covers with creepy plants on people’s faces. When I saw this cover and read the synopsis I was instantly intrigued. The land of Bishop hungers for blood. The town is surrounded by sunflowers and an eerie wind that whispers secrets. Women disappear frequently and when 3 more vanish their daughters are left to uncover the dark secrets of the town and what truly happened to their mothers.

I enjoyed this book and it was definitely creepy. As a reader we just knew there was something wrong with the land and the people and I couldn’t put the book down. I did find sometimes the characters started to blend together and their voices weren’t always very distinct. I wish this had been told by alternating POV’s. I enjoyed Bo and Delilah’s characters the most. I also appreciated how the author wrote and dealt with grief and trauma. The main characters were flawed and real. I love when an author can write an angry MC that we readers can relate to.

The plot progressed at a decent pace and the weird things kept happening and never really stopped until the last 20% of the book. The conclusion was intense and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the outcome. I do think there were some plot holes and I wish there had been a bit more world building. I wanted to know more about the town. We as readers are never really filled in on the specifics of the origins of the curse/magic and what it was for. The ending wrapped up almost a little too nicely and I still had quite a few questions.

Overall I enjoyed this and think it was still a solid eerie YA mystery thriller. I think fans of Small Favors and The Depths would enjoy this.

Huge thank you to Wednesday Books / St. Martins Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Where Darkness Blooms (ARC)
Andrea Hannah
4⭐️
Pub date: 2/21/2023

⚠️ involves death and r*pe (albeit minimal and written tastefully)

The land craves for blood and it was given... for decades. Bishop's women mysteriously goes missing, but nobody has been found since the land's discovery. Delilah, Whitney, Jude and Bo were left behind grieving, trying to live on after their moms have disappeared. But they found things that just doesn't seem to fall in place. The wind talks, the sunflowers loom, watch and plot... enticing them, breaking them, warning them. There's something wrong about this land... it's alive, thirsty and it traps them all.

The prologue of this caught my attention right away. It's very mysterious and interesting. Sunflowers have always been attributed with happiness and sunshine. But thus book gave it a completely different vibe, a creepy and murderous one. There are a lot of weird references about how the characters could feel what the land wants. Initially, it was a little confusing to me but as I go on, it's actually very poetic. The descriptions and metaphors are intricate. There are a lot of betrayal and hurt, but also what friendship, family and solidarity could do. It's definitely a Thriller but I think there's a fantasy aspect to this as well.

It's beautiful but unsettling in a lot of ways.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"Where Darkness Blooms" is a new YA feminist thriller with a sharp twist, but occasionally too many pathways to follow. The book opens with simultaneously too much and too little exposition - reading the first couple of chapters, in general, felt like a blur. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the many leads in the novel, and although we are introduced to each of the girls in the beginning, the narration quickly becomes difficult to follow as the voices can blur together if they aren't well-established at the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes I could see where the different POVs were useful or even interesting when used for the reveal of new plot details, unreliable narrators, and of course (my favorite!) dramatic irony. However, I was often too caught up in trying to figure out who was narrating, and in doing so it took away from the interest of the mystery plot.

The plot, itself, was interesting - the town of Bishop disappears women, and for seemingly nefarious reasons. The daughters of women who've disappeared live together and soon get caught up in the mystery behind the disappearances of other women over the course of the town's history. Neat idea! Not to mention the author propels it forward with lovely imagery and (as you could probably tell from the stunning cover) sunflower symbolism. However, as I alluded to previously, the plot gets messy at times, and it doesn't always feel purposeful. "Where Darkness Blooms" felt like it was scared of being a thriller. There were multiple love triangle moments, so many that I felt like I was trapped in some strange YA romance wannabe. Add in the confusing POV shifts, the love triangles only got more confusing.

I would've loved to see more of a group dynamic between the girls as a whole - the story is supposed to center on the relationships between women, but this idea diminished for me when the group of female protagonists never actually got to interact as a group. Instead, they are frequently split up by the boys they have crushes on or by the men who inflict violence on them. In doing so, this felt more like a novel about relationships between men and women - which isn't a bad thing, of course. It's just not the female ensemble novel I felt like I was promised, due to the lack of Bechdel-test-passing conversations between the female ensemble.

Ultimately, the first two thirds of the novel dragged on in this confused area, where the book tries to tackle too many side plots to seem cohesive. However, I lifted this to 3/5 stars because I felt like the book did really come together in the last third, and I enjoyed the conclusion and the action in the ending. I couldn't help but wish the rest of the book had shared the ending's pacing and certainty. That being said, I feel like I can't give this book higher than 3/5 stars, either - not just because of the long lead-up to the interest of the third act, but also because of one final point: the last thing that I didn't really get about this book was the author's approach to concluding thematic statements.

