Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah - First, soooo sorry for the late review(l, I read this back in February before it came out but I was also super sick and taking a break so when I got back into things I completely forgot about this baby. Anyways, creepy creepy, creepy, magical realism book with a creepy, crappy town an even creepier sunflower field. The world pretty much does not exist outside this town, but when 3 mothers(on top of many other women) go missing, their daughters start to look into things. Maybe things did align with my review because this book is the perfect spooky Fall read!

Fairly creepy. Thoroughly intriguing. Almost made sense.

Where the Darkness blooms follows a group of girls living together in a creepy town, where women often go missing. The girls live together, because their mothers went missing many years ago. Now they are trying to survive without parents (their fathers were never mentioned) and figure out what happened to their mothers.

I don’t understand why the girls fathers or grandparents were not part of the story. I also don’t think that it was explained why three very different mothers were living together with their daughters.

this was okay, but i found it hard to get into. i'm sure it would be good for the appropriate ya audiences interested in this type of story, but it didn't grab my attention.

*2 stars*

This just didn’t do it for me. It was weirdly misogynistic and left too many questions unanswered. The premise seemed promising but I feel like there are just so many YA horror novels that are better.

The narrators were all good but a couple of them read slowly so when I bumped it up, it made the other 2 read a little too quickly. The story is fun and wrapped up neatly at the end. The environmental horror element is a neat premise. The whole town feels claustrophobic and eerie, and it's all the more horrifying to learn who's in on the secret.

"Wash the blood off their hands..."

A town where the sunflowers whisper, the storms scream their rage and an offering of blood settles the ground the past settled on. Hannah crafted a slow burning narrative surrounding four girls and the mothers who've mysteriously gone missing.

The audiobook was narrated expertly by Rachanee Lumayo, Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Emily Ellet and Lindsey Dorcus. This full cast brings voice and persona to the array of characters in this novel. I feel this is one that is best to go in blind on. The writing style is easy to get lost in with the lush descriptives and eery setting.

I enjoyed the unique character personas and the backstory they each have. There are some areas that left me with questions and the buildup was longer than what I generally go for. Overall though, I had a hard time putting this one down.

Thank you OrangeSky Audio for the gifted audio in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. True rating 3.5/5.

Where Darkness Blooms is a dark fiction story based in the town of Bishop. It is surrounded in mystery and turmoil. Every few years women go missing or turn up dead. Now the younger women are left, and they are starting to go missing, and they are the final generation.

I didn't realize going into this exactly how dark it would end up being. I knew it would be semi dark, but it ended up being way more intense. However, it did truly keep me on the edge of my seat. I would absolutely recommend this to those interested in dark thrillers, but please absolutely check the trigger warnings. I kind of wish content warnings were given at the beginning. I feel it would help more readers be more away going in to make the reading experience easier.

My arc (courtesy of NetGalley/Wednesday Books) was an audio, and I greatly enjoyed consuming the work in that way. In regards to the audio portion, I only really had one critique. I wish that at the beginning of the new chapters the character POV name would be given to help with keeping track of the character switches.

Supernatural Thriller with Magic Realism, a full cast of narrators, sunflowers and a curse on the land that needs blood to survive. Wow this was wild. There was implied triggers (violence & sexual assault) but done respectfully. I loved all the girls but Beau was probably my favorite and felt even though all the girls were dealing with something personal hers was the toughest, she thrived and survived from her anger.

4.5 stars i went into this thinking it was a horror, but it turns out that it's a thriller, and im still shocked how this book ended. I read this last year and only got halfway, but i finished it this year. And i liked it. It's more the ending than the beginning. There are too many characters to follow, tho. It was hard for me to picture the characters, but i liked that it reminded me of wilder girls and horrid

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah, This was fantastic! a story about 4 young girls who have had their lives completely destroyed when their mothers disappear one day. two years later they are steal trying to deal with that and the mysteries in their town. death and missing women. the 4 start to close in on some information about the darkness cursing their town while trying to deal with the conflicting personalities. Worth the read or listen. the narration was fantastic, a different reader of each chapter of each of the four girls

I'm a big fan of horror, and when I found this one on NetGalley, I knew I needed it. The twisting, mutating grossness of this tale helps to add to the atmospheric horror of Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah. All of the twists and turns put me in the mood for autumn and Halloween, and I was so happy to have had the opportunity to read and review this work of art.

TITLE: WHERE DARKNESS BLOOMS
AUTHOR: Andrea Hannah
PUB DATE: 02.21.2023 Now Available
AUDIO: OrangeSky Audio
NARRATED BY: Rachanee Lumayno, Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Emily Ellet, Lindsey Dorcus
LENGTH: 10h 13m

Dark
Eerie
Atmospheric

I enjoyed listening to the audiobook of WHERE DARKNESS BLOOMS by author Andrea Hannah as narrated by a full cast, the talents of Rachanee Lumayno, Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Emily Ellet, Lindsey Dorcus. I have to tell you that their voice acting was such a joy to read. Their voices were distinct and really captured this atmospheric read.

