Really enjoyed this!
I will update the review with the link to on our blog closer to publication date.

I'd like to thank the publisher St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review

I loved the cover of this book- which is a horror but also, a slow burn 🔥. On Amazon, it also states that it is for kids 12 to 18. Well, I am 44 and I thought that it was a little creepy at the end and I’m not embarrassed to say that. I really think that it can be for any age. The writing in this was fantastic- So many gorgeous sentences! Here’s one: “Bo forgotten how to cry, but she knew how to bleed”. And another: “There was this feeling that Bo had never been able to shake since she was little. It settled into her like fog over the fields, whenever she stepped out of the house. Like someone was watching.”

I could keep going. The synopsis was over the top- wayyyy to much crap in it so I will shorten it for you- basically, there were a lot of women that would mysteriously die or go missing in the small town of Bishop. Delilah, Jude, Whitney, and Bo all live together in a house in Bishop and are trying to figure out what happened to their mothers that went missing 2 years ago. The sunflowers that surround the small town and the constant wind, have a huge factor in the deaths and missing women.

This book will be released on February 21, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a free ARC!!!! I had a lot of fun reading this book! 🤗🤗🤗

My favorite thing about books in general is the atmosphere they create. Here I felt like I was part of the world, drawn into the story by some magnetic force. The writing was just amazing, the biggest stand-out of this novel for me. More detailed review to come closer to publication date. And I'll be awaiting more from this author!

I liked this, but *slight spoilers ahead*

I can't get over the mothers leaving their daughters behind to fix this mess alone. That choice does not make sense to me at all. And the final chapter was cool, but it almost seemed cheap to end it focused on the boy instead. But I really did like this book, and I thought the character study was great.

This book was EVERYTHING I hoped it would be. It had creepiness, weird unexplainable things, plants, and a cast of characters that kept me interested from start to finish. I literally couldn't put it down, and the moment I saw the cover I knew it would be going on my shelf the SECOND it gets published.

I know I try to always look for that 1 thing in a book to bring it from a 5 to a 4.5, but I honestly don't have that in this. I loved everything, and even after finishing this book I can't stop thinking about it, and sunflowers.

WHERE DARKNESS BLOOMS is an eerie and captivating Midwestern gothic thriller. The town of Bishop has several tantalizing and hauntingly beautiful mysteries at its heart: sunflower-strewn fields, violent windstorms, supernaturally-gifted residents, and disappearing women. I love stories with magical realist elements were intrusions into reality speak to the inner lives of its main characters, and Andrea Hannah does it beautifully here. Thoughtful and complex character dynamics and moving meditations on intergenerational trauma and loss make this story linger long after you've finished reading.

4.5 stars

The town of Bishop is a truly bad place. Women and teenage girls disappear constantly and harsh storms arrive like clockwork. Four teens now live together after their mothers and one of the teen's girlfriend disappeared, and they want answers before Bishop takes them as well.

This was a fast-paced and super interesting story, but some of the characters infuriated me. I loved idea of the town and the land being evil and hungry, but we got that info right up front and it would've been nice to see that unfold later in the book. We get POVs from all four main characters, which is something I usually don't like but it wasn't hard to keep up with here. Each character had a lot going on and it all came together nicely. Jude was my least favorite character, and while she redeemed herself, her weakness was detrimental to the others and I wanted her to grovel much more than she did.

This is a "read in one sitting" type of book and I highly recommend it. Also, the cover is beautiful.

*SPOILERS*
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-I find it so hard to believe that the mothers (1) made it out and managed to set up a life for themselves RIGHT OUTSIDE OF TOWN with nothing but the clothes on their back and (2) wouldn't try harder to go back for their daughters. One mom said they tried, but it didn't sound good enough to me. I would think that most mothers would be calling in the cavalry and exposing Bishop. I'm not saying they had to tell others about the flowers and risk not being believed, but I'm sure that all those missing women would draw some attention? Cut down the flowers? Set fire to the field? Also, the men seem to be able to leave Bishop (how else would they have cars, groceries, phone, tv, etc) and you're saying that the Hardings never tried to look for the moms?
-Jude was truly the weakest link. Bennet wasn't using magic or anything on her so I'm still confused about how she was under his spell. The whole hospital thing was insane and I would never forgive my sister for that. We get to the end and she still wants him! And dares to say she deserved better! She only starts moving on from him because she knows he won't come for her, not because she knows that being with him would be wrong.
-Caleb raped Bo and there's not enough anger about this for me.

