Thank you @netgalley for my advance copy. I’m not a huge Marvel fan but I saw Jewell and my finger just selected it!! I’m glad it did. Jewell is phenomenal in all she does.

In Breaking the Dark, Jessica Jones emerges from the shadows once more, grappling with a haunting mystery that challenges her cynical worldview. Retired from her superhero days and now a hardened private investigator in Hell's Kitchen, Jessica reluctantly takes on a case brought by a desperate mother, Amber Randall.

Amber's twins return from a visit to their father in the UK transformed—eerily perfect and fixated on a mysterious girl named Belle. Convinced her children have been replaced by something malevolent, Amber enlists Jessica to uncover the truth in a secluded British village, Barton Wallop. There, Jessica encounters Belle—a strange, isolated teenager with secrets of her own—and confronts the village's unsettling undercurrents.

Breaking the Dark is a compelling addition to the Jessica Jones series, offering readers a tantalizing mix of suspense, psychological depth, and supernatural mystery. Jewell captures Jessica's gritty resilience and complex vulnerabilities, making this a must-read for fans of both superhero narratives and atmospheric thrillers.

I’ll start off by saying I am not a huge Marvel fan so I wasn’t very familiar with Jessica Jones prior to this book. However, I don’t think it’s important at all to be immersed in that world prior to reading.

Lisa Jewell blew me away with this! I was sucked into the story from page one. Breaking The Dark follows Jessica Jones after a mother reaches out to her for help regarding her teenage twins. After the twins visit their father in the UK, they have been acting (and even looking) very strange.

I enjoyed learning about Jessica & I love how this book includes mystery, crime, & fantasy elements. It’s a perfect mix of it all!

Thanks NetGalley, Hyperion Avenue, & Lisa Jewell for the ARC!

› Breaking the Dark features Jessica Jones, a private detective in New York, who is commissioned to investigate Amber Randall’s teenage twins, Lark and Fox. She thinks they haven’t been acting like themselves since they returned from visiting their father in England – in fact, she believes they’ve been replaced. Amber asks Jessica to visit Barton Wallop in the Essex countryside and discover what happened to her children. She knows it has something to do with a girl named Belle.

› While investigating, Jessica is constantly thinking about her pregnancy. She hasn’t told the father, Luke Cage and is unsure how he will take it considering they’re not in a relationship. Told in a dual timeline, we learn more about a strange small town in England and meet Ophelia, Arthur and Polly who have something to do with what’s going on with Lark and Fox.

› Jessica used to wear a costume when she was a superhero and went by the name Jewel – very fitting. In my opinion, the characters are underdeveloped and uninteresting. I wanted more description and world-building. I did not enjoy how much the pregnancy was mentioned. This is a slow-paced mystery until the last quarter. There is a lot of fluff (words that aren’t moving the plot forward). I didn’t feel intrigued to keep reading. I didn’t understand character motivations. I enjoy fantasy novels, have seen most of the Marvel movies, love a badass female protagonist, and love Jewell’s writing style, but somehow Breaking the Dark didn’t work for me. I’m wondering if Lisa Jewell wasn’t given enough leeway to do what she does best.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: character-driven, intricately plotted, nonlinear
Pace: unhurried
Tone: angsty, moody, dramatic, dark, mysterious
Writing Style: conversational, gritty
Character: awkward, brooding, strong female, multiple points of view

Read Alikes:
The Switch by Lily Samson
2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson
The Midnight Feast by Lucey Foley
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner
The Vines by Shelley Nolden
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
First, Kill All the Lawyers by Patricia Clark

› In the past I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Breaking the Dark is a great way for Marvel fans to dip their toe into the mystery thriller genre. This story is about perfection, self-esteem, and the meaning of happiness.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Okay I’m personally a giant marvel universe fan and I really loved Jessica Jones and everything involving it! So imagine how happy I was to read this! I think Lisa Jewells writing did this absolute wonders, she gives it such a fresh yet dark mysterious vibe. This is a great detective/private investigator story that ventures into the unknown of the UK with a fun change of pace. I loved the “guest” appearances of other characters as well. All in all I think this was amazing! Just keep in mind it’s not her normal type of book!

