“Can't you see how beautiful you make tragedy?" All the Colors of the Dark is one of the most beautiful, most nostalgic, most heart wrenching books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It hurt. And all I could think while reading it was how beautiful Chris Whitaker wrote a sad story. I dreaded the depths it took me to, but I could never come up for air. It is rare that I read one book at a time, but this one deserved all of my attention.

I am shocked I’ve never read anything from Whitaker before. His writing flows like a river. It’s like dripping honey. It’s like biting the sweetest, crispiest apple. It’s like laying head to head with your childhood best friend in the softest, tallest grass. The nostalgia hit me to my core, and I found myself crying often.

There isn’t much more I can say. I can’t add any more weight in words. This book speaks for itself, so I’ll close out my review with some of my favorite quotes.

“Saint wanted to ask what it was like, to lose the thing that defined you. But perhaps she knew: it left you someone else. A stranger you had no choice but to tolerate, and see each day and feel fear.”

"Being a mother, there's no practice for it. Just because you can do it, because you're able, doesn't mean you're good at it. And if you're not, it's not just your life…”

“We all tell you to move forward, but where exactly is forward? There's no other place we can go. To face the past is to momentarily turn your back on what is now. And when you do that, you miss so damn much."

“Maybe when we pray we're not asking for intervention. We're just reminding ourselves of the things that matter.”

What I liked: An epic coming of age story including small town life, police thriller, prison drama, and road trip adventures. The author’s prior work “We Begin at the End” is one of my all time favorites, and this new book met all expectations.

What I disliked: The author shoehorned so much into the plot. At over 600 pages, it could have been two or three books.

All The Colors of the Dark is an epic unlike anything I have had the pleasure of reading. It’s a love story, a thriller, and it’s a story of grief and trauma.

As I write my review, only minutes after finishing this novel, I don’t believe I will read another story like this, or meet characters that I love like I love Patch and Saint.

There are stories that you read that you feel physically, in your chest, your gut, this is that story. It’s beautiful, heart wrenching, and makes you stop and think about right and wrong and what we do for those we love.

Oh my heart, how I love this author. 𝘞𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘥
was my favorite read of 2022, a combo of mystery and family drama, and 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘖𝘢𝘬𝘴 was a heartfelt book about a missing boy that I loved as well.

This latest book of Whitaker’s, out June 25, uses components of these previous books to once again squeeze our hearts dry.

It begins with a friendship…Saint, a young girl being raised by her grandmother, in a small town in North Caroline; and Patch, a young boy, neglected by an addicted mother, growing up dirt-poor, and bullied by others for his missing eye. These two have souls that are connected, that can almost hear each other’s thoughts, who know when danger is afoot, who will risk their lives for one another. Yet when Patch saves the beautiful and popular daughter of the richest family in town, his life is forever changed, and thus so is Saint’s.

So, what did I love?
The way Whitaker builds characters and relationships, all of them, not just the leads: grandma is a rock, Sammy, the art gallery owner, is a foul-mouthed curmudgeon with a heart of gold, Nix the kind hearted sheriff, Missy the independent free spirit whose life is saved…all of them matter.
But no one matters more than Patch and Saint. As they track the missing girls and the serial killer, this dogged pursuit ensures them in a dance that is both tragic and beautiful.

Is it too convoluted at times? I think yes. It took soooooo long building the watch and so many pages; I wondered and questioned so much during the first half…where is this going?

But Whitaker brings it home and I was mesmerized by the final third of the book. He answers every question, fills every rabbit hole, satisfies every itch. This story and these characters will live in my heart for quite some time.

This emotional read is a tale of guilt, obsession, love, and hard-won redemption, with and a large cast of memorable minor characters as well. Intimate, raw, transcendent—this story has it all.

4.5 stars

Patch and Saint are best friends - misfits growing up and navigating middle school in small town Missouri who somehow find each other when they need it most. When the unimaginable happens and Patch disappears, Saint becomes a young investigator hell bent on getting him back.

Over decades, All the Colors of the Dark investigates the repercussions of early trauma including themes of good versus bad (and when the lines blur), and found family. I fell in love with the characters and couldn’t wait to find out what happened in the long and involved story.

Hands down a favorite or THE favorite of 2024. I’ve always loved Chris, and this takes us on a brutal, mystery type journey that I couldn’t put down. His characters are unforgettable. Thank you for this gifted arc as well!!

After reading All the Colors of the Dark, I think it’s the best titled book I’ve read this year. I love titles with meaning, but more than that I love it when an author pours his heart and soul into his work. Chris Whitaker does just that as we get to know Patch and Saint as children and follow them all the way to adulthood. Patch is a one-eyed troublemaker that you can’t help but love. One day in the woods he saves the most popular girl in school from being abducted and changes the trajectory of his life forever. Saint is Patch’s best friend, the face of loyalty and perseverance. Patch and Saint are surrounded by complex secondary characters as well. I could go on and on, but I went into this book knowing very little and peeling back all the layers to this story was truly a treat. A coming of age story, romance, thriller, character study- this book defies genres and combines them all for a special reading experience.

