Where Darkness Blooms

3.5 stars!!!

This was a fun and creepy YA horror! The minor paranormal aspects did leave me wanting more but overall I was happy with it. Who the overarching villian was surprised me, I thought of everything but what it actually was. I also loved that there were queer relationships that weren't a big deal, they just existed! That's exactly what I want when it comes to representation. The whole “us against the world” trope is something that I don't always love, but I think the author did a good job making it more realistic. I also think the teenagers in this are realistic, they talk like teens and they think like teens and it was really refreshing to see. I'm looking forward to reading more horror from this author!






Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

Talk about the right book for the right mood. I wanted something eerie, spooky, a little different and meaningful too. This definitely covered all of that. It's dark too in some spots and that fit the overall tone well.

I haven't read this author before but want to look up other books now. Loved the writing and the entire feel of this one. This would make a perfect Spooktober read and one I highly recommend for those TBRs.

I sincerely appreciate Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Actual rating: 4.5

Oh boy. There's a lot to unpack here.

Right off the bat, I just want to say that this cover is so beautiful. It's the main reason I wanted to read the book. I know, don't judge a book by its cover yadda yadda, but I'm a sucker for good packaging. If I could buy an art print of it, I would.

Now onto the actual contents of the book. For the first third of the story, I was on board. The prose is pretty while also being quite unnerving at some points. I enjoyed the eerie atmosphere the writing built up around the town. Some of the main characters definitely faded into the background for me as I didn't particularly care about their stories but I really got attached to two of the girls...

...and then it all kind of fell flat. I was expecting the story to develop more or go beyond the obvious but it never did anything that wowed me. If the story had just been “meh” the whole time I don't think I would have minded so much but towards the ends things definitely got very messy. I know this is a YA book but I think even YA readers would get annoyed at some of the unrealistic choices both the teenage characters and adult characters make.

As for the ending, I won't put spoilers until later but you could say I was flabbergasted by the ending but not in a good way.

Despite all of that. I think that the author has a lot of potential and I hope to see more from them in the future. There was nothing egregious about their writing, just some messy plot, so I'd be willing to try another book of theirs someday. Unfortunately for this one, I don think I'd recommend it.





****Spoilers****





Here are some of the problems I really had with the plot, especially toward the end. (Sorry in advance over how much I ramble here!)

- The moms basically abandoned their children when they knew their daughters might get killed and then in the end we find out that they were just... hanging around outside the city limits? They were so easily forgiven too for all of this, with only one character actually bothering to question why their mothers were so quick to just abandon them. (The answer they are given, btw, is total bs. If I were one of those daughters I'd be furious.)
- Whitney getting a girlfriend was cute and all but where were her parents? her family? She left the city with Whitney but never seemed to have any agency of her own, making her feel like an accessory to Whitney more than anything.
- There were many moments where adults just let the teenagers do things, such as letting some random boys take an injured girl to the “hospital” which is just insane to me. No one would let that happen.
- The implication that the men could just will a woman to fall in love with them honestly weakened a lot of the bad choices some of the characters made. I didn't like how it basically excused all the terrible things one of the girls did because she was “under his spell” or whatever you want to call it.