Meet Jessica Jones: a private investigator and retired super hero based out of Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, who goes from job to job as a hard living, rough talking, loner.

And then a wealthy Upper East Side woman pays her a visit. Amber Randall is concerned about her twin sixteen-year-olds, Lark and Fox, who have acted and looked very different since they returned from spending the summer with their British father in the UK. She tells Jessica that her children have unnaturally perfect skin for teenagers and have lost all the tics and habits that made them who they were. They are not Lark and Fox, she tells Jessica. Something has happened to them.

I am not a huge Marvel fan, but was curious to see what this book was all about. I really loved this dark and mysterious world of Marvel’s Manhattan. And that’s what worked so well for me, as it reads like a classic Lisa Jewell thriller, but because it is a superhero story, literary anything can happen.

I’m a huge Lisa Jewell fan but Marvel on the other hand I don’t know a whole lot about, unless it’s a main character that was in a movie. Therefore, I didn’t know anything about Jessica Jones and her background. Never heard of her but it didn’t affect reading this book in any way or my understanding of her character. The book is very well written and the superhuman powers are only a tiny portion of the story.

Lisa Jewell just wrote an amazing book in a totally different genre than the thrillers she typically writes and it’s very impressive. There is suspense with children acting strangely and Jessica Jones is trying to solve the mystery. Technology plays a big role tying the story together so that’s pretty cool. It was a very fun read. 


Thank you @LisaJewell, @HyperionAvenue and @NetGalley for a free e-ARC. The opinions are mine alone and not biased in any way.

A PI with an unorthodox background uncovers more than she bargained for in her new case.

Jessica Jones, former superhero turned private investigator, is not in a great place in her life. She still struggles with something that happened a while back that stripped her of whatever self-confidence she had, is living in a sub-par apartment in Hell’s KItchen, is unsure whether or not she is in a relationship with Luke Cage, and is self-medicating with alcohol to get through the day. When she is approached by wealthy divorcee Amber Randall, who claims that her sixteen year old twins Lark and Fox came back from their annual visit with their father in England strangely altered, she suspects the woman is overdramatizing the situation. But she needs the money, so agrees to surveil the twins to see if she picks up on anything unusual. To her surprise she does and is soon headed to England to delve deeper, even as things in her personal life are getting weird. She suspects she might be pregnant, plus she keeps seeing the same young girl in places and at times where a young girl shouldn’t be….and she seems to be the only one who sees her. The story also flashes back to a bar in Harlem in the 80’s, when a young British woman flirts with a bartender and he becomes obsessed with her, and then to a seaside town in England twelve years ago when an ambitious girl named Polly (who is obsessed with makeup and is focused on making a splash in the world) meets up with that same woman, now a grown woman and with a son about Polly’s age. How are these stories connected to a pair of American teens who suddenly have flawless complexions and who claim that everything is just perfect? Who is Belle, the agoraphobic girl with whom Lark and Fox spent a lot of time during their visit with their father at his new country home? What at first seemed odd becomes creepy and beyond, and Jessica’s only back-up is her geeky teen intern Malcolm….can she overcome her own damage, find out what is happening and prevent it from spreading?
Breaking the Dark is the first Marvel Crime Novel, and is part female PI mystery, part thriller, and part superhero action story. Although it is definitely related to the Marvel Comic Universe, it is not necessary for a reader to know what that is in order to read and enjoy the book (I consider myself MCU-adjacent….my daughter is a huge fan of Marvel movies, tv shows and comics, so I have picked up some knowledge by osmosis)….but if you are fluent in Marvel, you know a bit about Jessica going into the book. She’s an interesting lead character, definitely messed up in a lot of ways but doing her best to push through, and when she senses others in jeopardy she plunges right in….once a superhero, always a superhero, with or without the shiny suit. As the story unfolds, the reader learns more about what happened to Jessica that caused her to leave the superhero world behind. The underlying mystery of what exactly has happened to Lark and Fox, and who the women in the Old Farmhouse in the English countryside are (not to mention what’s up with the 80”s movies and music), is twisty and dark. Fortune telling, a serial killer, missing schoolgirls, and a psychopath who wants to conquer social media are all part of the tale, and I found myself able to make some connections within the plot but, wow, did not guess the full extent of the evil at the root of it all. With hints of Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky, a dose of Lucy Foley/Megan Miranda, and rounded out with the flawed heroes of the Marvel Comic Universe, this book has something for all sorts of readers. Fans of the MCU will definitely want to grab a copy, but those who just like a good thriller should not leave this off their TBR list…..it will grab your attention and keep it throughout the book. Many thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for allowing me early access to the book, and I look forward to the next installments in the Marvel Crime Novel series.

