Dia, a teen from Missouri, finds herself one of seven interns working for her favorite board game designer's company. The games are elaborate and intense, leaving a mysterious legacy of the designer, Louisiana Vega. When the seven teens get to England, they learn they are supposed to find out who stole the previously unknown lost game of the designer - and the way they are supposed to do that is to play the game themselves.

This was an interesting read. I think it started a little slowly, but once Dia got to England, it definitely picked up. I enjoyed the intrigue between interns and how those secrets unfolded (especially at the end with a slight twist). There were some elements that I don't think were as successful though. I am still not clear exactly what was happening in Valkyrie (although to be fair, I'm not sure Dia completely did either at the end). I think the lore behind it could have been given more time - like I got the basic gist, but there were elements I guess maybe I missed or weren't explained (like what all the settings were/meant). I also do think it ended on a kind of meh note. Like I get the symbolism behind the ending (like last two pages ending), but it still felt out of character or wrong somehow? I'm not sure. I just know I closed it being like huh. Overall, a decent read, but it didn't give me the same magic I got from Night Film.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pessl poured so much love and effort into the legend of Louisiana Veda and Darkly that she had little left for our present-day characters. Dia and the other interns fall flat by comparison, which makes the parts of the story not immediately immersed in Veda’s history jarring to read. Overall I liked it and would read again. A Darkly is addictive, after all.

**3.5-stars rounded up**

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In Darkly, Marisha Pessl introduces the Reader to the interestingly-mad world of an eccentric and infamous game designer, Louisiana Veda. If you've read Pessl's novel Night Film, you're already aware of how well she can create an aura around a mysterious character. I'm looking at you, Cordova.

Our MC is a teenage girl, Dia Gannon, who submits an application for a coveted-internship with Veda's gaming company, Darkly. Her application feels like a failure, so Dia is shocked when she discovers she's been selected for one of the highly-competitive 7-positions.

Darkly, well-known for it's darkly ((pun intended)) ingenious game designs, has laid dormant since its founder's, Louisiana's, bizarre death. The Darkly games that remain are so prized, they can go for millions at auction. As the teens start their internships, more questions are revealed than answered. What even are these internships about, and why were these specific candidates selected?

The entire narrative turns into a puzzle, with Dia struggling to piece everything together. The stakes feel high, the atmosphere ripe with danger, but why? It's all part of the mystery of Darkly.

I enjoyed my time with Darkly. It's a story I would consider reading again. I feel if my brain hadn't been so fried by the holidays, I could've even enjoyed it even more. There's no denying Pessl's insane-levels of creativity and I did enjoy the overall mysterious tone of this book. While I feel like my brain may have missed some of the finer details, I can still appreciate the level of attention that must of been required in Pessl's execution of this story. It's not my favorite of her work, but a solid read nonetheless.

If you enjoy puzzle-driven stories, I feel you could love this. The characters are smart, driven and interesting. I loved the action, setting and the intrigue of Louisiana Veda definitely kept me turning the pages.

Thank you to the publisher, Delacorte Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I look forward to seeing what other Readers think of Darkly and anticipate whatever Pessl writes next!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. For readers of Inheritance Games, Darkly follows Dia and her felllow interns as they tryr to solve the games of the empire of Veda. But why was Dia chosen, she isn't famous, or rich, or related to anyone famous or rich? There are clues and symbols enough to keep the intrigue going in this twisty novel.

You know how sometimes you have an author whose first work you encountered was so life-altering that you're down for whatever they write after, no matter the quality of the subsequent output? Marisha Pessl is one of those authors for me.

I fell in love hard with Special Topics In Calamity Physics, which was a brilliant look at a young girl leading a peripatetic life in the wake of her mercurial professor father, trying to fit in at a new high school during senior year and stumbling into a murder investigation in the process. Ms Pessl's next two books, Night Film and Neverworld Wake, were both fine. Night Film was very self-consciously adult (and commensurately ponderous) and Neverworld Wake felt like a capitulation to the marketing schisms that demanded that any novel with a teenage protagonist had to be classified as Young Adult. Darkly, at least, feels more comfortable as a YA novel, tho perhaps I have just adjusted my expectations downwards in regard to this author.

Gosh, this review isn't meant to be bitchy, I just want eccentric, brilliant books closer to STiCP than to your average YA mystery, and I'm starting to get a little impatient!

Anyway, Darkly tells the tale of Dia Gannon, a teenage outcast who essentially runs the antique store ostensibly staffed by her flighty mother and the elderly assistants who might as well be related to her by blood. When she learns that the estate of legendary game-maker Louisiana Veda is holding a worldwide search for interns, she's desperate to go but also scared of leaving her little family behind.

Like millions of others worldwide, Dia has played several of the immersive and haunting board/mystery games Louisiana published via her company, Darkly Games. Beautiful, secretive Louisiana reportedly perished herself years ago. Now, seven teenagers are being invited to visit Darkly Games for the first time. Dia doesn't expect to be selected, but nothing will stop her from going once she is.

