First off the cover of this book is beautiful and so was the story. I loved the creepy vibes and fantastic mystery. The pacing I thought was perfect but the world building was a wee bit lack luster. Overall so good and felt like horrid vibes.

Thank you to the publisher, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Where Darkness Blooms in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Trigger Warning: mention and referral to sexual assault/rape.

The Gist
I started reading Where Darkness Blooms at the beginning of my vacation and then wasn’t able to read anymore until I was on the plane back home. So, there was a good week and a half during which the book stayed unopened.

I don’t like taking big breaks while reading a book. It takes me out of the story and makes it difficult for me to form a consistent opinion, since I almost feel stressed when I don’t read and then relieved when I do.

But, is that feeling of relief just because I’m finally reading at all? Or because I’m reading this specific book?

I’m not sure. I do know that my opinion of this story changed at around the halfway point.

Let me explain.

The Details
Firstly, the reader is sort of thrown into the story when all the actions starts. There is no real set up or explanation of what’s going on or how things became this way.

It’s this typical attitude of storytelling where the reader just has to figure things out along the way. Okay, sure.

There is one problem, though. If the story drags like molasses, nothing much can be figured out.

There are four major characters, all of them pretty much sound the same. There isn’t really any clear distinction in their personalities that would set them apart. So, regardless of what chapter one reads and from what character’s perspective this chapter is supposed to be, it’s all the same.

Almost every scene is told from all four characters’ perspectives as well, so there isn’t a whole lot of progression in the story. At the same time, it skips over parts that should deserve more attention.

The plot is very intriguing. I mean, there is a town, with creepy sunflowers, women keep going missing or dying and no-one will admit to what’s really going on. There are shifty secondary characters that I just love to hate and want to see get their comeuppance. It just all takes way too long and I lost interest.

I’m really not sure about the writing. Some parts are written quite well and others feel like the author tried too hard.

For example, there is no need for all these metaphors and similes to describe something. It really threw me out of the story every time the author had to include phrases like “the realisation settled like glitter in a snow globe”.

I dare you not to think of a snow globe right now.

Other parts were only vaguely described, like this weird town they all live in. It felt very obscure and made it difficult for me to imagine certain scenes.

The Verdict
Overall, this could have been so eerie and creepy, but it got lost along the way. I’m a little disappointed and feel let down.

Where Darkness Blooms has such a great premise and I am so ready for moody, Fall stories.

I guess I have to keep looking. It’s a no from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

I couldn’t get into this book. I tried on several occasions and stopped at about 50 pages. I didn’t don’t the writing compelling and the characters were so vague i their development and description that I didn’t care about what what happened next.

The premise is exciting and the cover is well done. I am sorry the writing didn’t captivate me.

The cover to Where Darkness Blooms and the start of the summary " 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." madde me realize i HAD to read this book. I'm a sucker for people on covers with plants and mysterys dealing with small towns.
The four main characters, Delilah, Jude, Whitney and Bo all have mothers who have gone missing and for some reason no one in the town is suprised. This sets the story up perfectly because why isn't the town suprised? Why was the case shut so easily, it really gets you thinking in the beginning. The characters had good development and honestly, i was excited to see how they would change throughout the story. The horror elements to this story were executed perfectly and i loved every bit of it. For once I wasn't expecting the plot twist towards the end of the story and I'm glad that I didn't because it really added to the story for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing an e-arc for an honest review!

Two years after their mothers disappeared, Delilah, Whitney, Jude, and Bo are still struggling to find their way back to each other. The grief has fractured them-- and they should be used to it, being from Bishop, town where women dying is a common occurrence. But their mothers were different: their bodies were never found. And as the girls start looking deeper into why, they uncover some disturbing truths about their town, and one of the families within it.
The four girls are so perfectly balanced, between Bo's anger, Delilah's mothering, Jude's fear, and Whitney's brashness, that at times it felt like they were part of one being-- and in a way, being girls in Bishop, they kind of were.
This book struck a beautiful chord between horror and hope, between grief and promise. It's gripping, unsettling, and definitely a book I know I'll read over and over again.

