Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Where Darkness Blooms follows four girls who live in a house at the edge of the mysterious town of Bishop, a town where women disappear under mysterious circumstances all the time.

I was really hoping for unsettling and spooky, and in a lot of ways I got that from this book, which was great. There was also a lot to like about our four leading ladies, particularly the ways in which their different tendencies, and the ways in which they moved through the world and their relationships with others, led them all ultimately to the same or similar conclusions to the mysterious goings-on in town.

What I struggled with, and what I continue to struggle with as I reflect on this book days after finishing it, is that once you get past the vibes and start thinking about it, most of it doesn't really make sense. There's so much about the way the town functions, the way its curse functions, and the way that various people are involved in the curse-magic, that is never explained or even hinted at. It's easy to just sit back and accept that things in the book are the way they are, but if you're the kind of mystery-horror reader who likes answers, this book maybe isn't the best one to pick up. Like I said, it nails the vibes, but at its core it makes little sense.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday books for a digital copy of the book!

I really enjoyed this book! It was fun and dark as well as twisty, and I found myself getting lost in the beautifully crafted world and its characters. I was on my toes throughout its entirety, and I found myself being suspicious of everyone. Overall, I thought the pace of the book was great, and the writing really was to my taste. It was intriguing as well as thrilling. It was very much my cup of tea. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Andrea Hannah!

4.5/5

The town of Bishop is quite an eerie town that’s for sure. Where Darkness Blooms is a thrilling tale of supernatural occurrences, murder, and mystery. I was hooked to this story early on. It kept your interest and makes you want to keep going to know what Bishop is all about, why these murderers keep happening, and what happened the girl’s parents.

The plot unraveled at a good pace and didn’t feel rushed or too slow. The characters were great! I enjoyed each of our main girls a lot. I like that the story is told by the perspectives of Delilah, Jude, Whitney, and Bo. The story came together really well by the end and each of their plot lines crossed-over very well.

This is a fresh and new story that I definitely recommend to check out!

Where Darkness Blooms is the kind of dark and twisty feminist horror novel that only comes around once in a blue moon. The story starts out slow and creeps up on you, building into an spooky and atmospheric tale of doom and dread that is wonderfully haunting and eerily delicious. The premise was so unique and I couldn’t help but devour the story, eager to learn more about the land, the wind, the sunflowers, and what was going to happen next for our characters. All in all this was a brilliant novel, one I'm sure I won't be able to stop thinking about for a while.

I felt like this book was more of a magical realism vibe with the way it was told and the pacing. I am growing more impatient with YA books like this, though, because being vague and trippy about everything just keeps readers in the dark, which isn’t always the right way to tell a story. I appreciate what this book was trying to do, but I just couldn’t get through it.

Ok, I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I loved reading from each characters POV and really getting to know each character. The suspense had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and I just could not put this title down!

The World’s Worst Mother award goes to all three of our four main characters’ mothers! O H  M Y  G O D. I am both dying of the outrageous absurdity of this and also super pissed that their mothers just left them in a town full of psychopaths WHO SACRIFICE WOMEN. Yes, this is a huge spoiler for the end of the book but I need to get this off my chest because I cannot believe what  I just read.

Okay, now that I`ve gotten that little outburst out into the world, let’s back up and talk about the town of Bishop, Kansas and its inhabitants. Bishop is a little town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by endless fields of sunflowers and a suspicious number of women go missing or are found dead. Like, a really suspicious number. Of young, healthy women dying of “natural causes” and everybody is just sad and kind of lives with it, except for a few people and sometimes they go missing or die too. No alarm bells going off here! Defiiiiinitely not any cult stuff or a serial killer - no siree! 

Now, to our group of girls that the story centers around! The four of them have continued to live together in the house that their mothers all shared after their fathers left, even though their mothers disappeared two years ago and they were only 15-16 at the time. Yes, maybe it’s because I’m a sensible adult, but it seems like they should have had some sort of adult supervision or a legal guardian. They’ve been running wild and free, who knows where the money for bills and groceries is coming from! These girls need all kinds of therapy, especially since only six months ago, Whitney’s girlfriend mysteriously died in her front yard. Whitney, Jude, Delilah, and Bo have been understandably suspicious about their mother’s disappearance but nothing has come of their timid attempts at investigation until Bo finds a blood covered knife at “the clearing” where a memorial statue was to be placed. Thus they begin anew, investigating the dark founding of Bishop, and finally snooping through their mothers’ belongings for clues.