This book had a super interesting and creative premise but unfortunately fell flat for me. I had a hard time distinguishing the characters from one another, all of their voices were very similar. I also found the repetition of phrases and words very distracting (feral is a good example of a word that was used way too often).

2.5 stars rounded up.

⭐️4.5/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley & St Martin’s Press for providing the ARC for my honest review.

This book was if you took the creepy, secluded town vibes of The Village by M. Night Shyamalan and mashed it up with a murder mystery, sentient nature, and a story that flares your inner feminist. The shorter chapters skipping between the four girls made this a bingable read. And you will definitely reach a point where you cannot put it down and will be screaming at the girls to be careful.

My only complaint is that I wish I hadn’t known about the sunflowers. I wish I had slowly learned about them. However, the mysteries and secrets surrounding the girls kept me going.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a little horror and suspense in their life. Something that gets your blood pumping. Honestly, it was an amazing book that I would equally love if it was made into a movie, say by Mike Flannigan who did Haunting of Hill House. Oh, I also recommend reading this book while listening to Angry Woman by Ashe. Definitely check out this book.

The cover of this book is everything I love, a miasma of the beautiful and the grotesque. The story within is just as unique and gorgeously written. It's a slow burn but with just enough pacing to keep me interested. what is happening to the women in the town of Bishop? Their disappearances are so common that it has become a way of life for the town folks who just move on without much fanfare. But the secrets of this town grow deeper than the roots of the strange fields of sunflowers edging its border. There are secrets whispered on the almost sentient wind that prevents the town denizens from leaving. Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the ARC.

I was so excited for this one! It sounded right up my alley but I unfortunately wasn't the biggest fan of the experience.

The writing style was unique and beautiful but the characters to me were written flat with no layers to care for them.

I reccomend this one for fans of Wilder Girls.

Where Darkness Blooms is a unique, captivating horror novel that deals with intergenerational trauma and what it means to deal with trauma at the hands of men. Andrea Hannah's talent as a writer reflects across the pages through her plot and her characters. All four of the protagonists (Delilah, Bo, Whitney, and Jude) have separate voices that are clearly distinguishable from each other while also complementing each other extremely well. Something that I think Hannah did particularly well is how there isn't really a Big Twist that most horror novels have, but this novel doesn't need one. The dread, anticipation, and genuine horror of Bishop and its curse are terrifying enough without a big shocking twist to throw the reader. I mean, there IS a twist, but it's not necessarily a surprise when you get to it, and it takes a great writer to be able to keep a horror plot moving along and remain engaging without having a Big Twist thrown in.

Overall, I'm so impressed with this book and would highly recommend it, especially to fellow lovers of eco-horror! Trigger warnings for sexual assault and very mild gore apply, so please be aware of that and take care of yourself if you decide to read this wonderful novel!

3.5 stars. As soon as I saw the cover of this book-AMAZING-I knew it was going to be my next read. Ever since reading The Ruins by Scott Smith I have been obsessed with horror plants and looking for another book to fill the void. These excerpts gave me that creepy 'flowers-watching-you-vibe' and I absolutely loved it.

"She looked around. The clearing was eerily quiet, the wind nonexistent. Even the sunflowers' heads drooped, completely ignoring the sun. Like it was satiated. Like they were satiated."

"Bo had always known that this town was creepy around the edges. The whispering sunflowers and hellish windstorms. The missing mothers."

I definitely got the mystery and horror vibes from it, although I could have done with a little more horror. I struggled with the main characters. At one point they all melded into one and I had to reread a few times to remember who's point of view I was reading from again. There could have been a little more world-building. I couldn't picture it and I just wanted more. All in all, I did enjoy reading this and I would recommend it to a friend. I think this author has a lot more to offer and I will be reading more of her books!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

To begin thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this.

I did enjoy the story overall, I thought the opening was so strong and got me into the story. I was interested in the lore of the town. Why did it need blood and it’s origins.

But it I feel like the book is trying to balance two storylines 1) the town mystery and 2) the complexities (romance and the dynamics of a small town) without diving into either all the way. With that I got characters mixed up several times.

I feel really f the book was a longer we’d have more time to dove into the lore of the town and the girls.

I really thought this was a beautiful, however, it was pretty slow. Not that that is always a bad thing, but for this book, it seemed a little unnecessary. Nevertheless, I did really enjoy this book. I liked the ominous spooky vibes and that fact that the main characters were likable. Another things that other reviewers have also pointed out that I noticed was how confusing it can be to follow all four girls' inner dialogue, along with that their mothers were added in as well so it was tough to remember who was who at times and which mother belonged to which girl and so on. I did think the ending of this book was worth it, even though it took a little while to get there. I think that younger readers would really enjoy this, it's a unique read with an interesting premise.