Where Darkness Blooms is one of the most achingly beautiful books I've ever read. It's one of those books that sits with you long after you're done-- much like the town of Bishop-- and I'm grateful I get to carry it with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

I’m really saddened to give this book such a low rating. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn’t, so I’m not comfortable rating this any higher than 1 star. The novel just didn’t work for me in so many ways. I will try to write a constructive review, though, explaining what I did not enjoy and how I think the book might be improved.

Where Darkness Blooms has such an intriguing premise, along with a gorgeous cover. Four girls in their late teens have lived together for years with their single mothers in the small Kansas town of Bishop, surrounded by sunflowers and riddled with frequent storms. Two years ago, their mothers disappeared without a trace. Women frequently go missing or die at young ages in Bishop, but no one seems to question it. When the townspeople eventually create a memorial for their mothers, the girls start uncovering long-hidden secrets. What exactly is going on in Bishop, and what really happened to their mothers? I love a good, spooky read about land taking on its own personality, so I was excited to read this novel.

I would argue there are a few big issues that made the story difficult for me to enjoy, so I’ll try to explain them.

First, the decision to set the novel two years after the mothers’ disappearance didn’t make sense to me. The first 20% of the book consists of the characters slowly revealing the circumstances around the disappearance, their relationships with their mothers, and other important backstories. That significantly slowed down the pace. It also was hard for me to believe that the daughters didn’t investigate the disappearance for two years straight. Surely, at least one of them would have tried to understand what happened. Some of the clues they find throughout the story are easy to uncover (I’ll talk more about that in a bit); if they had even somewhat attempted to dig deeper into the mystery earlier, they would have made so much more progress. The novel would have been better if it were set before the mothers disappeared, so the reader could get a glimpse of their relationships and the group’s dynamic. If the author truly wanted to set the novel after the disappearance, then maybe six months later would have been more logical.

I also had trouble getting a grasp on the town and the characters’ daily lives. The story starts right before the mothers’ memorial, which kicks off the girls’ investigation. This novel actually helped me articulate a common problem I have with thrillers— sometimes they try to get to the action too quickly without letting the reader learn about the characters and the setting. I wasn’t sure why this bothered me until I read Where Darkness Blooms, which does very little setting up of the town. Since I was thrown into the action with no worldbuilding, I never got a clear image of Bishop and how it functioned on a day-to-day basis. Similarly, I never got to see the characters’ relationships with one another before they were stressed by the plot. Therefore, I had trouble understanding the setting, and I found so many plot points didn’t make sense because of it (why are no townspeople suspicious of the deaths? Does no one ever go to the hospital? What is “normal” to this group of people, and is it the same normal as our current society? Those are just a few questions I had). Reading the novel felt like staring at an unfinished painting: the main focus was clear, but everything in the background was clouded and underdeveloped.

I am a very character-driven reader, and there were far too many characters for this short of a book. The four main women had similar voices, so when the chapters shifted in focus between them, I frequently had a hard time telling who was speaking and remembering their backstories. On top of that, there were three mothers, and it was difficult to track each mother’s personality and their relationship with their daughter(s), particularly because we only saw the mothers in flashbacks. I didn’t find any of the characters likable, because none of them were developed past their initial archetypes. Whitney and Bo could have been the same character without affecting the plot much, and the mothers could have been combined, as well. Additionally, all of the male side characters were bad people. The author probably did that intentionally to further her themes, but reading about two of the women constantly longing for them got so old so quickly.

The writing in the novel is decent. I appreciated how the author tried to instill heavy themes about intergenerational trauma and the harms of societal expectations. The imagery is strong, which is nice. However, sometimes I found the writing to be a little overdramatic (there were a handful of one-liners that made me roll my eyes). There is also quite a bit of repetition, especially in descriptions. Repeated imagery as a theme is fine, but the adjectives and words themselves could have been more varied.

The story’s pacing went between too slow and too quick. There was so much that could have been cut from the middle and the end. There was too much time spent with the characters running inside from a storm and going out to the clearing to investigate something. It was as if the author had a few set places she wanted the novel to take place, and she only used those locations (which again, didn’t make the world feel developed). It also felt like the plot was reaching its climax from about the 40% point onward. The characters kept uncovering new things and making new revelations. There was little time to absorb one discovery before another was made. This could be improved by adding chapters between the discoveries making each individual breakthrough more challenging to obtain. It was too convenient that they just so happened to continually find groundbreaking evidence with little effort.

