Oh my word, this book was exquisite. It's a serial killer mystery, a love story, a story of family and friends, small towns and big dreams.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the smalltown of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

This book is epic in scope, very moving and extremely thrilling. It quite simply took my breath away and I could not put it down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown publishing for the digital advanced copy. The novel will be released this Tuesday, June 25!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

If you like mysteries, you must put this on your TBR. It's a little longer and a bit of a slow burn in the middle, but just go along for the ride and soak up the incredible sentence level writing. I could not consume the ending fast enough. Shout out to @marjiereads for telling me to stick with it when I was getting skeptical about 60% in.

I went in pretty blind. All I knew is that @meredithmondayschwartz raved about it on @currentlyreadingpodcast. I am now obsessed with the main character, Patch, one of those good guys who doesn't always follow the law. This book delves right into right vs. wrong and all the grey in between.

Chris Whitaker where have you been all my life??? Your character development is out of this world and your stories are filled with so much depth and uniqueness. I was obsessed with the Pirate and rooting for his true self to find his justice. I would have never wanted your ending, but it seemed inevitable. Bravo!!

Wow! We start with Patch. Patch got that nickname because he was born with one eye. his mom gave him beautiful eyepatches and told him he was a brave pirate. He doesn't care much that the other kids think he's a freak. He tries not to. Then, he makes one decision that saves the life of one girl and nearly takes his. His best friend doesn't give up on him. The rest of the book is about how that one event shaped the lives of three people-the pirate, the damsel, and the best friend. I found it to be a soaring story of trauma and healing. But that makes it sound like less than it was. It was about commitment and obsession. It was about closure and truth. The ending picks up again and moves towards closing the circle.

This was one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. Beautifully written, complex and heart wrenching, the pirate and the beekeeper will be in my heart for a long time.

All the Colors of the Dark is the type of book you come across every few years and you can't stop thinking or talking about. From the first pages of this story I was taken by the plot, the characters, and the suspense. This is a wonderful book filled with heartache, love, friendship, and loyalty. Do yourself a favor, dive in without reading any type of spoiler reviews and enjoy this thrilling ride. Do not let the volume of this story intimidate you, the chapters are short, and you will find yourself not wanting to say goodbye to these characters. I absolutely loved this book and have already recommended it to so many people, thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

One of my favorite authors had recommended this book so I thought I would read something out of my norm. I struggled to get invested in the story and turned to Goodreads reviews for encouragement. There were mostly five star reviews, but I came across one reviewer that said they also struggled until reaching 19% in the ebook at which time things got more interesting. I decided to trudge on and boy were they right! From that point on, I was (mostly) glued to the book. However, I felt that there were a lot of short, choppy sentences and a few that made no sense to me (I had to re-read them several times and still no clarity). The story kept my interest, enough that I didn't realize it was a 600 page book. All the Colors of the Dark had some interesting, unusual and enjoyable characters. (Something that bothered me was while Saint was working for local law enforcement, the FBI called and asked her to work for them as an agent and all of a sudden, she was a Special Agent. It doesn't happen like that). The author did a wonderful job of describing the things that Patch sees in the dark.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up

All the Colors of the Dark is not a quick read, though I finished it in far fewer days than the 600+ pages would typically take. It is also not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, or a swoon-worthy romance. What it is is a slowburn, lifelong deep friendship/love story with characters that will drag you into their lives and not let you go.

Saint and Patch are the kind of kids that tug at my heart. Kids with rough lives, tough but vulnerable, who find each other and become lifelong, always have each others' backs friends. When Patch intercedes in an attempted kidnap/murder, and becomes the prisoner of a serial killer, both of their lives take a turn that they may never recover from. The book follows them through many years of their lives, as they grow together and apart, and try to resolve the damage done. I loved so many of the characters-- Norma, Sammy and Charlotte especially will forever live in my heart.

The book is definitely a slow burn and I did not fall completely in love with it until about the 70% mark. Readers should stick with it through the slow parts though, as the final section of the novel brings everything together and answers all of the questions.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for the digital ARC of All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. The opinions in this review are my own.

All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🥂
I don’t think I ever cried as much as I have reading this book. A story of how we break and how we fall. Of how we hold on and how we love. A tragedy from the first page, but also with glimmers of hope. A story about stolen girls hits so close to my heart. He captures brokenness so well. Love more. Forgive more. #chriswhitaker #allthecolorsofthedark #NetGalley #bookstagram #generalfiction @chriswhitakerauthor

I really wanted to love this book because I have been seeing rave reviews everywhere, but it did not work for me. It is a very dark book (about a serial killer and abuse) but that wasn't what turned me off -- my problem with the book was that I just didn't care about the characters. I didn't find them endearing or like people I wanted to spend 600 pages with. I seem to be an outlier but this one.