So, I have to say first off, that this was a really entertaining book that I read in a single sitting on my day off. I really didn’t want to put it down because each page was some new discovery or dramatic event and I really wanted to see how it ended. Objectively though, it was riddled with plot holes and it wasn’t the least bit creepy after the prologue chapter. The prologue chapter really hooked me though, and I will say that the prose throughout the book flowed really well and there weren’t stilted, awkward bits of dialogue like I often find in these highly binge-able books. I think the cover art is pretty dang awesome as well, and it’s what initially drew me in and then the thought of Midwestern Gothic horror and liminal space sunflower fields really convinced me. I was let down though.

I’d like to give a shout-out to one particularly memorable series of events that leads to Whitney going to the non-existent hospital accompanied by her twin sister Jude and the Harding boys. They literally took her to an abandoned house in the middle of the sunflower field, patched her up, and took her home. While her sister is in the vehicle, declines to go in, and just thinks “what a weird looking hospital”. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY? This isn’t all revealed right away, but comes out a bit later in the book and it’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. I’m sorry, this boy with the ability to control the wind has made you that stupid over his good looks? What did he do, lobotimize you? I think this ultimately sums up the overall vibe of this book.

So I was immediately drawn to that cover. The story itself didn’t really hook me as much as I thought it would. The writing was beautiful and had lines that stuck in my head but somehow the characters didn’t stand out to me. I had a hard time keeping them straight and I had a difficult time becoming immersed in plot. Maybe I’ll come back and try it again but it was hard to keep focusing while reading it. Probably just me. I’d still suggest others read it and see how they like it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah
The Flowers See Everything

The wind blows, sunflowers watch, and girls disappear.

Four girls in a small town try to solve a mystery involving their dead/missing mothers. They do this while grieving and trying to live normally against the backdrop of a very creepy town they don’t know is cursed. As they follow clues and uncover some very unsettling information, their friendship is tested and their lives are on the line.
I couldn’t stop reading the last third of the book when everything is revealed!

Love this cover.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eBook copy prior to its release in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great thriller/science fiction novel. It was the right amount of creepy and chilling.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and review this book. I loved this book, and I pre-ordered it! Can't wait to have a physical copy.

Firstly, the cover is stunning! Sunflowers are my favorite flower and I was intrigued by a story where they are a central focus. You slowly learn more about the sunflowers and other parts of the town, and things get strange and interesting.

I haven't read an Andrea Hannah book before, but I'll definitely pick up her other ones in the future. She has a beautiful writing style. The book is so atmospheric and full of intrigue. I didn't put the book down often, I read this over a few different sittings.

I love the characters, especially Delilah, Bo, Jude, and Whitney. Bo is my favorite character though. She's so brave, intelligent, and set on getting to the bottom of what's going on in Bishop.

The story builds up slowly, but then I was on the edge of my seat. I was worried about the main four characters and wondering who they could trust. A lot of the men in the town are suspicious. I enjoyed figuring out things slowly along with the characters. I haven't really read supernatural thrillers before, but I loved this book and will give other ones a try.

"Like there was anything to be afraid of in a place like Bishop. It was a speck on a Midwest map , a dust-laden town trapped by windstorms and sunflowers. Women went missing sometimes, sure, but if she had to guess, Bo figured they’d packed up and left for something better before someone could hold them back."

"There had always been something strange about this place. The sunflowers that hovered around them all like a threat. The way they watched. How they were a little too sentient to be just seeds and petals."

Author: Andrea Hannah
Page Number: 304
Publish Date: 2/21/2023
Star rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Genre: Supernatural Thriller

The cover and the prologue were what drew me into the book, the prologue especially because it was dark and very ominous and I’m a sucker for those types of intros but I immediately DNFd after the 12th chapter because the story just dragged for me. I didn’t care for any of the characters, the cheating boyfriend and starry, dew eyed sister were absolutely detestable; I just couldn’t stand them. There are subtle hints to SA but veiled with flowery prose that it’s hard sometimes to figure what the heck is going on and if it’s real and I’m not just having a fever dream from having a numb brain while trying to read this book.

The description in this book though concerning the creepy intensity of sunflowers was unsettling and well done. Gave some The Messengers vibes which I was sort of liking but it wasn’t enough to save the book for me.

2.5/5

I really wanted to love this book. The premise is right up my alley, and I think it could have worked if the book had been structured differently.

As it stands, the story loses momentum from the beginning because it starts too late. I thought at some point there’d be a revelation for why the story starts two years after a such a major event, but there’s not, and the story suffers for it.

By starting the story two years too late, the stakes are lowered significantly, and for a good chunk of the book you’re left wondering “Why now?”

The book also begins with this incredible prologue that, despite being delightfully creepy, also kinda kills momentum. There’s no real mystery to the book, it’s all exactly what you’d expect, because it’s right there in front of you.