There were many smaller details that bothered me while reading. Most of them likely could have been prevented with better editing. For example, many problems could have been solved by texting or calling another character. We do see the characters occasionally text, so I knew they had working phones. The women also never seemed to communicate with one another at all about important topics. I know that’s a common theme in fiction, but there were some things they just should have noticed after living together for so long. The small town setting didn’t always make sense with the characters’ actions (like Bennett apparently had never met Delilah until two years prior— I don't believe they're the same exact age, but they likely ran in similar circles and would have encountered each other before then). Some scenarios were repeated too often, such as bonfires. There were two bonfires that were important to the plot, and I kept getting them confused. An editor could have suggested that one of them be a different activity (high schoolers in a small town have to do SOMETHING ELSE, right?). I could keep going on, but you get the point.

I won’t even get into the ending, but it seemed wildly unrealistic and created a bunch of plot holes.

This novel had a great deal of potential, but it fell flat for me. With more editing and some revisions, I think this could be a really strong story. The themes and allegory were interesting, and I appreciated how naturally some of the LGBTQ+ characters were represented. Even if a novel has an important message, it should still be an enjoyable read, though. This one was not fun for me, but I may be in the minority.

1 out of 5 stars.

TW: sexual assault, rape, abuse, underage drinking

Beautifully descriptive and heartbreaking, I was transported to Bishop where the sunflowers grow and I’ve never thought I would find them as unnerving as I do now.
I appreciated the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, although the book itself did not have graphic scenes, it was referenced.

This is definitely an edge of your seat, stay up all night reading kind of book.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

The small, rural town of Bishop, Kansas has a dark history. Women go missing or die, and the land is always thirsty for more blood. Now four girls, made family by loss, must face the evils that have haunted the town since its founding.
Creepy and atmospheric, Where Darkness Blooms explores what women must do to survive in a highly misogynistic society and how the bonds they create are their greatest strength in the fight. Andrea Hannah does a wonderful job establishing tone and a steadily building sense of dread and malice. The characters we're well developed and the final resolution delivers on it's promise. A creepy read full of righteous anger that I highly recommend to any folk horror fan.

This cover is gorgeous and one of the reasons I requested this book was the cover. The premise of the book sounded intriguing, but I found this book to be slow moving, and the payoff did not exceed the expectations of the journey. Whitney and Bo were definitely characters I gravitated and were likable, but i just feel like I needed more out of it than what I got.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books & Netgally for calling me to read and review this digital ARC

I LOVED THIS!!!! It was just the right mix of creepy and mysterious. I loved getting to know the characters and the town. I wasn't expecting how much I would care about the four friends. Overall a super fun book and I'd love to see more from this author.

Although fast moving, well written and unique, the story did not keep my attention. Keep in mind I am not the intended audience and I believe they will enjoy it.
I'm giving it 4 stars because the only thing wrong with this book is my reading tastes and the author has no control over that.

When I saw that cover, I was imediatly drawn to this book. The premise looked very good too with some eerie vibe and the creepy town trope! I wish I liked it better than I did though.

The pacing at the beginning was very slow, and it didnt help that it was from 4 POV. The characters felt a bit flat to me and it could have been easily only one or two characters. There was a couple of times when something would happen and I did not understand why or when because it was a memory. Otherwise the plot was really good and I liked the intrigue! The vibes were really creepy and weird, which I absolutely adore.

The ending felt a bit rushed but I also couldn't stop reading it and wanted to know how it ends!
I would definetly recommend this book to people that loves creepy town with weird plant and ghostly apparitions!!
Check trigger warnings before reading.

Thanks NetGalley for a eARC of this book!

Phenomenal, dark and suspenseful book about four young women exposing their towns lies and solving the disappearance of their mothers from two years ago. I found this book deeply cathartic and will never look at sunflowers the same way again.

I really liked the premise of this book, a spooky town, enclosed by sinister sunflower fields, where women are consistently going missing. Unfortunately, it missed the mark in a few ways for me. The book is from the point of view of 4 young women whose mothers have all disappeared. My issue with this, was that there wasn’t enough character building to keep the characters separate. I kept confusing the girls with each other. The ending was also a bit anticlimactic. I wanted more and felt like many questions were left unanswered. The cover of this book is stunning and the atmosphere building was fantastic but overall, it just didn’t work for me.