Frequently, whenever the author makes interesting commentary on the relationships between men and women, or about the way the patriarchy intrudes power structures, or other similar topics of the novel, she will immediately state the point word for word in a concluding sentence, instead of letting the reader interpret the (frequently pretty clear-cut and easily understood) themes themself. This felt almost like I was being talked down to, as a read. I understand that this is intended for YA audiences, but I also know that teenagers (especially the young women who are the target demographic for this book) aren't stupid, and teenagers don't appreciate being condescended to. I felt like the novel would have been stronger if the author edited these points slightly so that instead of directly stating a theme out loud, the already present thematic elements were left up to the readers to interpret. This would still uplift the author's clever use of figurative language to reinforce thematic elements of the text without feeling like the author was trying to "dumb down" points for the readers.

Overall, I still enjoyed this novel. It would probably be a good text for a high school library to have in its fiction section. I could see a younger high school girl really enjoying this text, especially if she's already interested in horror, thriller, and mystery novels.

3.5/5 Stars

Trigger Warning: Mentions of R/SA. Not described in detail.

Where Darkness Blooms gave us sapphics, small-town secrets, betrayal, and creeeeepy acts of nature for days, told from the multi-POVs of a group of childhood friends, we follow their journey as they try to uncover what exactly happened the day all of their mothers disappeared.

The women of Bishop drop like flies and have for as long as the town has been established. A tiny community surrounded by fields and fields of strange and ever-watching sunflowers, Delilah, Whitney, Jude, and Bo need to figure out what is really going on before they're next.

Prose-wise, I thought this book was incredibly compelling, even if it started rather slow. When I did pick it up I would find myself totally consumed in the ease of which the words flowed, but it would sometimes be hard to want to pick it up again as the beginning kind of drags. I did enjoy how each girl had a distinct personality, goals, hopes, dreams, and secrets. There was never a time when I mixed them up.

We all know I enjoy women getting to be angry and powerful and flawed and there was no lack of that here. I did have issues individually with each girl, especially Whitney, as I felt her queerness was 'used' in some respects. Mourning your dead girlfriend(the love of her life) the entire book only to salivate over any other girl that looked her way was super bizarre to me and felt misplaced. Other than that, I really enjoyed how the girls interacted with each other. They fought and were bitter and angry but still held such a deep love for each other that saved them in the end.

There was a lot of rushing together toward the end that fell flat for me. A little TOO neatly tied up in a bow for a situation that had set itself up to be really complex and had the potential to be entirely more horrific than it was described to be. Where this book was a horror, in essence, I was expecting more of a chill, but I think it was hard to maintain with all of that jumping around. There were definitely instances that were creepy, but not enough for me to consider more than that.

I think people who are looking for more of a slow-burn atmosphere and messy female leads are going to love this and I totally recommend it if that's your gig!

*Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for gifting me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a great cover! I love this style of illustration a lot. Often magical realism is pretty black and white, for me. I either really like it or I really hate it, there is very rarely a grey area. But, this sort of made the grey area for me. I loved the magical atmosphere and the writing style, but the pacing was not my favorite. I just felt that it was sort of inconsistent and would sometimes cause the story to drag so much. Overall, I liked it, but I do wish the plotting/pacing was a bit tighter!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

First off, lets give a round of applause for the cover because it is absolutely gorgeous. It also perfectly represents the vibe of this book. The small town of Bishop, Kansas is surrounded by an overwhelming amount of sunflowers and people rarely leave. If they do, they are women, missing or dead by mysterious "medical issues." When the mothers of five childhood friends disappear, they band together for lack of any better options and start uncovering the dark secrets of their hometown.

This was a very atmospheric read and I enjoyed it quite a lot! The fact that there were five main characters and I actually cared about them all really caught me off guard. I love conspiracies, elemental creepiness, thought provoking plot, and this had all that and more. I loved that there was a sapphic romance subplot so so much! Sunflowers are my favorite flower but now I will forever look at them different and just wonder,,,My favorite character was Bo because she was so characteristically human. Loved the different emotions she went through and how her growth really unfolded.

I did wish that there had been a more in depth explanation to the full extent of what the hell was going on, but everything else made up for that, in my opinion. The general gist was clear but I think some extra details would have made it feel more cohesive overall. Definitely look forward to reading more by this author!

Thank you, NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book!

Can I just say this cover is gorgeous?? It also perfectly encapsulates the vibes of this book which are spooky, but magical and very much small-town mystery, which I love! The premise drew me in from the very beginning, and I definitely saw the magical realism and atmosphere present throughout the book. The writing was beautiful, but at times it could really drag which took away from the experience for me and space could also feel really slow at times. But overall, I enjoyed reading this and would recommend it!