Book Review: All the Colors of the Dark
By Chris Whitaker


I can’t say enough about Chris Whitaker’s new release - All the Colors of the Dark. It is so many things - quietly beautiful and deep, haunting, dark, bright and hopeful. It’s an unputdownable coming of age tale, a buddy story, a serial killer mystery, and an epic drama about love and obsession. All the Colors of the Dark is storytelling at its best - finely drawn characters you won’t soon forget and a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Here’s the set up. It’s 1975, in the small town of Monta Claire, Missouri and girls have gone missing. Patch, a poor one-eyed boy, who thinks he’s a pirate, and Saint, a beekeeper raised by her grandmother, are outsiders. They form a quick and long lasting friendship which will span decades and be tried by circumstance. Everything changes when Patch becomes the unlikely hero who thwarts the kidnapping of a local girl and is taken instead. He is held captive in a dark room. There he meets Grace, a voice in the dark, his angel and savior. But does she really exist? Patch believes she does, and he will stop at nothing to track down his capture and find the girl he loves.

*Trigger Warnings: violence, abuse, predatory behaviors, captivity


Many thanks to the author @ChrisWhitikerWriter, @CrownPublishing and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me the chance to read an early digital copy of All the Colors of the Dark. I read We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker last year, and the thing about his writing that really draws me in is his ability to not only describe the story in vivid detail but also the characters that you can't help but feel like you come to know over the course of his stories. There is a reason All the Colors of the Dark is the July Read with Jenna pick (announced a few days ago and ahead of it's June 25 pub date). It starts off on a bang with a story about Patch, and only takes off from there. I was immediately invested in the story and couldn't help but want to keep reading. I will say that this one is a bit longer than some of his previous books, but don't let that deter you from picking this one up. He has a way to make a 700 page story feel like 200 and leave the reader wanting more.

Very well written. Made me cry. Now I'm going to read his other books. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Excellent story that will stick with me. The author makes me care about flawed characters and their stories more than anyone else. I found it a little bit long and dragging a bit in the middle, and I thought that I would be mad if I didn't get a good payoff at the end. Happy to report I'm pleased with the ending and it has left me with a bit of a book hangover. Once again this author writes an extremely compelling, hard-to-forget novel.

So grateful for receiving an arc of this book. I unfortunately didn’t love it the way so many others did so I’m sure I’m an outlier. It’s not so much a “thriller” in my opinion as the pacing is a bit slower for my liking. I enjoyed most of the story and the mystery behind the missing girl (Grace) and Patch being told she isn’t real and his intimate friendship with Saint.

I think I just struggled with the pacing and the length of the book. There's over 200 chapters but each is very short. I loved the small town vibes to the story and I was invested but there’s a lot happening with quite a few characters and it felt laborious to me and I had moments where I just wanted it to end.

3.5⭐️

I loved All The Colors of The Dark. The writing style definitely took me a little bit to get into it first but, once I was in a groove, it was incredibly beautiful, brilliantly complex and heartbreaking and more than I could’ve even imagined I would want from the story.

While I never imagined I would want to reread a 600 page book, there was so much nuance here that I know I missed things I will want to (re)discover.

This book will gut you like a fish.

I am absolutely destroyed.

Emotionally damaged and healed over and over again in these 600 pages.

This novel is long, but every word deserves to be on the page. I had no idea how Chris Whitaker could follow up We Begin at the End, which had served as a standard few books could hold a candle to, but somehow we have All the Colors of the Dark.

Believe everything you’re going to see and hear about this book. These characters. This story. Patch. Saint. Norma. Sammy. Nix. Each one so beautiful and complex and flawed and perfect.

I can’t even write a coherent review. I don’t even know how to read another book after this. It was simply spectacular.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing.

It's 1975 and Patch is good friends with Saint. They are adolescents on the outs with kids they age and Patch comes from very little. One day he stops a man from taking a girl from a wealthy family, and he goes missing instead. This is the story of what happens after. So good, hard to put down!

Powerful and haunting, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK rendered me speechless and wanting more. That’s quite something for a novel exceeding 600 pages. Chris Whitaker is an absolute genius when it comes to creating unforgettable characters and he’s done it again with Patch and Saint taking up residence in my heart alongside Duchess from We Begin at the End. His writing is fluid and utterly gorgeous. It’s easy to get lost in his words.

Writing a plot summary for a book of this length and complexity is near impossible. There are simply too many elements present: missing girls, a serial killer on the loose, prolonged family trauma, abuse, found family, an abiding friendship, and, ultimately, a love story. This is an epic tale of sacrifice, resilience, tragedy, and triumph spanning more than two decades.

Whitaker grabbed my attention from the start with a beginning rich with action and character development. The pace slowed about a third of the way through, but the short chapters kept me turning the pages. The final third of the book moved at a faster pace as the pieces began to fit together. And the ending … Let’s just say it left me breathless. This book is stunning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the privilege of reading an advance Review copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

Thirteen-year-old Patch Macauley is a survivor. It's 1975, and Patch and his best friend, Saint, are outcasts in the small town of Monta Claire, Missouri. Their lives are forever changed when Patch saves the daughter of a wealthy family from kidnapping, only for himself to be taken instead. Held hostage by a serial killer, he survives with the help of fellow hostage Grace. Saint eventually finds Patch, but Grace and the kidnapper disappear. Thus begins Patch's search for the girl he fell in love with, a journey that spans decades and thousands of miles.
This is a novel about love, hope, and obsession. It takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride where Patch and Saint, whose paths merge and diverge numerous times, seek an elusive love hauntingly out of reach. The writing is powerful, the characters adeptly drawn, and the storytelling at its finest.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Crown for this e-arc.*