3.5 Stars.

Four teenaged friends live together in a house they once shared with their mothers, who all disappeared one night two years ago, never to be seen or heard from again. But that isn’t unusual in Bishop, the odd town where the girls live, which is known for the plentiful sunflowers that surround it and the numerous missing and dead women throughout its history. The girls are done believing the town’s official story that their moms just left willingly and that soon afterward, one of their friends (and one of the girls’ love interest) just dropped dead in front of her home. So they decide to uncover he real secrets of Bishop. But it may end up costing them their lives because some powerful people are invested in keeping its secrets buried.

The writing in this book is really gorgeous - the storytelling just flows throughout the book and and the descriptions put you right in the story. I felt like I was right there in the field of sunflowers with the petals all around me or feeling the wind from the storms as they raged through town. The author does a great job just grabbing you and pulling you into the story.

And its a really interesting story. It’s a mix of a thriller/coming-of-age/supernatural story which really works together well. It’s marketed as a “YA” book, but I think readers of all ages will enjoy it, I certainly did, and I didn't think it was to immature or anything.

The ending was a little too happily-ever-after for me, which is why I went with 3.5 stars. I can’t say too much, but I don’t feel like it fit well with the overall tone of the story and it felt a little rushed as well.

But overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and the writing was some of the best I’ve seen in awhile. It was a treat to read!

This book started out with such promise, and the prologue was fabulous horror. The point-of-view characters/chapters were...less promising, for me at least. They were perfectly fine, but the chilling atmosphere of the premise wasn't always as at the forefront of things as I'd wanted.

Where Darkness Blooms seemed like a truly intriguing read, perfect for the beginning of spooky season, and it gave off "Bone Gap" vibes, if that makes sense. Female-centric. Small town. Creepy flowers. It had everything a girl could want from a creepy-good read.

However, I struggled with the first half of this book. Four points of view for a standalone without established lore really strained the storytelling at first. While I enjoyed the plot and characters, the constant change of perspective stilted the flow of the story for the first 100+ pages for me. These plot points were absolutely necessary, but I wish they'd been established in a slightly more cohesive way.

That said, once the story really began to flow, I could not stop reading. The intrigue. The drama. The action. Even the multiple perspectives. It all became so expertly interwoven that I couldn't put it down. The exploration of the cycle of violence and exactly what it takes to break from that was heartbreakingly well done. Overall, this story really hit the mark for me, and despite the struggle of the first half of the book, I would definitely revisit it.

so twisted yet so good.
There are multiple pov and they’re all brilliant. The setting is truly so creepy which really just sets the mood.
Overall clever writing and great balance of all elements!

***I received an ARC, ahead of the February 23rd [2023] release, through Netgalley. All thoughts are my own.***

Content Warnings: Blood, death, violence, gun violence, toxic relationships, abandonment, misogyny, grief, fire/fire injury, bullying, police brutality, confinement, and rape [off-page but it is mentioned a few times with some detail].

Being a teen is hard enough but being a teen in Bishop? Well, that's a whole other level. Bo, Delilah, Jude, and Whitney grew up together as their mothers were all best friends. Two years ago on one fateful night, all their mothers disappeared and so they've taken it upon themselves to watch out for and care for each other. But being a teen is hard and you never want to share all your thoughts, feelings, or relationships.

The night their mothers disappeared deeply affected each of the girls and forced them to each hide some of their thoughts and feelings from the others. As some of their secrets are brought to light all of the girls will have to decide how to move forward...or if they even can.

Although the beginning felt like a bit of a slow start...once I hit that 40% mark I couldn't put the book down until I found out how it all ended. This was a story of friendship, shared trauma, and taking back the life others have tried to take from you.

Overall I really enjoyed the story and the journey it took us on...although I do wish we'd gotten a little more history on the town, the residents we meet, and the girls themselves. There were just some aspects that I felt could have been fleshed out a bit more to enrich the story and allow us to feel more connected to everything that happens.

I wish this was getting released sooner as it was a perfect eerie read for this spooky season but you'll just have to wait until its February release.

I received an e-arc from NetGalley of this book. It took me awhile to get into this book, and once I did I was a bit disappointed in it. It felt like it was picking up around 15%, but by 50% I felt it was losing me again. This was mostly due to lack of connection to the characters. I think I had a hard time empathizing with them for some reason. I think the book had a lot of potential. In some ways it was a very structurally sound book. I just felt like there was a disconnect between myself and the characters in this book.