The internship is nothing like she expects, tho. As she and her fellow interns unravel the mystery of why they've been brought there, they find themselves playing in a terrifying and all-too-realistic game. Could this be Louisiana's final masterpiece? Dia might be able to find out, so long as she survives the ordeal.

I loved the foundational conceit of this novel, even if I as a game-maker and puzzle-enthusiast have to reluctantly admit that Louisiana's rags-to-riches story is very much a conceit. I WISH that it were possible for creators of intricate physical (and even immersive real-life) games to rake in the big bucks like Louisiana did, but I'm happy enough to go along with the idea that she earned enough to buy an estate and a mysterious factory and to be able to hand out largesse essentially at whim.

What I did really love were the game descriptions! I'm still not 100% sure why the person who set Valkyrie in motion did so since it was clearly counterproductive to their aims, but I really enjoyed reading about the game play and puzzling my way through it with Dia. Motive aside, the setup for Valkyrie made sense, as did the many secrets of Louisiana's life. Dia and her family were also winsome, and while some of her fellow teens felt barely fleshed out, it was nice to have a diverse cast rocketing around the world, solving mysteries.

This book really made me want to go play some of the bazillion escape/puzzle games I already own. After all, I can't buy more if I haven't played the ones I already have! (or so I tell myself, lol) And I'd love to help make some of these wonderfully creative -- tho hopefully less tortured than Louisiana -- game designers I admire that much richer, if only so I can have more of their delightful creations to play. It's a virtuous cycle, rather like the one depicted in these pages.

Darkly by Marisha Pessl was published November 26 2024 by Delacorte Press and is available from all good booksellers, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/15382/9780593706558">Bookshop!</a>

I made it about 40% of the way through this, and I was just not feeling it at all. What I did read wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t make me want to keep reading. Ultimately I decided to DNF this one, but given the amount that I did read, I would still give it 2 stars. I’m sure it’s people are out there, I just wasn’t one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Dia has always been interested in the Darkly games and the game designer behind them, Louisiana Veda. When the opportunity arises to intern for the Darkly company, Dia is shocked to find that her application is one of the seven to be chosen. However, the internship is not what it appears to be. The seven has been chosen to find one of Louisiana's stolen games, never made known to the public and is currently related to a missing teenage boy. Dia and the other interns will need to find their way into the game and find out who is responsible.

This book was a lot of fun and surrounded in mystery. Not only are you trying to find out who is responsible for stealing the Darkly game and how it relates to the missing boy, but you are also thrown into the mystery of who Louisiana was and the secrets that surround the Darkly company. I was captivated with Dia and her investigation. It seemed like every chapter there was a new twist making you question who could be trusted. Overall, this was a fantastic read, and I would love to read more work by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for the opportunity to review Darkly. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this to be a really fun read. I was just along for the ride to slowly uncover who Louisiana was and this took quite a few turns I honestly never suspected. The writing itself was great and so atmospheric. I will absolutely be reading another book from this author.

Darkly is a fantastic YA thriller that I couldn’t put down. The book follows Arcadia “Dia” Gannon as she heads off to London for a summer internship at Darkly. Darkly is a company created by the mysterious Louisiana Veda, and they specialize in dark and horrific games. Dia has been a fan of Louisiana Veda since she was a child, and she is eager to see what this internship will entail.

Dia, along with six other students from around the world, are tasked with finding a stolen Darkly game called Valkyrie. Teenagers have been playing Valkyrie, and like any other Darkly game, things have become dangerous. People have gone missing, and the foundation in charge of the internship need the interns to infiltrate the game to find out who is behind Valkyrie so they can shut it down.

This was such a fun and quick read. With lots of twists and turns, it’ll keep you guessing until the end. I think Darkly would be perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games.

What an engrossing read - I could not put this down! It reminds me of Ready Player One, but with board games instead of video games. Marisha Pessl’s writing just pulls you in from page one. A stunning YA read.

Marisha Pessl is lauded on social media for her book Night Film, and I knew I wanted to get my hands on this book. I will definitely be going to her backlist to read Night Film. Darkly was a great read and I highly recommend it.

This book is both dark and fun. It has Ready Player One vibes with the mysterious game, but instead of winning a company if you win the game a Valkyrie comes for you. I loved the twisty ending! The game descriptions in this book are cool and I think this would make a great show. This is my first book by Pessl and I look forward to reading more by her.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book for review.

Marisha Pessl never does *quite* what you expect and she did it fabulously in Darkly.

Dia Gannon is a kirky 17 year old living in Missouri and working at her family's failing antique store. When she receives an offer to do an internship with the famous Louisana Vaeda Foundation, what is left of the famous game inventor's company, she is drawn into the world of Darkly, uncovering the true store of its founding and founder.

This was a quick paced and atmospheric read. There is a cast of characters but none of them feel as flushed out as Dia. I loved the way Pessl managed the end, keeping the reader in suspense until the very last sentence.

I love a good thriller. As a gamer, when you add the thriller in with gaming, you've got me hooked!