While I am not super well versed in the Marvel universe outside of the bigger characters, I quite like Lisa Jewel, so I decided to pick up this novel. Honestly you don’t have to know much about the Marvel world to enjoy this book. I did a bit of googling to figure out where Jessica Jones fits in and what her powers are, but outside of that honestly in this book she comes off as superhuman, utilizing her powers very little, so anyone could pick up this book and enjoy it. Jessica’s character is really well written, and relatable. The mystery is quite fun with “vampires”, missing children, and children acting oddly. Everything ties together beautifully. I think readers will enjoy this book.
Thank you so much to Hyperion Avenue and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I'm a big Lisa Jewell fan, so it's no surprise she was tapped to author this Jessica Jones Marvel book. It's well written but not my genre (not typically Lisa's). I'll be ready for her to get back to her normal outstanding style.

Lisa Jewell can do no wrong, even for someone that isn't a Marvel fan! This is a thoroughly enjoyable book for anyone that likes thrillers, and it just heats up after the first quarter. If you are familiar with Marvel, you will probably like this even more than I did.

Important note: This book works best for Marvel fans. It's NOT a typical Lisa Jewell story.


I've loved other books by Jewell, and I'm a Marvel fan, but I struggled a bit with this one. The pace was very slow. Jessica seemed one dimensional. Thee action and suspense didn't match my expectations. Overall, the book had a YA feel to it. And if you're not well versed in Marvel, there's good chance you'll be confused with this book.

I just finished Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell, and let me tell you, this book is a wild ride. Imagine a crime thriller set in the Marvel Universe—crazy, right? Jewell does an amazing job blending her thriller style with the superhero world, making this a unique read.

The story follows Jessica Jones, a private investigator, who’s on a case involving twins acting strangely after visiting their father in the UK. The plot gets pretty weird, but in a good way! It’s a mix of suspense and supernatural elements that will keep you on your toes. If you’re a Marvel fan or just love a good mystery, this one’s for you.

What I loved most about this book is how Jewell brings Jessica Jones to life. She’s flawed and relatable, which makes her journey even more compelling. Plus, there’s a nice balance of action and character development that keeps the story engaging.

I was hesitant at first because I don't follow Marvel closely. I wouldn't even have watched the movies if it weren't for my husband wanting to see them. But even if you’re not a big Marvel fan, don’t worry. The book is accessible and enjoyable on its own. Just keep an open mind and dive into this thrilling, creepy, and entertaining read. Trust me, you won’t want to put it down!

-Love how Lisa Jewell writes but this one is a little out there. I am a big fan of her thriller/mystery books. I obviously didn’t read the synopsis of this title closely enough though. Breaking the Dark is more sci-fi than her traditional style. This one just wasn’t for me.
Thank You to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Lisa Jewell hit a home run with this one! Breaking the Dark will appeal to Marvel and thriller readers alike! If you don’t already know the name Lisa Jewell, you will after this book!