“Bishop just wasn't the kind of place that could satisfy restless, hungry women with sharp edges.” -From Where Darkness Blooms

2.5 stars

Just look at this cover. Soak it in. What perfection. Now read the prologue. Fantastic, right? What an amazing idea and opening. Okay,,,you're good. You might want to stop there. I mean, you could read the rest of the book, and wait for the entire town to come to their senses and figure out what is happening (you certainly know from the prologue), but unless you have an intense love of slightly overwriten prose and four characters who sort of blend together--I wouldn't advise it. Except one girl does stand out-who I guess is an asshole because.....oh yea, we never really find out why. Just the start of many plot holes if you really stop and think about it. (No seriously, no one in town knows there is no hospital?) The ending is sort of hillarious in the believability- not on the magical realism stuff, just that those mothers would have just left their kids to that town. What? I'd believe one, maybe. If you really like sunflowers and bonfires maybe give this a try, but otherwise just stick with the prologue and your imagination of what the story could be. It's probably better.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

First of all the cover of this book is to die for, it’s artistically so beautiful. I really liked the essence of this book and where the story led, it was the perfect read for spooky season!

I requested this book because I thought the cover was stunning. The story itself is even more stunning. This book grabbed me in a chokehold and would not let me go. I could not put it down, it was that kind of read. It was also unlike any book I had read before. It was the perfect mix of small-town mystery, feminism, and the modern gothic aesthetic. This book really stood out to me compared to a lot of books I read this year, and for a good reason, it had an original plot, incredible pacing (like seriously I cannot talk about this book's pacing enough), and very enjoyable characters. I would recommend this book to any of my friends and/or students, not just for how much I liked it, but because it also has great representation and incredibly relevant themes. And any educators curious if this work is appropriate to add to their classroom library, it is, but only for high school (in my opinion) due to some mature content, which one can review based on the trigger warnings conveniently placed at the start of the book.

Where Darkness Blooms is a nice balance of mystery, horror, and YA.

Andrea Hannah perfectly swirled together four strong willed female characters with missing moms and a cursed town into a delicious supernatural treat.

LGBTQIA+ representation was front and center in a casual way that resonated with the story.

No spoilers, but I had a bit of problem with the ending. That feeling is reflective more on me as person with mother/daughter issues than with the resolution of the mystery.

Give it a read for Halloween. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

incredible, amazing, show stopping. never been done before! this story was simply astounding, i don’t even have the words to describe it. thanks so much to netgalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I want to say thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book! I am so grateful for the opportunity! Where Darkness Blooms takes place in the city of Bishop, where women going missing is not uncommon. Delilah, Whitney, Jude, and Bo are dealing with the aftermath of their mothers going missing two years before. In order to learn what happened to their mothers, they have to face their secrets that they would rather keep hidden.
I am so disappointed that I did not like this book. The concept sounded like it was right up my alley and I was so excited to read it. I got about 30% of the way through it and I just could not get into it. I was not a fan of the writing or the way that it jumped between characters. I usually prefer books told from multiple points of view, but it was really difficult to understand in this book. I couldn't really tell the difference between each of the characters when the story was coming from their perspective. I really wanted to love this book, and maybe I will try to read it again in the future, but it just was not for me right now.

I really liked this. It was such a fun concept. I couldn't pass it up. I mean, sunflowers that tell secrets and the land craves blood.

I love a small town thriller. I however feel like I am in the minority here with my 3 star rating. I feel like I just never give YA these days more than that. I don't know what it is.

I loved the concept of this book! There’s nothing better than a weird little village where things go wrong. I enjoyed all the characters and the twists in the plot. I felt like I never knew where it was going. The mystery was enticing and kept your attention through the whole book. I enjoyed this book very much.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from St. Martin’s Press and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Wow. What a tantalizing read that’s sure to make fans of the genre wanting more.

“Where Darkness Blooms” by Andrea Hannah tells the story of four girls living in a town surrounded by sunflowers where women have been going missing. Two years after their own moms vanish, the girls set out to uncover the town’s dark secrets.

My review for this book could be divided into two parts: the 1st two thirds, and the last third. The 1st two thirds of “Where Darkness Blooms” were an easy 5 stars—it started as one of the most gripping and enthralling books I’ve read this year. However, the final third fell very flat for me. Still, I overall enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to lovers of mysteries/thrillers and the found family trope.

For each of the four girls, something earthshattering happened to them the night their moms disappeared. One of the most interesting parts of this book were the smaller mysteries surrounding what happened to/for each girl, even more so than the mystery surrounding the missing women. While most of the mysteries are fairly easy to guess, their unraveling is what I enjoyed most: the tension, the hinting, and the way it affected each girl and their relationship to one another.

The found family between each girl (though two are twins) was another really great aspect. Bo and Delilah in particular are EVERYTHING to me. If you like character and relationship driven stories, this is for you.