Finally, the characters all blended together to me. The chapters rotate between four girls who all live together in the wake of their mothers’ disappearance, but none of them really have a distinct narrative voice. I kept mistaking Whitney and Delilah, and forgetting whose mom was whose, or what they did. It got exhausting fast.

Even the paranormal elements felt mishandled, in a way. They weren’t given the proper build up.

After about 30-40% the book really picks up, though, and what little threads of mystery start getting unraveled. The book also does a good job of depicting feminine rage (but I feel like we didn’t get it from the perspective of the right characters). The conclusion is fairly satisfying, but in the end the book was a shadow of what it could have been.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars. This novel sucked me in from the very first sentence of the prologue, and didn't let me go until it was over. I thought the characters of Delilah, Bo, Whitney and Jude leapt from the pages. I really enjoyed this novel, both for the characters and the plot. Bishop and the sunflowers are basically a character of their own, and the atmosphere is electric.

The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.

With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday books for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

This book was damn creepy. I've never seen a more perfect use of a book set somewhere that there are fields of flowers and also tornadoes. I felt uneasy the entire way through and even with the dark themes, I still really thought it was a clever story. It was a little slow but I think that was necessary for the story to really paint the picture the author was going for. I definitely needed an emotional support stuffed animal to make it to the end of this one. Many thanks to Wednesday Books for an early copy.

A creepy story in the vein of M. Night Shyamalan that drags you deep into a diabolical curse and the land that thirsts for blood. The town of Bishop has a nasty secret, and four young girls hold the power to break a centuries-old curse. But can they do what no one else can, or will they fall prey to the evils that lurk within Bishop? This was a dark read and I appreciate that the author included trigger warnings for the emotional and physical trauma portrayed. Though none was explicit, the ramifications ring through loud and clear, and the characters are written with exquisite detail. I always knew which character's head I was in thanks to their distinct personalities and how they handled the situation at hand. The creep factor sold me on this one.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not required to leave a positive review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The small town of Bishop is known for two things, the recurring windstorms and the endless fields of sunflowers. Oh and missing women! When three more teenage girls bodies are found, secrets come loose.

This story is magical realism at its core. It’s haunting and beautiful, and at times sheer creepy. Tension and slow builds drive this story home. At times, the sunflowers kept bringing me back to the corn crops in Stephen Kings ‘Children of the Corn’ because you never knew what horror was lurking in those fields.

There are some triggers in this book, of course the violence but also rape. So be warn! But all in all, I really loved this story and I think it will be sticking with me for a few months.. lurking in the back of mind.

I was nervous about Where Darkness Blooms because in all honesty, I saw the cover and that it was a mystery/thriller and immediately requested an ARC. I was so beyond pleasantly surprised.

The writing in this story was beautiful. It was not rushed and all of the details were natural and real. I loved that none of the girls were that perfectly imperfect heroine we see so often. They all had realistic issues and realistic feelings. Some of their flaws were not the typical romantic flaws - they were honest and seem like they would be flaws that would make you dislike a character, but I still loved them all.

This pacing was not typical mystery/thriller pacing. It was much slower, and at first I wasn't sure how I would feel because I usually love a quick page-turner. But now that I'm finished, I think the slower pacing was much more fitting. This story would not have been as attractive if it had been forced into the traditional mystery pacing.

To me, this was also the type of story where I liked it throughout, but took a few days after finishing for me to realize that I actually loved it. I will definitely be buying a copy of this as soon as it's published.

Creepy, spooky, and haunting with atmosphere for days. I really enjoyed the way the beginning of this book is structured and how it adds to the creeping sense of menace as the four girls at its center start to unravel the mystery of not just their mothers' disappearances, but also the rot at the center of Bishop. Once Where Darkness Blooms gets going, the pace is breakneck, and I did like how the mystery unspools. I would have appreciated a little more exploration of the relationships between Delilah, Whitney, Bo, and Jude, but overall I really enjoyed this. Definitely won't ever look at a sunflower the same way again!

Have you seen this cover?! It definitely caught my eye, and I knew I had to read it! I liked the pacing, and was hooked from the beginning. The horror vibes were definitely there! I’ll never look at sunflowers the same again.

The small town of Bishop is harboring a dark secret involving the women in their town; and when three more women disappear overnight the only ones concerned are their four daughters - Delilah, Whitney, Jude and Bo. Delilah tries to hold their makeshift family together, Whitney can’t get over the unexplained death of her girlfriend, Jude is trying to hide her feelings for Delilah’s boyfriend and Bo is battling a dark secret of her own. When the girls start digging into their mothers disappearance they come across the towns dark secret, that the men in town want to keep hidden. Can the girls figure it out before it’s too late or will they become the town’s next victims? Overall this was an enjoyable read! **Please review the trigger warnings in this one.