This will end up being one my favorite books of the year. I loved the complicated characters and how they grow up, how the story develops, and the ending. Patch was a unique character and one I will remember for a long time.

My thanks to NetGalley and Crown for an ARC of this novel.

Joseph Macaulay is born without a eye in the picturesque little ton of Monta Clare, Missouri, in the late sixties. He doesn’t remember his father, but can never forget how his death in Vietnam tore a hole in the precarious life of his young mother. Ivy gave her little boy a eye patch and a pirate costume to bolster his courage for a lifetime of being different, and he became Patch. But life and loss wore at her and her love for her boy was no match for the alcohol and drugs she needed. Saint Brown, so named because of the joy she brought her grandmother Norma, left to raise her when her mother died after giving her life, arrived in Monta Clare when she was seven. Fiercely precocious, new in a place that didn’t like strangers, with a grandmother who drove a bus and wore her hair so short she was instantly labelled a ‘dyke’, Saint had much in common with Patch. Their friendship was the rare variety that linked their hearts and souls.

The novel centres on Patch and Saint, even though they are physically apart for most of it. The event that overturns their lives takes place when nine-year-old Patch, in his pirate regalia, impulsivey intervenes in an attack on the local rich girl, the beautiful Misty, saving her from abduction and death. Stabbed by the attacker, he is carried away. He is presumed dead by everyone but Saint, who won’t relent, then or for the rest of her life, in her vow to save him.

The story traces thirty years of searching for the human monster who grabbed Patch and many others, he being, accidentally, the only boy taken. Before his rescue by the dogged Saint, in the midst of an inferno, Patch is held in a dark room with a girl named Grace whose magical stories keep him alive. He has no idea if they are real or fanciful, but he sees their dark colours. This ability, metaphorically, becomes both his and Saint’s true skill.

Grace does not get out with Patch, but, as Saint did for him, he won’t give up looking for her. It is a need that leads him at once to destruction and redemption. He knows that ‘bad things peel layers from you’ that love can restore. Saint, even as a child, grasps what happens when you ‘lose the thing that defined you…it left you someone else. A stranger you had no choice but to tolerate, and see each day and feel and fear.’ There are countless near misses, for both Patch and Saint,in a search that eventually resolves hundreds of the countless ‘missing girls’ cases that police often have to abandon. Rarely together, they are never apart.

Anyone who has read the author’s earlier works knows the intensity with which he can write his characters and trace their lives. In short sentences whittled to their essence, in chapters of little more than two or three pages, he draws such evocative pictures that, like Patch and Saint—though in very different ways—the reader can also glimpse the ‘all the colours of the dark.’ He is simply a masterful writer. Despite the book’s length, it pulled me in without pause for as long as I had the hours to read. It’s the kind of novel that makes you want to know the ending but not want to have it end. It is melancholic but funny, despairing but hopeful. Whenever I thought I had the next step figured out, the story changed abruptly but plausibly. There were moments when the twists and turns were hard to keep up with, especially the many cases of missing girls and the many locations travelled, but none felt extraneous. The supporting characters, Chief Nix, Dr Tooms, Norma, and Misty, and the hilarious Sammy, offer wisdom and humour. No matter the hurt of the moment, or the age of the character, Norma always thinks going for ice cream at Lively’s will help. And the unbelievably kind and fair Chief, in many ways filling in for the children’s missing fathers, observes that ‘Noble acts…don’t always end anywhere good.’

This is a superb novel, much more than a mystery-thriller, though it excels there too. It is not a romance, but it is about love and hate and how they work in human lives.

I’ll be honest… I was nervous to read this ARC. I absolutely LOVED Whitaker’s previous novel, “We Begin at the End”, and was afraid “All the Colors of the Dark” wouldn’t live up to my sky high expectations. Thankfully, I was not disappointed! This book was just as wonderful and fantastic as I had hoped it would be.

Simply put, this book is about love. Friendly, romantic, all consuming, sweet, unrequited, timeless love. The story spans decades and is told in a lyrical style, mainly following the perspectives of two childhood friends, Patch and Saint. Oftentimes quiet and tender, the story is a lifelong journey told piece by piece. It starts out slow, but as the pieces pile up the story builds and things start falling into place. The conclusion is stunning and completely worth it; the last few sentences in particular had me in tears.

While I really enjoyed Patch and his journey, I absolutely loved Saint. I really admired her relentless determination and endless love. At many points I wanted to reach into the book and just give her a hug.