It is also delightfully creepy. The sunflowers are always watching, the wind is whispering, and secrets are found buried under ground. There is a constant sense of unease and danger—and powerlessness as the girls realize how deep the conspiracy goes. Both the supernatural aspect and the very real horrors the girls face give it a well developed atmosphere and sense of dread.

On to what I didn’t love, unfortunately:

The semi-villain reveals the main mystery, spelling it out, even though it is already apparent based on the girls’ investigations. This felt redundant and unnecessary. On that note, information tended to be repeated (often when a new girl found out the same information, but sometimes they just reiterated what they’d already learned), which was minorly frustrating.

The worldbuilding and magic system just did not make sense to me by the end. I wish the magic’s “rules” were more clearly defined. Slightly a spoiler: there were ghosts of living people? Very confused on how that worked.

The semi-villain also had way too big of a part to be as underdeveloped as he was. I never at any point felt like I understood his motivations, his goals, or his true personality. I wish I felt like I’d gotten to know him better so that his actions a) made sense to me and b) felt significant.

The romance was just too rushed for me. I loved the inclusion of a sapphic character and relationship, and I support Whitney moving on from her past love, but it felt very rushed. At one point the love interest, Alma, comments that there’s nothing left for her here in town—but she’s only spoken to Whitney a few times! I just wish they’d acknowledged that this was basically a crushes-who’ve-bonded-by-trauma relationship, instead of acting like it was a very serious new relationship at the end. Also, I felt uncomfortable with the way it was written so that Alma, a Black girl, ends up in an incredibly unsafe situation with a cop in order to protect her white love interest. It’s acknowledged in the text that this is particularly unsafe for her, but it didn’t feel necessary for her to be put in that situation to begin with.

This last part has heavy spoilers: I just couldn’t get over the moms being alive and not doing anything to get their kids out. They couldn’t grab them before they left? There’s no other pathway into town other than going through the sunflowers? They couldn’t call or text their kids once they got out? It would’ve been awful and tragic, but a part of me wishes they were actually dead. Their logic that the girls needed to stay and end the curse didn’t even make sense either because it’s someone else that supposedly ends the curse! How the curse was dealt with felt so random and undeveloped for being a major concern in the book.

Though the ending of the book was not my favorite, I truly loved a lot of “Where Darkness Blooms.” The writing is beautiful, the characters were wonderful, and the mysteries had me hooked. The relationships between each girl and their mom were also quite strong and poignant. I hope that readers will give this book a try!

Magical realism, ensemble cast, a bloody mystery, and sunflower fields... a pretty good fall book if I've ever seen one. I loved the characters in this book and how all their flaws felt tangible and helped them find their strengths. The casual queerness really pushed it over the edge. The "real" part of the magical realism felt a little shakey, and some of the drama came in bursts that threw off the pacing, but the setting was gorgeous and the sunflowers' downturned faces really set the tone for an early autumn mood read. A low 4 stars, but a quick read so worth it.

I 100% downloaded this book because of the cover.

If you are thinking of doing this, there are a few things to note.
Mainly, the covers amazing emotion and darkness falls short in the book.

I really wanted to love this book, the premise is a deep emotional one to explore.
The plot had high stakes, and has so much potential to be one of those riveting books that makes you ponder big ideas, and cry hard from the ending. But it just doesn't. Which makes me sad.

That being said, it's not a bad book. It is just muted. If you enjoy strong female characters you're going to enjoy this story. The story brings strong woman from all walks of life together.

I won't say that it's character driven because there is a lot left on the table in that regards. So many motivations that weren't explored, and fall outs left for the reader to assume about. Especially the ending. All the questions were answered, I just wanted more. Especially with the potential trauma, and aftermath, it was just all okay.

I don't regret reading it, I liked it. Just was hoping for more.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

I think overall I enjoyed the book, the character's pov at times seemed to blend together which was confusing. But I think that the plot was wild and kept me entertained, I have to assume anyone who reads this book will reconsider their love of sunflowers, maybe not fully, but doubt will creep in. I loved the small town horror vibes as well as the natural element of the horror.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC of this novel.

I loved this book right from the beginning. This author's writing style really worked for me. I found the story to be really beautiful one moment and absolutely disgusting the next (which is good. I like my books gross). This book has some great LGBTQA+ representation as well as a great story about mother/daughter relationships. I did feel like this book kind of felt very YA one moment and then more adult the next. Overall, I had a great time reading this book. It's quick. It's emotional and very descriptive. My only real complaint is the how everything happened at the end. I found it a tiny bit cheesy but it really didn't affect my overall enjoyment all that much. This was a pretty solid YA horror fantasy.