Jewell sinks her talented writing talons into the dark Marvel character Jessica Jones who has been commissioned to investigate 16 year old twins Lark and Fox. After returning from a four week trip to their father’s in the UK, their New York based mother feels something is off with her children. They seem almost too perfect; blemish free in both appearance and personality. With her low bank account, Jessica doesn’t have much of a choice but to accept the job. What Jessica finds is chilling and could have a disastrously worldwide impact. In a race against both time and biology, will Jessica be able to stop the dark forces before it’s too late?

I am a Marvel fan in that I’ve seen all the movies and love them and I’ve also seen and enjoyed a handful of the television shows depicting the Marvel universe. But a devoted comic book fan, I am not! Having said that, I believe this outstandingly suspenseful book can be enjoyed whether you are a seasoned Marvel fan or not.


I highly recommend pre-ordering this now! I would give this four and half stars rounded up to five stars!

When I discovered that Lisa Jewell had penned a crime novel set in the Marvel Universe, I was immediately intrigued. As a fan of Jewell’s writing, crime fiction, and Marvel, I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of this unique blend.

Breaking the Dark is a mind-bending journey into the Marvel Universe, starring none other than Jessica Jones. The story is laced with Jewell's signature suspense and complex character development, but with a twist of superhuman elements. From the moment you dive in, it's clear that conventional logic need not apply. The narrative is infused with the uncanny, making it impossible to predict what's coming next.

Jessica Jones, a character I was only vaguely familiar with, stands out as a deeply flawed yet relatable protagonist. Her struggles with her past and her mental health add depth to her superhuman persona, reminding us that even heroes are not invincible. Jewell intersperses hints of Jessica’s backstory throughout the novel, which enhances the reading experience without overwhelming those new to the character.

Lisa Jewell's writing in Breaking the Dark is as sharp and engaging as ever. She deftly balances the gritty reality of crime fiction with the fantastical elements of the Marvel Universe. The story’s pacing is brisk, and the suspense is palpable, keeping readers on the edge of their seats. Jewell’s ability to craft a narrative that feels both familiar and wildly unpredictable is a testament to her versatility as a writer.

This book is a reminder that even superheroes need to prioritize their mental health. A solid 4-star read, Breaking the Dark is a thrilling addition to the Marvel Universe that leaves readers eager for more.

I’m sorry I didn’t love this one but I did not hate it either. I mean it is Lisa Jewell!! The supernatural part hasn’t reached my curiosity since I was buying comic books in my childhood, so I connected somewhat but not enough to score it as a 5 star!
I have not watched the Netflix series with Jessica Jones and her super powers, but intrigued enough to match some of the descriptors with a visual! Some readers are going to love this one. I love her writing so it kept me persevering. It does have a dark premise that gives a creepy and strange plot. Kudos to the Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel #1 for being entertaining!
Thank you NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I received this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Big thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion for access to this eARC.

Onto the review.

Trigger warning: mentions of alcohol and pregnancy, grooming. Proceed softly with yourself.

Alright, something y’all don’t know about me. I love comics. Have since I was a little kid. Collected them, still do. Still an avid reader. And I love Jessica Jones. She is a complicated woman.

Jessica has abilities and once was a member of the Avengers under the name Jewel. That was a long time ago. A villain wound up controlling Jessica’s mind, forcing her to do horrible things. Things that haunt her still. She’s got trauma and it’s deep.

Now, she’s a private investigator. Does jobs that barely pay enough to put food in the fridge and probably classified as an alcoholic. She’s also got a sometimes on sometimes off relationship with Luke Cage. The bulletproof, strong as all hell, Black hero.

Now, if the reader isn’t familiar with Jessica and Luke, the lack of a ton of detail might be confusing for some readers who don’t know their history. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, there’s enough detail in the book to bring people up to speed.

Now, this story is kind of heavy. Jessica gets hired by a rich woman to find out why her children are so odd after returning from spending the summer in Europe with their father. The kids don’t act like themselves, don’t talk like themselves and don’t look like themselves. Instead looking like, somehow absolutely perfect versions of themselves.

