This is a great story spanning 30 years of friendship, 30 years of finding a serial killer, many side roads of life. A lot of unexpected turns, relationships, suspense, and searching for loved ones. Loved this book.

REVIEW 🏴‍☠️🐝

All the Colors of the Dark ~ Chris Whittaker
Pages: 608
Genre: Literary Fiction

It all begins with a pirate and a beekeeper…
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I’m convinced Chris Whittaker is some kind of sorcerer - after the perfection that was We Begin at the End is it really possible that he could repeat the magic in his next novel? Well folks, yes it is because All the Colors of the Dark was everything and more, beyond whatever I could have possibly expected it to be. The feelings I have for this book are overwhelming…

Some will balk at the length but I totally disagree - every word felt intentional in finely weaving a plot that was equal parts romance, suspense, and coming-of-age story making this read nothing short of EPIC. I promise you this novel will make you either realize why you love reading or will force you to ask yourself why you don’t read more.

Buy it now, borrow it from a friend, contact your library, charge your kindle - whatever means necessary. This will undoubtedly be the best book I read this year (yes, I’m aware it’s only August.)

I hated it so much at times, in the best way. I wanted to quit reading a million times but I couldn't I lived it too much to stop. I went on a full blown reading bender 600 pages in 6 days. I'm a little broken now. I loved the settings the characters all of them. This book told so many stories not just about the characters but about all of us about my lifetime, about the future. The love stories were beautiful and I loved how they all played out like intricate lace.

Saint lives with her grandmother, friendless because she's so smart and loves things like beekeeping instead of regular kid stuff. Patch lives with a junkie mother, his nickname the result of only having one eye from birth. The two find each other and start a friendship that deepens quickly.
When they are thirteen, a man tries to kidnap the school beauty. Patch intervenes and he is instead taken away. He comes to in a dark underground room where he is imprisoned for almost a year. The only thing that keeps him going is the company of another captive, Grace. He is found when Saint, who never gives up on him, discovers where he is hidden and manages to free him. Grace, however, doesn't make it out.

That sets in motion the paths of each life. Saint starts a law enforcement career, first locally then with the FBI. Patch spends his life looking for Grace and the rest of the girls the man who took him took and killed. Along the way, he becomes an artist and paints pictures of the girls he gives to the parents who will never see their daughters again. Over the years, the two friends continue to be thrown together at times and their friendship never fades. Each is the most important person in the other's world.

This book was released to great fanfare. It lives up to the expectations set by all the buzz. Whitaker explores the nature of love and friendship and whether obsession is ever valid or if it ruins lives. The two main characters are such that the reader will fall in love with both of them and cheer them on as they live their lives. This book is recommended for readers of thrillers.

I dug into this book blind and was not disappointed- in fact, I think it was my favorite book so far this year! It crosses so many genres which was pleasantly surprising. Chris Whitaker did a phenomenal job with his characters… The only thing I disliked was that I felt it was a bit of a slow burn but it was worth pushing through!

Wow. I thought he couldn’t top We Begin At the End but I loved this book even more! I was so torn between never wanting this book to end and wanting to savor every word. Whitaker is such a wordsmith. The book wrecked me in all the best ways.

Actual Rating: 3

I’ve got very mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I really enjoyed the story progression and I appreciated how the book didn’t shy away from being bleak, but on the other hand I didn’t really connect to any of the characters to really feel the emotional impact of the development. There are moments where they’re relatable for sure, but it wasn’t that consistent for me.

All the Colors of the Dark is a story that spans several years, following Patch, a local boy known for stealing and for having only one eye. He has only one friend, a girl named Saint, who plays beekeeper while he plays pirate. One day when he saves a wealthy girl named Misty from getting abducted by a well-known serial kidnapper, everything changes. Suddenly Patch is hailed as a hero by the community, but after getting kidnapped himself, Patch is no longer the imaginative boy he once was. Patch becomes obsessed with finding the other missing girls, and as he spirals over the years, it’s up to Saint — now a police officer — to catch him.

I thought Patch was such an endearing character to read about, and the book balanced his desolate upbringing and youthful innocence perfectly. As the story went on, however, Patch turned into a more distant, almost “mythical” sort of character. By the end of the book he doesn’t quite feel like a main character because we’re not in his mind as much. Most of what we know about him is through the eyes of Saint, who I thought was a good balance to Patch, but just not as interesting of a narrator to follow.

I think the writing style is one of the best parts of this book for sure. It’s consistently poetic throughout, somehow both hopeful and desperate, and the book would definitely not have the same impact without the beautiful writing. I will be reading other Chris Whitaker books for the writing style for sure.

Ultimately, I really would still recommend this to the general public, though I do want to say that marketing this as a "thriller" is not quite accurate. Either way, it’s somehow both character and story-driven so I think a lot of people with different reading preferences would be able to enjoy it.

This is a heartbreaking and hopeful book. I almost put the book aside as it was intense, dark and dragged in the middle. I'm glad that I didn't as the last half of the book was the best part.

This one was a bit difficult to get into as it started off well but then seemed to meander only to have a solid ending that tied it together. Overall, had potential but got bogged down. Readers who like literary sagas may like this one more than the mystery crowd.

I was torn with this book. It started so beautifully and captured my attention right from the beginning. But it dragged some in the middle and then the twists at the end just didn't make sense to me. The writing was very artistic and I had to reread paragraphs multiple times because it was hard for my brain to understand what was happening. Overall, I'm glad that I read it.