The world building and intricacies of the games had me from the start. As the reader, I felt like I was immersed, fighting to solve whatever game or puzzle was presented.

I wasn't drawn to all six characters and would have enjoyed a little more development for them, however, I found Dia to be very well written. With thr pacing and intrigue, this was a very delightful read that I had a hard time putting down.

Hours later and I am still thinking of this book. Not sure how to describe it and how much I loved it. It starts very much like a black noir. What is real and what is true? Very interesting mystery. Great reveal at the end.

I wanted to read this book mostly because of the cover, it is gorgeous. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I ended up enjoying it a lot!

I really liked concept of the book, the story of this mysterious game creator, of these dark games, the remote island setting, the atmosphere. I liked Dia as a main character. I liked the mystery. Who stole the game, who is who, what is really going on? I found some pets underdeveloped a little bit and I maybe wanted more, especially from the side characters. I was also not a fan of the romance subplot but it was minor. Overall this was entertaining and I enjoyed it.

It was good. Confusing, but good. For sure hard to understand what is happening in a good chunk of the book, but the ending was what redeemed it for me. Eventually I started paying more attention to the plot and the twists. But the first half was just boring, and very very confusing. Maybe the names threw me off, confusing the reality with the game world.

I'd do a physical copy if I'd re-read this again. The audio was just a lot with a lot of characters. This was a 3.5 for me.

As a fan of Marisha Pessl's adult mystery Night Film, I was very excited about her newest novel, Darkly. Darkly follows Dia, a somewhat isolated teenager who spends most of her time working in her scatterbrained mother's antique store. Along with what seems like every other teenager in the world, Dia applies for a summer internship at the legendary Darkly game company. She's shocked to learn that she's been selected and will be heading to England to partake in the mysterious internship. Upon arrival, Dia and the other interns discover that this is no normal internship. An unreleased game, stolen from the Darkly factory in the 1980s has made its way out into the world and now a player has vanished. The game, Valkyrie, was never meant to see the light of day and the interns are tasked with finding out who is running the game and where the missing player has gone.

Darkly was founded by the enigmatic Louisiana Veda, whose mythology makes up much of the book's intrigue. Layers of Veda's story are peeled back slowly, through Pessl's use of cleverly placed newspaper clippings, photos, letters and other ephemera. I found this technique very effective in Darkly, and was often poring of the details of a photo or letter. The readers knows the story isn't real, but these elements scratch a small part of the brain that asks, "but what if?"

Throughout the summer, Dia and the other interns, including possible love interest Poe, begin to see that there is always more than meets the eye when it comes to Darkly. And the more they dig into the life of Louisiana Veda, the more the mystery grows.

I found Pessl's latest book to be incredibly enjoyable, an almost immersive reading experience. I constantly wanted more as I read - more story, more Louisiana, more lore, more Darkly. A couple reveals at the end were a bit pat to me. I almost wish some of the loose threads had been left loose, or maybe tied up less tightly. But all in all, I highly enjoyed Darkly and would recommend it easily.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader copy.

3.5 stars

Marisha Pessl's intricately detailed world's are always a hit or miss for me. Sometimes all the pieces come together seamlessly (Special Topics in Calamity Physics) and sometimes it feels like it really misses the mark (Night Film). Darkly hovers somewhere in between. The set up of seven teenagers called to a dilapidated, and probably haunted, factory to solve the riddle of where a famous game player's final game went was interesting and had so many twists and turns that I was definitely on the edge of my seat throughout the novel.

The end of the book did end up feeling a little too neatly tied up, to the point where it almost felt like a different book. Overall, a fun read that kept me engaged (almost) to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for access to an early release.

For starters, intrigued by storygraph saying the book has 404 pages and Goodreads saying 416, but the eARC I got had 354 pages. I rarely read a book and am like this needed some more pages but this is one that definitely did. Might have to pick up the published version to see if that reading changes my experience.

This book Had me in the first 200 pages. I was sat, interested, and wanted to know more, but then the narrative just lost its flavor for me? Darkly feels like it could've used some extra time being edited; adding scenes and information so that scenes made more logistical sense; if shoe horning a romance into the book was that important, I feel like we needed to earn the romance a little more.
A lot of the characters felt quite flat to me and we were just supposed to accept that they were fully realized characters because of the scene of them sharing their sad/traumatic childhoods. Dia felt like she barely existed in the third dimension.
I think the premise and the various ways the story went were interesting, but it just felt like we were reading the first stab at trying to connect every necessary element. Also, the conclusion, once again, was theoretically fine and honestly is probably okay (save for the romance that makes 0 sense to me), it just felt a bit rushed, and I guess by that time I had disinvested from the story/plot/characters so I was just like okay, moving along. I did have an inkling of an idea that the twist would be what it was.

Last three random things: The author is very good at creating these larger than life cult following characters. That? Chef's kiss. Calling what Louisiana did an "experiment" is not only diabolical, but insulting to science. Also this line: "Remote as an uncontacted tribe who worships some kind of monkey god" what in the actual hell??? Also also g slur used multiple times on one page??