3.5 stars/5

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an arc. I received this arc free and my review is based on nothing but my own opinions.

I never thought I'd read a book that made sunflowers seem creepy to me. And yet here I am.

The town of Bishop is surrounded by an endless field of sunflowers. It also has a lot of missing women. When a group of girls become fed up after their mother's disappear, they go searching for answers. But if they aren't careful, they'll become the next to disappear.

This will appeal to those who like spooky small town secrets and women brave enough to fight back. Outside of the overall mystery, each girl has their own inner turmoil they are battling against, adding very personal stakes to solving the mystery of Bishop. I'd also say the mystery is a bit of a slow burn.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*Review may include slight spoilers*

First and foremost, I commend the author on one simple thing that most authors seem to neglect : trigger warnings (which include SA, implied sex, death/stabbing, and underage drinking). Thanks for the heads up 🙂

This book started off great: beautiful cover, intriguing prologue, the promise of an epic mystery. But it took my 70% of the book to get to that promise. 🥴 But once you get to that last third of the book, oh boy, does it take off and leave you hanging on for dear life.

Down to the nitty-gritty. My biggest complaint: all the girls inner dialogue reads the same and blurs together, even though they each experience different things.

Nonetheless, it was overall an enjoyable read. An imperfect friendship that survives against all odds. A sweet, sweet revenge after a terrible crime. A beautiful love between two humans. And a mystery about a peculiar town.

I loved the symbolism of the flowers. That even though a terrible thing happened, a beautiful flower grew in its place. And while it's mystery led the reader to believe the flowers were evil, they were a reminder that people never really leave you, even after they're gone.

Well worth the read, I recommend! Over 3.75⭐

One of the reasons I requested this book was the cover, it’s so beautiful, and the premise of the book sounded intriguing. In my opinion this is a slow moving book, and the payoff did not exceed the expectations of the journey. Whitney and Bo were definitely characters I gravitated to most and I feel like this book has potential, i just feel like I needed more out of it than what I got.
Thank you for letting me read :)

I received this book via NetGalley, thank you!

I enjoyed the basic premise of this book. It was different, a little bit spooky, and overall an enjoyable story. I did however find the characters hard to follow. There were 4 teenage girls living together, and their personalities and backstories blended together for me. I had to keep going back and rereading sections trying to figure out who was who, and who was doing what at certain times. Then there was their mothers added on top of it, and trying to remember which mom belonged to who and what was specifically important about each one and their relationship to their daughter(s). It was a little too much to track character wise for me, leading to some confusion.

One minor and silly thing I cringed a little at was when one of the girls was reviewing an address book that was used "before the internet" to get a phone number (because apparently the shop wasn't able to use email at the time they were utilizing this book, due to the lack of internet?). She looked at the publish date of the address book, it was 2003. She called it ancient. Meanwhile back in 2003, I and every other teenager was coding their own MySpace page on the internet, and also regularly using email, instant messengers, etc. So that was just... a little off!

I do wish there had been more detail gone into with the curse and the wind and sunflowers, and how these girls were able to just figure it all out. A lot of it seemed as if all the answers so easily fell in their lap. The curse itself and the sunflowers is such an interesting concept, I want to know more! I like how *****spoiler***** the sunflowers weren't the evil part at all, even though they came across as so ominous earlier on in the book. That was a great twist and I loved where that took the story.

I read a lot of YA and typically do enjoy what I read. This is one that I think had I read it when I was actually a teenager I would have really loved it way more than I did reading at 35. So I highly recommend it for the younger audience as it is actually intended. :-)

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the arc!

Where Darkness Blooms is a rural ghost story about four girls whose mothers all disappeared two years prior. Lost women are common in Bishop, Kansas, where the sunflowers are watching and the wind is alive. Women die all the time, and the girls have to choose between being the next victims or the first to leave.

It took me a bit longer than I’d liked to get into the story, but I was hooked soon after. The idea of whispering winds and magic in a non-fantasy book was a bit confusing. However, I think the small cast of characters really helped to solidify the plot. Also, this was the first time in a while that I still liked the brash and cold female character in a novel. Bo was a firecracker but still super compelling. The others were a bit flat and really depended on their romantic relationships to shape their stories—which is annoying—but since that’s kind of the main point of the story it’s ok. Overall, this read like a campfire story which I am always here for so it was super fun.