In a strange city, four girls go through life after their mothers disappearance. Delilah is the mom of the group, calm and reserved, Bo is the spontaneous one, Whitney longs for her lost girlfriend, and Jude is the shy and big hearted one. Together, they decide to investigate to have a better understanding of their moms’ disappearance while uncovering the town’ secrets.

I have to start this review by mentioning how stunning this book’s cover is. The sunflowers actually look intimidating, and the plants growing from the girl’s face are made so beautifully. Every single detail refers to something mentioned in the novel, and is done perfectly.

As for the story, I was quickly immersed in Andrea Hannah’s world and could not stop reading. The writing was well done, the story was captivating, and the characters were developed.

I loved how each girl had a goal and how they were all intertwined. I loved how each of them had a distinct personality and how easy it was to differentiate them. I loved the mystery aspects of the book, especially the one surrounding the sunflowers.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes YA thriller with a touch of supernatural.

I wanted to love Where Darkness Blooms, but unfortunately, its one of those books where the sum of all the fantastic parts is greater than the whole when put together.

As a premise, so many of the tropes, ideas, and imagery that Andrea Hannah has in this book are absolute catnip for me: Midwest (if you consider Kansas the Midwest which...we can argue about that in a different thread) gothic; feminist themes; teenagers figuring themselves out; teenage girls solving mysteries; light fantasy-horror elements. I read the synopsis and was fist pumping.

And let me be clear, Where Darkness Blooms is not, by any stretch, a BAD book. Hannah has a good eye for literary devices, making her writing sharp and interesting. She creates interesting characters. Bo, Whitney, Jude, and Delilah were all flawed, complex people and believable teenagers (!) which is, in and of itself, a feat. I did finish the book, too, which I wasn't sure I would. So the fact that I did stick it out, I think is a point in its favor as well.

<spoiler>But I think what let me down was the plot. It was oddly paced...what felt like the third act was only about 50-60% of the book when I checked my Kindle, meaning the last third felt very stretched out. But even still, so many events felt superfluous and fuzzy. I cannot tell you how many times the girls ran from town to the house, from the house to town, and on and on and on. It really felt like it needed tightening up because half the time things were happening and I...just had to sigh and get on with it.

I also feel as though the fantasy/fantastical elements were really poorly explained. I feel like every review of mine harps on worldbuilding, but for me, it has to make sense. And Where Darkness Blooms didn't make sense for most of the book; I get the author not wanting to do an info dump or have characters figure things out too quickly, but honestly? I kind of wanted that, after few too many convenient plot things happening because of said fantastical elements that felt like...it kinda came out of nowhere. I don't mind being confused if its intentionally done. I mind being confused because it wasn't explained well. </spoiler>

I think fans of other YA gothic novels will appreciate Hannah's unique setting and and atmosphere, especially readers who lean toward strong characters. I can admit that this one wasn't for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press/Wednesday books for the ebook ARC. All opinions are mine alone.

This story follows four girls turned family by a series of unfortunate events. Two years ago, their mothers fled, leaving them alone in their small, dusty town. The girls have no idea why they left, but they're determined to find out. As they search for answers, they discover that something is seriously wrong with their town. Women have been disappearing and dying at a worrying rate. Left with no answers, they work together to put an end to the terrible things that have been happening.

I really enjoyed reading this! At the beginning, the pace was quite slow. It was hard to get into, but around the 40% mark, the plot picked up and I couldn't put it down. When I was reading, the atmosphere was perfect. It was a little creepy, forboding, and dark.

I can't give too much information, as it's great to know very little when going into this book! There was a lot of sharp turns in the plot, and you couldn't know which way it would go next.

On critique I have, is that the characters were super flat. All four sisters read like the exact same person, and sometimes I didn't know who I was reading for a few moments. There's nothing different about each POV and I had a hard time following along.

Bishop is known for two things: sunflowers and missing women...