The only thing keeping this from a full five stars for me was the length- I felt it was a *little* long and the pace occasionally stalled out. However, that is a minor gripe in an otherwise incredible, epic, and emotional read. I know I’ll be picking up a finished copy for myself as soon as it hits the shelves!

(4.75 stars rounded up)

Thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the ARC. At 600 pages, this is a thick book. The story spans over several decades. While it kind of stalled in the middle, the writing was phenomenal, and kept me going. I really wanted to find out how it ended. Fascinating characters, and just overall a great book. It's just a little long.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker is an ARC from NetGalley. Crown Hardcover will be releasing this book on June 25,2024. Thank you NetGalley and Crown Hardcover Publishing for my ARC.

What a marvelous book starting from the first chapter the reader is captivated by the storyline. A young boy happens to save a classmate from being grabbed by a man driving a blue van. Instead the young boy is taken, left in darkness and befriended by a young girl, who is also a prisoner. Grace tells unlimited stories of things she knows or things she has heard of in her life. Grace helps Patch and herself survive through these stories. At one point, Patch tries to save them but is beaten for his trouble.

While all this is going on, Patch’s only friend is looking for him. Saint pesters the police chief with clues, that he mostly ignores. Saint comes up with her latest clue and follows the trail to the house where Patch and Grace are kept. Patch survives but where is Grace. The cops think he imagined Grace. Patch struggles with the changes in his life and begins to sketch and then paint a girl he never saw. Patch becomes obsessed with trying to paint Grace without ever seeing her in the darkness. All the colors of the dark is Patch trying to use different colors to make his Grace. He is tutored by the town’s drunken resident artist. Patch becomes obsessed with finding Grace and in doing so interviews and paints other missing girls. Saint becomes an FBI agent charged with finding Patch. He has started robbing banks and like Robin Hood gives almost all to the poor, and he sets off for his next missing girl. The FBI recognizes Patch’s art work publicizes missing girls in the world and how he has been able to save some from death. The FBI want Patch safe and not accidentally killed while robbing banks. Saint seems to always be a step behind.

This story has so many pieces expertly woven together that ties back to each other. Written so thoughtfully and thoroughly, so the reader feels a part of the story. The best novel I have read in 2024.

Thank you to Crown Publishing and Netgalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I struggled with this one because it was not at all what I expected. At 41%, I had to ask myself if I was having fun and when I decided I wasn’t, I put it down for a few days. This book is longer than typical thriller/mystery books, and I had no idea what I had committed to before I started reading it.
I picked it back up a few days later, and I’m so glad I did. At 600+ pages, I had barely scratched the surface of this story, which spans over several decades. This is so much deeper than a standard “popcorn” thriller book, but it was well worth the investment. I will think about this story, the characters and their struggles for a very long time.
Don’t go into this like I did, expecting a short, binge worthy read- you will not get that at all. Instead, prepare for a lifelong journey about the depths of love and friendship and the strength it takes to overcome life’s unexpected traumas. Highly recommend!

I have loved all of Chris Whitaker's books but this one is something special. May well be my favorite book of the year! Sad and gorgeous and wonderful.

Books are magic.

Chris Whitaker is a magician.

It’s one of the most special stories I’ve ever read. Period. I don’t say that lightly. The way Whitaker writes is beautiful - the story is layered and intense in a way that makes you both unable to put it down but also wanting to cover your eyes to protect yourself from the next heartbreaking thing that will inevitably happen.

His character work is meticulous - every single one is broken in one way or another, but they still have heart & gumption. I may not have rooted for a group of characters as hard as this since Duchess Day Radley (Outlaw).

This one drops on June 25th - I’m begging you to pick it up. You have my 100% certified satisfaction guarantee.

Such a beautiful book ! Definitely read this book. It's worth your time. So much heartache in one book!

It will break you and make you want to cry and keep going. Looking forward to more of this author’s work.

I think this book is going to be a really big hit--potentially at the level of Crawdads- and will certainly be an easy sell at the shop. I personally loved his last book more but this one was good too,

I’m not sure what I can say about this 608-page book. It’s obviously a big book that tells the story of Patch and Saint. They live in Montclair, Missouri, and both are outcasts.
Patch is 13 when he sees a man trying to abduct a girl, Misty. He stops it from happening, but the kidnapper disappears with Patch. The whole town has come to accept that Patch is dead. Every single person, except Saint, who refuses to give up her search.
I reread the description, and if I say much more about the plot, I’ll likely land in pirate filled waters. At first, the story captivated me, and then I hit a wall, and it seemed just too slow. I was smart enough to put it aside, and when I picked it back up, I was hooked once again. Sometimes you just read a very good book at the wrong time.
It’s a beautifully written story of loss, love, any events that can shape your life. Patch and Saint didn’t tug at my heart as much as Duchess (We Begin At The End) did, but the story came very close. 4.5 stars.