Loved listening to this book in the moment, but not finding it super memorable now that I've finished. That being said, the audiobook had me hooked and looking for reasons to keep my earbuds in my ears which is my bar for audiobooks - so I liked it!

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was a suspenseful read. I enjoyed the narrator. Chloe is an unreliable narrator. She is dealing with trauma from when she was 12 years old and her dad is arrested as a serial killer. This book kept me guessing. I thought I had it figured out but no, I was wrong. My heart breaks for Chloe, she needs a good friend she can trust and depend on.
The characters are too old to make this acceptable for a high school purchase. I do recommend it for adults.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* 4.5 for sure. Really great read, I'm not going to lie and say this is a original plot but this was interesting and though it was near 12 hours long in the audiobook it was worth it and even though i knew where it was going i could. not. stop. reading!!!

This thriller took me a little time to get into at first. This is not meant as a knock to the story though! Sometimes stories are paced that way. I did struggle a little bit with the narrator's approach in regards to women's decisions. It was a times a bit too stereotypical. I'd say this was a very good debut and it kept my interest enough that I would listen/read Willingham's next works.

Wow. I am not someone to binge books but I seriously could not put this one down!

Chloe's father has been in prison for twenty years after pleading guilty to murdering 6 teenage girls. Now, Chloe is beginning to see parallels to her past as teenage girls in town begin disappearing again. She begins to realize all of the victims are somehow related to her and begins investigating.

I LOVED every aspect of this book. I enjoyed the flashbacks to her childhood with her father and his case. I even thought it was going in the direction of one of my least favorite tropes at one point and still loved it! The ending truly had me feeling like I was jerked so hard back and forth that I may have whiplash. AMAZING.

If you love any kind of investigative books or shows, pick this one up. I also see this has already been optioned for a limited series with Emma Stone and seriously that would be so so good.

Entertaining, fast-paced if a little predictable. If you read this genre a lot, you're probably going to guess at the killer sometime around chapter five. Somehow I feel like this one was written almost solely with an eventual movie in mind. It'll make a good film, and depending on the casting, will probably do quite well. But not sure it was a particularly memorable read.

Audiobook note: I got the audiobook from Netgalley and coincidentally the print book from BOMC as well. I preferred reading to listening. The narrator is one I've heard before and she does this thing where her male voices are read as hoarse and kind of guttural and with teeth clenched. It's an interesting technique, because she does sound passably male, but it also grates on the nerves after you've listened to it for a while.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an audio-ARC of A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham, narrated by Karissa Vacker.
A Flicker in the Dark is a quick read; grabbing the reader from the first page and keeping them guessing until the end. Stacy Willingham uses an intriguing premise to create a solid story for fans of true crime. The twists and turns throughout the book add to the suspense.
Narrator, Karissa Vacker, uses good tone and intonation. She creates a positive listening experience. My only criticism is that all of her male characters sounded the same.

Wow! An amazing debut thriller! Addictive, thrilling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment! I loved this audiobook from the very start. There are a lot of twists and turns, and the story is full of suspense and thrills that will have you hooked as you listen along. I really enjoyed the narrator of this book as well, their voice was very easy to listen to and it worked very well with the story.

I really liked Chloe’s character and learning about her past that has made her who she is today. She had a troubled past and her life hasn’t been easy, especially after her father had been arrested as a serial killer and is now in prison. When many teens in the area suddenly appear to go missing Chloe tries to uncover just what is in fact going on. It is eerily similar to what happened all those years ago. Could it just be an uncanny coincidence?

A fabulous novel that I really enjoyed and I highly recommend!

This book is a fast read. Suspenseful and somewhat unpredictable. I couldn't put it down. Entertaining on all levels. I will be looking forward to more books from this author. Really enjoyed this book.

Chloe Davis, is psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge, she has a family past she's been trying to run from since she was twelve. Her father turned out being a serial killer who kidnapped and killed six girls. He's been in prison since she was twelve having ruined her families lives and the lives of the girls victims.

Chloe has tried to move on, but in the line of work she can't let go of her past. She still is messed up after all these years. Chloe is a mess, self medicating with prescription drugs and alcohol. Her mother who lives in a care center after trying to kill herself after her husband got taken to prison. Her brother who is just as messed up and trying to deal with his own issues. She's trying not to let her past keep getting in the way of her future she is planning her wedding to Daniel who seems to good to be true. Her brother doesn't like her fiancé and is getting in her head about him and causing tension. And now, it appears that there is a copy cat killer, going after a girl who was last seen by Chloe.

This story is full of twists, turns. Chloe has tried to keep a damper on her feelings and fears and doing so is going to destroy her if her. With the use of drugs and trying to find out what happen all those years ago everything that she thought she knows what if she's wrong? Everything mixed together trying to piece it together. She has let her paranoia go too far before and she's not sure who she can trust.

This was well written and I was hooked into finding it what really happen and was her memoirs from the past aren't so black and white.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange of my honest Review.

I really enjoyed this book. I definitely did not expect the ending. The story was constantly moving forward and never got boring or predictable. At the end, I almost wanted to reread it because all of the minute details of the story began to make sense and I wanted to go back and connect all the dots! Would recommend to a friend.