The messaging in this book was pretty solid. The dangers of wanting unobtainable perfection. The dangers of social media and the pressure to always look and be perfect on teens. Even adults suffer from it. It’s a very real and very serious issue that’s led to serious mental health issues for younger people and even those older.

There’s a really important conversation to be had about it. Also the dangers of being groomed by a social media influencer.

This is where I’ll get into some spoiler territory.

What the villain does essentially makes people not look like they have flaws. And those flaws get stored on someone else. It’s not an easy process and can kill the recipient of the flaws.

My question the whole time was what happens if a disabled person uses this app? Because that’s what does it. You use the app and your perceived flaws are moved onto someone else.

Does that mean you’re no longer disabled? That you don’t have to use forearm crutches or a wheelchair? What about diabetes and insulin pumps? How does that work?

There was no thought given to that portion of the population. No one in the book, not even background characters were disabled. Not even someone walking down the street with a cane. What about the elderly?

How exactly does the process work?

It says it’s only visual but a boy gets so buff his shirt is straining. That’s a physical change.

I had an issue with this because the logic of it bothered me. Especially when looking at it through the lens of disability and how there were no disabled people in the book. Even the villain who made the app didn’t mention disabilities.

IF you want to talk about the worry and pressure to be perfect, to be perfect on line, to look perfect, you absolutely cannot leave disabled people out of that conversation. The pressure on the disabled community to look normal and act normal is immense.

To see that aspect completely ignored rubbed me the wrong way entirely. You can’t forget literally a quarter of the American population. Taken form the CDC “Up to 1 in 4 (27 percent) adults in the United States have some type of disability. But they were nowhere in this book.

And if you’ve got someone who is trying to make people perfect, a big target would be disabled people.

People worry about diversity when writing but completely ignore the disabled community. It’s unfortunate and exhausting to be entirely forgotten on a regular basis.

End of spoiler section.

While this was a good read, with good characters and an interesting villain, there were some things that just bothered me.

Also, Jessica deals with the possibility of being pregnant. With Luke’s baby. And he does say something about how hard it is to be Black and have powers in the book. He doesn’t want that for a hypothetical kid.

I’m not sure Jessica really ruminated on that a lot. She did think about it a bit but, like a lot of parents of mixed race Black children, she didn’t think of what it would be like to be a white mother to a Black child. Which also really annoyed me.

It’s getting a 2 from me. I enjoyed it. And maybe someone who isn’t a minority in any way will enjoy it more than me.

I wanted more.

I received an ARC of Breaking The Dark: A Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel by Lisa Jewell in exchange for my honest review.
This book is a thrill ride from the get go. As soon as I started reading it I was hooked! I spent too many nights up too late, but I had to see what happened next.
Jessica Jones is a retired super hero, turned private investigator, in Hells's Kitchen New York. She is solitary, living life alone and she likes it that way.
Jessica is in her office, in the midst of a physical confrontation with a violent client, when a woman named Amber Randall comes in.
Amber is distraught, she is insistent that her twins, who recently returned from the UK after visiting their dad, are not her real twins.
She insists that their personalities are different, their personal habits are different even their skin is different, they are "perfect." The twins keep talking about a woman named Belle also.
Jessica decides to pay Belle a visit and finds her living in the country, with her guardian, or so they claim. How could it be possible that Belle could be responsible for what has happened to the twins? What is this little town harboring? What secrets will be revealed? Will Jessica find the real twins? Or have they been permanently replaced?
Love this book!
#NetGalley

Raise your hand if you saw the author, didn't read the description, and requested the book? Yes, that would be me! After realizing that I, a person who doesn't watch a lot of tv or movies and who doesn't follow the Marvel (or DC) universe, had committed herself to reading a book based on a super hero. What a wonderful surprise this book was! Ms. Jewell imbued her wonderful writing of thrillers with the additional mystery of the super hero world. I also loved the unique way in which she limited Jessica's abilities to invoke her super powers. This book was a whirlwind of the possible, the impossible, and the hopefully not possible. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I might even need to read the future books in the series!