Andrea Hannah writes a beautiful story with heavy themes about the roles of men and the women, about a small town and it’s menacing secrets, a bit of supernatural and magic, and strong young women whose mothers were lost.

I really enjoyed listening to this.

So many questions and not enough answers. Readers get dropped right into the mess that is the town of Bishop and thrown about on this wild ride. I think Hannah had an interesting idea when it comes to looking at chosen family and female friendships, but this tale just didn't work for me. Delilah, Whitney, Jude, and Bo are complex characters, but in a way that comes across as more confusing and unrelatable than anything. The mysteriousness of the town of Bishop is never really answered in a satisfactory way. The audiobook had an interesting group of narrators so I finished the book, but they were the only redeeming factor.

Audiobook: Andrea Hannah’s When Darkness Blooms

Genre: Supernatural YA thriller

The small town of Bishop is shrouded in mystery with its frequent windstorms and vast fields of sunflowers. Three missing women have left their daughters behind with the shattered pieces of what was once home. An old weathervane seems to whisper words of comfort to the girls, and perhaps these murmurs from beyond will help them uncover what happened all those years ago...

Listen to this if you like…
YA thrillers
Audiobooks with a cast of narrators (This one has 4!)
Atmospheric reads with lots of magical realism

When Darkness Blooms was a quick listen with lots of short chapters. The premise wowed me, and the cover is quite literally the most beautiful one I’ve seen this year. As a mother of four, I found the fictional mothers’ motivations unbelievable, which affected my enjoyment of the audiobook. To be fair, I think I’m too old to enjoy young adult fiction anymore. I get enough teen drama in my own home. The four narrators captured the voices of the teen girls in a lovely way. Very well done there!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I enjoyed this, it was a good creepy thriller. Felt a little slow at the beginning but once it picked up it kept me hooked. The narrators were good as well.

Thank you @tlcbooktours and @orangeskyaudio for a spot on tour and a gifted audiobook by @andeehannah

📖 The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women.

After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney’s twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah’s boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.

🌻 🌻 🌻

What a fantastic supernatural thriller! It was eerie how the sunflowers seemed to be watching and the wind would whisper in this strange little town in Kansas.

Something happened to these girls' mothers years ago. Now another young girl has died. Something or someone wants these women dead, but why?

I loved hearing from each of the four girls’ perspectives, it added to the depth of the story. The writing is descriptive, vivid, and chilling! This is a perfect mix of paranormal thriller, YA romance, and family drama.

This starts with a prologue about the town so you know the back story.

Then it jumps into present and there was a whole cast of charterers to keep track over and sometimes I didn't know who was who. But all the girls have one thing in common their mothers have gone missing assumed dead its been 2 years no new updates and they know something more happen. They wouldn't just leave there daughters right? The more they dig the more they are uncovering about the town and all the woman?

Whats going on and why and why woman? Its a creepy read.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the Audio ARC of this!

Where Darkness Blooms is the story of four girls: Delilah, Whitney and her sister Jude, and Bo. Their mothers disappeared but the girls don't think they're dead. In fact they're convinced that their sunflower-laden, blood-hungry, obscenely windy town, Bishop, has something to do with their disappearance.

I think I've found that YA horror just isn't my thing. I've given you several tries YA horror, but I just don't seem to enjoy it. Despite the fact that there are four main characters, I just couldn't connect with any of them. Jude is the literal worst pining for her friend's boyfriend after hooking up with him (once?). Whitney spends the majority of the book grieving for her dead girlfriend despite finding another girl way hot. Not sure what Delilah and Bo did in this story. Maybe mourn her missing artist mother while being unable to touch her boyfriend (Delilah) and be angry at everyone always (Bo)? At least I think. I had a hard time caring about any of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Rachanee Lumayo, Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Emily Ellet, and Lindsey Dorcus were all fine narrators (each narrating a different one of the girls). Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into the story or the characters.

In a town known for flowers whispering and land itself thirsting for blood, it comes as no surprise when two women go missing. Their case is considered closed and their daughters are left to go on with their lives. Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend instead of taking care of the others, Whitney has lost everything, while Jude ignores everything and Bo won’t stop searching for answers.

I never read a young adult thriller before. This certainly had the paranormal theme going for it, which seemed more fantasy than anything. Overall, an interesting concept with beautiful imagery - but not really for me. Thanks to TLC Book Tours for the review ALC.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀 is a creepy story set in a small and isolated town.

I binge listened to this book while on vacation and driving through the desert. Admittedly, I may have gotten a bit creeped out as I drove through small, isolated towns as I listened to this haunting story that takes on several serious social issues.

I loved how this story, and the characters really came to life through all four narrators. As they each played their part, you could feel the emotions and fear come alive as the story ramped up.

Definitely give this YA horror story a listen, but maybe not while driving through the desert.