I love weird books, so I was so excited when the publisher reached out to me offering me an ARC of Where Darkness Blooms. From the prologue I was hooked. The way Hannah writes is so beautiful with prose that I was swept away instantly. But unfortunately I also think this was the books biggest downfall. Too much of the story was over written and made the plot drag. I would find myself skimming paragraphs because I was so hooked by the action, and then I would get 5-10 sentences of exposition (beautifully written, but dragging).

Also, there are four main POV that we are following, and it felt like three of them got more love than the last one. I understand the authors need to have four girls, but one fell short of the rest and I caught myself not wanting to read her chapters when I got to them. Having four POVs also meant that it slowed down the plot, because something would happen to one of our girls and then we would have to wait three more chapters to get back to it.

Overall I had a fun time reading this book, but it wasn't a new favorite of this genre.

Some Similar Vibes Books:
Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Thanks to netgalley and Wednesday books for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was so good! Loved this dark and twisted feminist thriller! Can’t wait for more books from this author!

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

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want a Midwest Gothic YA about some murdered girls in a small town? Do you not mind reading about high schoolers facing adult situations without any of the necessary consequences or darkness that that should entail?

Pre-reading:
Everything crime adjacent I've read lately has been shit. Let's learn nothing and read yet another book in this genre.

Thick of it:
OK while I appreciate a trigger warning, spoilers!

Oh god, an artsy fartsy irresponsible mother is one of my least favorite character tropes.

Creepy sunflowers. I dig it.

Oh good so early on with the child rape. 🙃

No no, we are not calling anything a love knot. Do not give that term to the children for their anxiety. They will google and find horrors.

Listen, I get it-book about flowers, but you gotta be real careful about your verb choices because it’ll veer into smut book territory so fast, and it is not meant to be that.

Bennett’s an ass. Delilah’s an ass. You don’t fuck the guy your pseudo sister is in love with-what?

Oh my god, men shouldn’t hurt you. I’m digging the is it ghosts or is it mental illness. (This doesn’t last, unfortunately. It’s ghosts. I don’t want ghosts.)

I’m invested in this book. Good chapter endings. They make you turn pages.

I wish the chapters had the characters’ names that we were focusing on rather than numbers. I want to know which voice I should be preparing to hear.

It’s a little romanticized to be realistic, but I don’t mind it. It’s giving 300 Fox Way vibes.

Who’s paying for the house and electric though? They’re all high school girls. And it’s Kansas. I can’t imagine there being much money.

I really hope I’m wrong and these two girls aren’t lusting after their not-sister’s rapists. But like that’s what it’s coming across as, and I’m deeply uncomfortable.

Yeah, that’s a big fuck, Delilah.

I don’t understand these girls. Don’t hang out with rapists? Maybe tell your sister ‘hey, you’re dating a rapist.’ Wtf.

How could they not have been searching this whole time? You don’t move on from being abandoned or thinking your mom got murdered like that. You go find answers. I don’t understand.

They must be able to Google the phone number or like look it up in a phone book at the library.

While we love some diversity, it is also a teeny tiny town in Kansas, and I don’t know how many people there’d be like that. Also if it would be accepted. Kinda not cool to just gloss over that.

Hold on. 2003 is not ancient. Stop this fucked with me so much. One, I was like how is that 20 years ago, and then two, I was like book pages wouldn’t yellow that fast. Apparently, it only takes 5 to 6 years to noticeably yellow. Wild.

Would this be Midwest Gothic? If it is, the book is doing it well. It’s not Southern Gothic. It’s not New England Gothic, so it must be like Midwest Gothic-just making the mundane terrifying.

So if it’s rented land is that why they don’t have a mortgage? I don’t know how property works.

OK, that line’s a little too PC. It took me out of the book.

Oh, I like that they aren’t dumb, but at the same time, they’re so fucking dumb. Why aren’t they communicating with each other? I’m getting frustrated with that.

I’m still not over the ‘we didn’t take my sister with a broken collarbone to a hospital we just kind of like went to a sunflower field.’ What the fuck? Which also like, hello, where is the hospital bill or the insurance?

That’s twice now that hair has been compared to a soufflé. You can use other words.

Everyone’s very tolerant for Kansas. Where’re all the Bible thumpers?

All these clues, but I’m like ladies, it’s been two years. How did you let two years go by without asking questions? I don’t understand

I’m so invested in all these broken little girls, fuck.