I wanted to love this and I'm honestly shocked that I didn't. It has all the makings of a book that I would ADORE: rich characters, a mystery, multigenerational storytelling, and many pages! But something about it felt so slow. It felt more like a book I would read in the winter than a summer read, which I think was the main problem here.

This was such an ambitious book and I loved it! I loved following the two main characters over decades and I loved their friendship (it was the friendship I wanted Tomorrow x3 to have). It was definitely a heavy read but I felt like it was all well done. Would definitely recommend! (But check the content warnings first)

Already calling this my favorite book of the year! I could not out this down and loved all 600 pages!! Patch is a new favorite book character for me! I was very pleased with the ending and I could not stop thinking about this book after I finished it! Loved loved loved it!!

It's been said time and again - this is a modern classic in the making. I loved walking through life over the years with these characters. The way love and trauma and their impacts on every day life are portrayed felt very real. This is a story I want to read again.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #CrownPublishing for a free copy of #AllTheColorsOfTheDark by Chris Whitaker. All opinions are my own.

5 luxurious stars

From the publisher: “From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades.” Full of tragedy with showers of hope. Evil exists but love triumphs. Whitaker’s characters are fantastic, the pacing and plot are excellent, the writing is touching and visual.

Whitaker’s writing is rich. “In the embers of summer…” ”A sunset fired colors that splintered over the water.” Good authors can describe worlds with few words. “Thoroughly beaten, she looked a woman who had outlived her child.”

This book is long, but it Never bogged down. Chapters are short and I finished the book quicker than most, because it was so good. I love that it is a love story, a missing person story, a serial killer story, a family and friendship story. Not many authors can put that together successfully. I hope that this turns into a mini-series, as more people need to read it! It is one of the very few books that I will reread.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Crown Publishing and Net Galley for this Advanced Reader E-Copy of All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. Pub date: June 25, 2024.

Wow what an unforgettable genre-transcending read. It’s a beautifully written coming-of-age, thriller, suspense, romance book. If you loved The Lovely Bones or liked the shows Mare of Easttown and Broadchurch, then this book is for you. It’s also got elements of The Notebook and some parts reminiscent of Demon Copperhead.

What worked for me:

-Characters with well-developed story arcs, allowing for attachment and complexity to marinate
-Patch, Saint and Misty: their life stories of friendship, unrequited love, platonic love and everlasting love
-Exploration of trauma and survivors’ guilt
-Strong female protagonist and the struggle of challenging archaic societal values and ideologies
-That underdog story trope with moments of defeat, triumph, loss and redemption
-Had legit goosebumps after one of the plot revelations - absolutely BRILLIANT writing (riddles that you didn’t know were riddles😲)
-Clear distinct timelines that offer references to past events that were easy to follow

I must admit that I initially thought the pacing of this book was too slow for my liking. I was struggling to keep going after the 20%ish mark and actually ended up reading 2 books in between. The darkness was not my friend (definitely needs a claustrophobia trigger warning). But when the book got into the adolescent years of the main characters, I could not put it down. There were so many surprises even after the 70% mark that this book became addictive. It turned into a riveting fast-paced read, a puzzle revealing itself to you in doses that could not keep you satiated.

Overall, a 5⭐️ read that took my breath away *BIG SIGH*🥹

Whitakers unique story telling in short, concise bursts of information keeps you guessing until the end. There are always so many characters, details, locations that make such a robust story that begins in a small, nowhere town. Following Patch and Saint throughout their lives, as they try to unravel the mystery of the missing girls both breaks your heart and warms it at the same time. Everyone in the story plays such an important part of understanding right vs wrong, horror and heartache, love and compassion. All the colors of the dark reminds you that life has so much more going on than what may be seen at the surface and everyone is living something differently than what may be perceived.

One of my favorite authors and for good reason. Chris Whitaker writes beautifully and writes stories that stay with you long after that last page is turned. Expect no less from this book. Buy it!

I love it when a book like this comes along. There’s a path of stepping stones in my book-reading brain. The books that reach me, grip my heart, affect my day, and will earn their own stepping stone. This book has achieved that, and to the point, I hesitate to continue my travels.
Saint is living with her grandmother in a small Missouri town. Saint’s parents died years earlier, so all they have is each other. And Saint is not your typical little girl. She’s rough and tough, doesn’t worry about appearances, could care less about schedules and demands, loves her bee hives, and has one favorite friend. Patch is an outsider like Saint. Small, a bit weak, and has only one functioning eye. He’s convinced himself he’s a pirate; it makes his difference easier to explain. Patch and Saint use their imaginations and enjoy every hour of every day. Until one afternoon when Patch foils an attempted kidnapping and is taken instead. His chances are very slim. There have been other kidnappings over the years; young girls leave and never return, and there’s blood and Patch’s eyepatch where he was last seen. The years that follow that day are not what a reader would expect. The author threw out the boilerplate and created a whole new world evolving around missing children, growing up scarred, being in unrequited love, sacrificing for others, and accepting the crappy hand you are dealt in life.
This book is so much more than a thriller, a mystery, a saga about kidnapped girls. It’s a study of human nature, developing characters, and the torture of time. Sit down with this book. Read a few pages. Do yourself the huge blessing of living with the lives Chris Whitaker has created.
Thanks so much to Crown Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is June 25, 2024.

This is a case of “it’s not you it’s me” because this is the second book I read from the author and I just can’t point what it is but the best way I can describe is that I feel like a read a different book from everyone that loved it. So many great reviews but it was just ok for me. A bit chunk could’ve been cut. The ending was my favorite part because I love happy endings.