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.

A unique read that has it all: missing women, a remote town, sunflowers that whisper, wind that isolates the community and the people from each other. Follow four girls left alone as they seek to find their mothers and fight the curse on their town. They girls seek to unravel the lies and deceit - that they have kept from each other and their community while not succumbing to the wind or becoming another lost girl. Andrea Hannah draws you in and keeps you reading to the last!

Where Darkness Blooms
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Genre: Fantasy / Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 2/21/23
Author: Andrea Hannah
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pages: 304
GR: 3.82

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Wednesday Books and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: The town of Bishop is known for recurring windstorms, sunflowers, and missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. Delilah, Jude, Whitney, and Bo have one thing in common, their mothers are missing. And more than anything, they want answers and wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was.

My Thoughts: The story is told by the four girls, in their perspectives. It takes a minute to be able to tell the difference from the personalities, but once you get it, it flows very nice. There are some content warnings at the beginning of the book with references to abuse, violence, and rape. The tone set in this story was simply amazing. It made you feel like you were there in Bishop, going along on this journey. And don’t get me started on sunflowers, I used to love them, now they are just creepy to me. The characters were well developed with depth, mystery, unique, flaws, and creatively built up. The author’s writing style was immersive, complex, amazing magical realism, suspenseful, and just flowed brilliantly with tension. The story had a great balance of twists and magic realism with building of this weird and creepy town that just really sets the stage. This book does not publish until Feb, but you will want to preorder it!

Where Darkness Bloom by Andrea Hannah is a chiller about a small town called Bishop where the land demands blood from the residents, and those residents, in particular women and girls, are disappearing at an alarming rate. Sunflowers stretch as far as the eye can see and wave in the constant winds, and as we move through the story of twin sisters Jude and Delilah as they search for their missing mother, and other women who went missing with her, the sunflowers seem to whisper to them, until the town's secrets are revealed.

A riveting novel, Where the Darkness Blooms kept me turning pages until the very end. Thank you to the author,St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to netgalley and Wednesday for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love weird, body-horror adjacent books and this was right up my alley. Hannah's writing style is lush and gorgeous, making it easy to fall right into the story. I'm also a sucker for multiple POVs, so the four girls had me hooked. Because of how descriptive the writing was, I felt like the plot slowed a bit in places when I wanted it to keep pushing toward the action. Still, this was a beautiful read and definitely something I would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a chance to read Where Darkness Blooms.

I love creepiness, sunflowers, and my family is originally from Kansas. Great start to a “let me check this out” mindset! I was hooked from the beginning!

Where Darkness Blooms is a dark, twisty YA about a small town where the sunflowers seem to be alive, women are mysteriously disappearing, and corruption runs as deep as the blood the land craves.

You get multiple POVs and the writing is exceptional! It was descriptive without being overly done. The atmosphere is creepy and the characters are fleshed out well.

If you’re into YA thrillers drowning in eeriness, DO NOT pass this one up.

3.5 rounded to 4.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read Where Darkness Blooms.

I'll start by saying that I read YA often and anticipated that this book would fall under that category. There are many YA books that I can read as an adult and it feels like the book can be for YA or mature adults, this book definitely felt like the YA is its target audience. ( Maybe this is just my perception but the writing in regards to the teen characters is geared for a teen audience, as an older adult, I may have eye rolled at the romantic aspect of the teen relationships, lol.
After reading the plot summary I initially assumed the book would deal with a paranormal aspect. I don't think my assumption is off base as the first line of the book description on GoodReads states " The flowers see everything". While this is somewhat true, it felt like the author attempted to explain the rationale for the paranormal aspect in a way that is rushed at the end. The first half felt somewhat stretched with just enough hints to keep the reader attempting to figure out what the deal is with this mysterious town and its people, while the ending felt like it really picked up its pace in a way that was too fast. The second half of the book was definitely better than the first half and one of the aspects that lead to my rounding up to a 4 is that the author really doesn't seem to hesitate to alter the fate of some of its characters. It's difficult to read a book and have the feeling that the author doesn't want to seem to let certain characters go. It's similar to a show that's been on for many seasons that won't kill off its Main characters. A large portion centers on the missing mothers of the young characters in the book, the ending of the book in regards to this ( I'm attempting to not give spoilers) doesn't really give closure to the aspect of their absence.

I really really loved the concept of this but, I had a hard time with the actual book. I still love the story, but the writing style was not for me. It felt like it was very heavy writing and then action and then very heavy writing and then action. I did like the four character points of view. It really was a great way to see this story unfold. The creepy sunflowers and sheisty townsfolk were *chefs kiss* and the perfect touch. Overall definitely worth the read.

I wanted so much to love Where Darkness Blooms. The prologue was so stunning that I was screenshotting it and sharing it on social media. It MUST be a 5 star book if the author can bust out writing chops like this!

Sadly, this fell short of my expectations.

Where Darkness Blooms focuses on four girls who have lost their mothers to mysterious circumstances in their small Kansas town of Bishop.

As the girls start exploring these deaths, and the deaths of other local women, they uncover the secret of Bishop's long buried in the town's roots.

Immediately I was jarred by 4 POVs for this one standalone. Two girls are very hard to tell apart, and the other two have a little more personality. Getting caught in the POV of the two less interesting girls slowed the story down considerably, and the moody "more interesting" girls could feel repetitive. I didn't find any of the main characters likable, which made their struggles hard to follow.

I love Rory Power's Burn Our Bodies Down, and I was hoping to get that vibe from this book. I feel that, once again, the author wanted to spread the story out between too many characters, and with those characters already coming off as fairly unlikable, the pace is so much slower. A lot of this story starts off focusing on dating and personal relationships. Each girl's story needs to be built and defined, which means again- for a stand-alone, you are starting four stories instead of 1. You are spending so much time on setup.

The mystery is cool, but you do know part of it from the beginning, thanks to the prologue, so execution is everything. Sadly, I felt that this mystery/spooky shit was overshadowed by lukewarm characters.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I went into this book with no expectations and it definitely delivered! Where Darkness Blooms delivers on the eeriness as promised and the writing is lush and engaging. It's a flowery kind of creepy fantasy that drew me in and I would definitely classify this as more of a fall read but it can be enjoyed any season (especially the spring, because you know, that's when it'll be published)!

This novel is set in the fictional Kansas town of Bishop, with a long history of women dying under suspicious circumstances or going missing. Written from the perspective of four young women - Delilah, Bo, and twins Whitney and Jude, the girls' mothers were close friends and went missing the same day, two years prior. None of them believe their mothers would leave them willingly but they have mostly given up hope of finding them or discovering what happened.

Bo's suspicions are heightened when the mayor suggests paving over the clearing where the women were last seen, and suggests a memorial instead - to give her time to further investigate the mothers' disappearance. A severe windstorm during the memorial leads to the discovery of several clues that help bring the girls closer to discovering what happened to their mothers and the secrets of their small town.

I really enjoyed the plot and that we got to read from the perspective of each of the main characters, but I wish the characters had more depth. Obviously experiencing such a huge loss at a young age would impact their personality but it was almost all we learned about them. I look forward to reading other works by this author.