3.5

Bishop is known for its recurring windstorms and endless field of sunflowers. But some have started to notice something else about the town: how frequently women go missing. When three women go missing, their daughters are desperate to find out what happened to them.

This book started off pretty slowly, but eventually picked up. However, it didn’t hold my interest as much as I thought it would. The atmosphere was spooky and the whole thing with the sunflowers was interesting, I just felt like there was something missing from the story that didn’t make me as invested in it.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me, it was a bit slower than I would like and it just didn't hold my attention.

This book captured me with its cover. I was expecting something rooted in dark fantasy but this wasn't that. I suppose it was more of a mystery-driven drama, though there were fantastical elements. The premise was full of promise, in fact. However, there were a lot of things taking me out this book while reading. It was a little jarring right off the bat by having the story begin 2 years after a major event that is referenced the entire story. It just felt like an odd place to start. The pace was also unsteady and often slow. The writing was good but sometimes too drawn out, to the point I lost interest and would begin skimming paragraphs. The town is weakly described and I could hardly picture anything that warranted interest from me. This was unfortunate because settings are just as important as characters to me. Speaking of, the characters blended together with ease. I wouldn't say anyone really stood out, except maybe Bo. Everyone else was easy to mix up and no one was likeable really. I wanted a weird and twisty story but this one felt dry too often for such an interesting premise. And why did it seem like we talked about bonfires so often? Sadly, this title disappointed me.

What in the world did I just read! In the best way!!! This reminded me a lot of Rory Power’s YA novels, which is a huge bonus for me personally! Very much enjoyed this strange feminist tale!

This felt haphazard to me. At time I wanted to scream at the girls for not talking, they each had a part if they had only talked. The story was disjointed and hard to follow sometimes, that doesn't mean it was bad it just means that it was sometimes a little harder to read. I didn't like the characters at all in the beginning, but I couldn't stop reading about them either, This just left me feeling very mixed, I couldn't decide if I loved or hated it. Everything was answered or was it? This one takes some unpacking I think.

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.

Bishop is a town of sunflowers, storms, and secrets. It's a town where women mysteriously disappear. It's a town cursed. Delilah, Bo, and sisters Whitney and Jude share not only a house in Bishop but also the pain of having their mothers vanish overnight. Will they be able to confront the men of Bishop who seem to be behind the curse? Or will they hide behind their own secrets and lose more than their mothers?

Andrea Hannah's Where Darkness Blooms is a thriller that gets under your skin. The setting is as much a character as the girls, and it's all adds up to a delightfully eerie atmosphere.

Where Darkness Blooms has a lot of potential and it did keep me reading until the end, but overall I found the story a little flat. I had trouble connecting with the characters and telling the four girls apart for most of the beginning of the book and found parts confusing (like the fact that they all shared a house, and had done so before their mothers had disappeared.)
I liked the elements of the spooky town and the mysteries it held, but I also felt like we knew the answer to the mystery based on the prologue and the fact that it was pretty obvious who the bad guys really were. I also wish there were more to the relationships between the girls, it was a lot of telling that they were close or had been in the past without showing. Also, I really could've done without the endless descriptions of dust floating in the air and landing on people's lips almost every chapter. The writing felt repetitive at times and that made the story drag on. But honestly protect Bo at all costs she deserves the world!

This cover! Have you seen this cover? Okay, I know! I know! I know! I’m not supposed to read a book based on its spectacular cover but this one caught my eye with its beauty. Just look at it! It’s horrifyingly gorgeous. It screams welcome to the twilight zone. Let my plants feast on your eyes and your flesh. It just gives you the chills.

I knew way too much about this book going into it. I made the mistake (like I always do) of reading the synopsis and it ruined it for me. The synopsis gives away too much information and definite spoilers. Whoever wrote that synopsis needs a quick slap. It basically ruined this book for me. The story would have been so much better if I went into this blind. I think we all need to learn that lesson.

This story was a decent one even though I knew what to expect. I liked the idea of a small corrupt town with terrifying secrets. It gives off Children of the Corn vibes and we all know how much I love anything horror. If you didn't have trust issues, to begin with, you do now after reading this book.

Where Darkness Blooms was good but not as spooky as I was led to believe. The cast of ladies in this was all spectacular in their own way and not one was better than the other. They were all strong and sassy. That's what we all love in a main character. This will make you think again before you trust anyone with your heart and your soul. And remember to always listen to the sunflowers, they will lead you to the path of righteousness.