This suspense thriller slowly layers the trauma of main character Chloe's past, which is now brought front and center as the 20th anniversary approaches and too-similar events take place, forcing Chloe to get involved.
With her father's arrest for the murder of six teenagers twenty years ago, and now "copycat" murders taking place-all with ties to Chloe, she questions if she's losing touch with reality, questions almost everyone involved in her somewhat isolated life, and keeps the reader questioning what is true and what is Chloe's perspective of the truth.
There are a few possibilities as to who is behind everything, but even if you figure it out, there are more surprises as it nears the end, keeping you guessing how Chloe, and everyone involved, will fare. It's a clever plot, and well done with not taking the easy way out on many different plot threads.
Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book!

A Flicker in the Dark focused on Chloe, a woman who experienced trauma in her past. She has grown up to now be a psychologist/therapist, who self-medicates with drugs to quell her own anxiety. She is on the cusp of moving on with her life, just months away from marrying her fiancée, Daniel. Her father had been convicted when she was a child of killing girls her age in their town, and the trauma she experienced from that has really formed her life. Now, when other girls begin to disappear (then turn up murdered) Chloe begins to wonder if it is connected to her. When some of the missing girls end up being connected to her, she knows that she has the missing piece of the puzzle to solve the case, if only she could figure out what it was.

This book has SO many twists and turns, it'll make your head spin, but in the best possible way! Chloe is certainly a flawed character, but you sympathize with her and root for her because she has been through SO much in her life. She saw her father being taken away by the police, her mother's attempted suicide and being basically left on her own after that. She is finally about to move on with her life when these horrible things begin happening again. The twists and turns in this story are captivating, and leave you on the edge of your seat. When everything falls into place, I was just amazed at the ending. Those who love twisty psychological thrillers will eat this up!

Also, I really loved the narrator. She is quickly becoming one of my favorites, due to her smooth and easy to listen to voice, and her fabulous readings of the books. I will definitely seek out her narration in the future.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The book was a very good debut, but extremely slow and hard to get into.
The audio was okay but had to rewind a lot to keep up. I wonder if it’s because I wasn’t super engaged in the plot.
Picks up at the end but by then I’m just waiting for it to be done.
A predictable albeit well written thriller.

"A Flicker in the Dark" is well written and unpredictable in the best possible way. I felt that the narrator was unlikable and unstable which made it slow to start for me, but eventually not trusting the narrator made the book more interesting and harder to guess the end.

I really enjoyed this read! It was intriguing with its twists and turns, but its the storyline that is the true winner here! Just when you think you know where the story is going it goes the other direction. The characters are interesting and everything just falls in place. Definitely can't wait to read more from this author.

📚📝BOOK REVIEW📝📚 Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

A FLICKER IN THE DARK by Stacy Willingham' book birthday was this month and it has been ALL OVER BOOKSTAGRAM. And for good reason. It is a good book! But I have an unpopular opinion, it seems: I liked it, but I didn't love it.

For me, this book was kind of just your run of the mill thriller. Taking into account that this is a debut novel, I think the author did a great job setting up some excellent twists and turns but in the end, it was kinda like a lot of books I have read and just didn't wow me and there were a couple things that I really didn't enjoy.

First - practically all the dudes in this novel are terrifying. And yeah, I get it, MEN ARE SCARY, for SURE. But the main character Chloe is supposed to be a major trauma survivor with a serial killer father turned psychologist which makes her more than likely to be more untrusting than trusting - especially of men. So how did she end up with all these wolves around her without noticing a single red flag?!? I had a hard time with that.

Also, I could not for the life of me identify with Chloe. She is so worried about uncovering other people's lies, but she is also keeping pretty heavy secrets and putting other people's lives and reputations at risk in the act (Semi-Spoiler: i.e. the pills she takes that are not in her name). I am all about flawed, unlikable characters but I just could not get on board with this character.

BUT - everyone else on the internet is loving this one and it has been optioned for a tv show (or movie?) already so don't necessarily take my word for it - especially if you like fast-paced psychological thrillers with reckless female types!

🤖🤖🤖/5

🏷#aflickerinthedark #stacywillingham #psychologicalthriller #macmillan #macmillanaudio #netgalley #bookreview

I love a good psychological thriller, and this was definitely a good one for me. I suspected some of the pieces of the puzzle throughout, but Willingham did an excellent job of throwing a bit of doubt onto any theories I had throughout the book. The characters are interesting, and she gave the reader a great sense of time and place - both in the present and in the flashbacks to the past. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a terrific job. I was afraid of being disappointed after seeing some glowing reviews, but instead I'm left anxiously awaiting Stacy Willingham's next book.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a digital copy for an unbiased review.

Believe the hype on this one!!
I had this book figured out so many times and was wrong every time!

When your father is a serial killer but you have moved on and started a new life away from the shadow but then girls start going missing again and it brings everything back and its coming too close. I don’t want to give anything away because they way she lays it out is worth the read!

Karissa Vackers narration was excellent!

4 stars

I received this book from the publisher Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Solid, well written, debut novel. Strong character development that at times overshadowed the development of the mystery. It takes a while for this one to get going. 3.5 stars.