This book is very visual. It could easily be a mini-series. But like more Netflix, not HBO.

Saying it wasn’t OK, but then at the very beginning of the book, you talked about how she wanted it and was a good time.

I keep losing track of which of the three boys are related to each other and how and their ages.

Yeah OK, I fully flipped back to make sure I wasn’t insane for my first impression of Mr. Evan, and he literally starts the fight with Bo, touches her without her consent, and tells her that she wanted to be raped. I don’t want to hear any of his nonsense to Delilah. Immediately no on this man. And it’s shitty because it genuinely feels like the book is trying to make you sympathetic to him. Zero sympathies for rapists, go rot.

Delilah stop kissing shitty men, c’mon.

But like DNA testing?

I’m like very afraid of tornados, so this book does Midwest horror real well. Deserted nursing home and tornado sirens? Bye.

Never understood how towheaded somehow means blonde. I googled. Apparently, it comes from spinning flax.

Again we love representation, but this many in a small Kansas Bible thumper town? Seems unlikely.

I don’t understand why this is some big reveal or why we took chapters to get to it. I think it was pretty obvious from the get-go that the Hardings would be the descendants. And even just like operate under the assumption that they’re related. Come on girls, little quicker on the pickup.

These little girls fall in love so fast. I don’t like it.

Another thing, this is Kansas. Where are all the guns?

But then you would’ve seen disturbed dirt.

Why do we have a villain exposé? He’s a dude. He’s got four girls trapped at knifepoint or gunpoint because it’s Kansas-they should just be dead.

OK cool, but mamas aren’t gonna leave their kids in a murder town. What the fuck?

But like why is that car the only option? Break into a neighbor’s house and steal their car keys.

Two cops with guns aren’t going to be intimidated by three little girls that are seriously injured.

How has no one called an ambulance or the police on these children?

An abandoned town makes no sense. You had people with businesses. There are politics and news stations. Like people wouldn’t just accept that an entire town up and vanished.

I’m sorry, how are you gonna go to college with no school transcripts or birth certificate or tax information or parents with jobs? I’m so confused. This book has gone off the rails to the point it no longer makes sense. I was so on board for the first half, and then they just lost me.

Also unacceptable behavior from the mothers. Even if you had to leave the town and you’re claiming that the town’s ghosty sunflowers wouldn’t let you back, maybe call an outside police department that isn’t corrupt then, or department of child services, or there’s like so many options to get your kid back if you genuinely think they’re going to be murdered. Also just realistically how do you get a job without your ID, without all these basic elements of society?

Post-reading:
I don’t know if this is supposed to be a YA book and that the genre ruined it because it couldn’t go dark enough or if the author completely lost the plot while writing this. Because for the first bit of the book where the concept and characters and setting were being introduced, I was so on board. Like yes, give me this Midwest Gothic. There were creepy visuals. I was into the dynamic and drama of the girls. It was juicy. And then around midway through it asked you to suspend disbelief way too much and completely fell apart. I don’t know if this was a world-building issue or a genre-busting issue, but basic realism got thrown out the window. The book takes place in Kansas. Where is the religion? Where are the guns? Where’s the racism? Where is the property tax or jobs or grocery shopping that these girls would have to do on their own? Where’s DCF? This book should be so much darker. This book should have some true-crime elements to it. Instead, the villains are evil because they’re the villains. They have no motivations. And along that line, the rape in this book has no purpose. And yet there are so many pages spent alluding to it, and there’s no payoff. There’s a lot of that in this book-of just preachy repetition that all should’ve been cut out. And yet I still kind of like the book? I think I just dug the initial concept so much that I’m not willing to write off the ending because I just want it to be an entirely different book than it is. And it’s very frustrating because it could’ve been very good. It would make a good start for a mini-series. But like just think? Make it more realistic?

Who should read this:
YA horror/thriller fans
Midwest Gothic fans

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater-kooky women-only households and found family confronting the supernatural
* Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke-twisty, love triangle, multiple perspectives, aesthetic
* Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt-found family messing with the supernatural, prosaic
* The Sun Down Motel-ghosts and murder
* Deadly Waters by Dot Hutchison-virtue signaling, annoying protagonist, revenge murders