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??

Darkly was an amazing and suspenseful mystery story. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Arcadia "Dia" Gannon, a high schooler who is well known for working at an antiques shop and wearing grandma sweaters as she immersed in a game of Darkly with even higher stakes than usual. Louisiana Veda, the enigmatic gamemaker, has created 28 Darkly games. The games themselves are frightening and thrilling masterpieces, often involving other players, trained actors, different locations, and a mystery to be solved. If you are able to rise through the ranks, you win a tantalizing yet mysterious prize. A 29th game has surfaced, Valkyrie, which turns out to be a twisted reenactment of Veda's childhood. As Dia and the rest of the Veda Seven try to win the game and solve the mysterious disappearance of George Greenwell, they must try to determine who to trust and what the difference between reality and fantasy. The characters are well written, and the action is fast paced. It is not especially easy to figure out the mystery, and the reader will be eagerly awaiting the conclusion. I thought the wrap-up was satisfying, and I was sorry to see the story end. Overall, the only negative about the story would be that you can't play the fabulous Darkly games in real life. I would have also loved more details about what the other games entailed, but maybe they will be explained in future stories? Once can hope!

Dia has always been a fan of the infamous Darkly games. She spends her meager days going through school as unnoticed as possible, and helping her mom run her antique shop in the afternoons. Her best friends are the elderly helpers from the retirement home who they’ve recruited as part-time help at the shop. But when her application for a highly-coveted internship under the Darkly empire lands her one of 7 spots, she embarks on an anything but ordinary journey and adventure to London. There, they will chase after clues and ranks in the Darkly game world created by the illustrious Louisiana Veda, a creator once and still revered for her imaginative toys and games, though always eccentric and evasive. With the creator long gone, the Darkly empire has fallen into disarray, though there are still games to be won and secrets to reveal. What appears as a simple board game is so much more, throwing players into real-life scenes full of danger, mysterious rhymes and clues, and hidden passageways. Who can she trust? Can Dia and her new friends play this game and win? Or is the game really playing THEM?

This was such a fun, engaging, mysterious read! I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh take on subversive game stories and loved every minute. There were some great twists and it left me feeling like Dia has more adventures to come. I highly recommend this book for dark adventure lovers. It is YA for teens and up, but I found it fascinatingly engaging even from an adult prospective. May thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Delacorte Press for the arc copy!

Interesting premise with a mastermind behind boardgames and all, but ended up not being my exact cup of tea. I went into this blindly and I have never read anything from this author in the past, but maybe they tend to be on the complex or horror genre? Anyways, this wasn't for me but maybe it can be for you!?!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House Children’s in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded down.

There’s a lot to love here, particularly the elements that reminded me of favorites like A Series of Unfortunate Events and Sleep No More. The aesthetic is spot on, and the story is undeniably engaging and fun. However, the plot logic often felt inconsistent, making it hard to fully invest in the stakes. While I enjoyed the characters, their relationships and motivations sometimes lacked clarity, which impacted the story's emotional depth. Overall, I appreciated the experience but couldn’t help wishing for a blend of this book and the Hawthorne Legacy series to create the perfect read.

I've previously both really liked and really hated Marisha Pessl's work, so I went into this with what I hoped were appropriate expectations. Night Film is one of my favorite books but I really couldn't stand Calamity Physics. I remember reading and enjoying Neverworld Wake but it's been a while. I think by appropriate setting my expectations for this I was able to enjoy it much more. The plot is right up my alley in terms of special interests with the secret underground game and the scarcity of the board games, so I had a feeling I was going to enjoy it. This could have been a five star read for me but there were a lot of moments where I found myself struggling to suspend disbelief and so I had to mark it down some. I think that the scale of what the antagonist did here was too broad to be believable even if I did ultimately enjoy the story.

Thanks NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Dark and twisted childhood media with a healthy dose of mystery are elements of a book I always enjoy and this novel delivered those vibes. Unfortunately, while I found the initial premise and set up quite entertaining, I steadily lost interest after Dia left the dusty antique shop and the six other interns were introduced. The character voices blended together and Dia's quirky, eccentric nature which appealed to me in the beginning became less apparent. I also found the description of the game play of Valkyrie to be confusing because it defied my interpretation of what a game is -- it felt very fantastical and I expected this book to be rooted in reality. Overall, Darkly is a fine addition to the YA mystery genre and would certainly be something a teen audience might enjoy, but it wasn't for me. I decided to stop reading it at about 50%.

3.5 stars rounded down. There’s so much of this that I absolutely loved, mostly because it reminded me of other things I love (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Sleep No More, etc.) but there’s a lot of poor plot logic that made it difficult to truly buy into the stakes. I enjoyed the characters, but didn’t always understand their relationships to each other and how that motivated their actions. I still found this very engaging and fun, and aesthetically it is incredibly on point. I wish I could smush this and the Hawthorne Legacy series together into the perfect book.

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. But I ended up reading a library copy because the file didn’t work on my Kindle (I think it’s all of the images).

I was dying to read this - Neverworld wake is one of my favorite books, and this sounded like it would be in that same vein. It’s reminiscent of that, with a dash of Nightfilm thrown in for good measure (the mysterious creator, the isolated compound…Louisiana Veda may as well be Stanislas Cordova but for board games).

Our protagonist is Dia (short for Arcadia). Her mother owns an antique shop and her two closest friends are the shop’s octogenarian employees. Dia applies for an internship with Darkly - a board game company founded by the mysterious Louisiana Veda. The company makes these crazy intricate board games that are addictive - and nearly impossible to solve. There are 29 games total - one was released each year Louisiana was alive, and fifteen more “ghost games” were released by the company after her disappearance. Dia and six other interns from around the world are chosen to work for Darkly for the summer, but it isn’t until they arrive that they’re told the real reason - there’s a 30th Darkly game. It’s called Valkyrie, and it was stolen the night Louisiana disappeared. But kids from a local private school appear to be playing it, and one of them has disappeared. The actual internship consists of finding George Grenfell, and figuring out who has the copy of Valkyrie.

I liked Dia as a narrator, and I get why we needed her perspective, but I kind of wish all of the interns had traded off narration duties. Dia doesn’t trust any of them, and suspects they’re all hiding something. She’s also trying to determine a common thread between all of these different people - why *these* seven interns?

Anyway, the interns eventually figure out how to get in on the game, and Valkyrie seems like Sleep No More but somehow even more terrifying? All of the other Darklys are board games, but while this does have a board and a spinner, it’s a fully immersive experience. You’re kidnapped, taken to an unknown location, and you have to spin a wheel to reveal your game scenario and draw an object from the bag of loot. You have 15 minutes to recover whatever the object is from the game. If you say “Wander where the witch lies,” the game will end (but you’re out). The goal is to…get to Valhalla? But you only have 3 rounds, and it’s kind of unclear *how* you win. Dia sees her own pawn at the start of each round, and it doesn’t seem to have moved very far. She also figures out how to cheat anyway, so I never figured out what the goal was.

As cool as the setting was, and as invested as I was in the mystery, I still had a hard time wrapping my brain around how any of these games were supposed to work. They’re board games, so there’s a board, and pieces, and some kind of game manual (Dia also mentions a radio being part of it, but it’s not clear how that’s supposed to work). It’s apparently so rare to win one of the games that winners are almost like minor celebrities (it’s also hinted at that winners are somehow cursed). But like…it’s all there in the box. Couldn’t you somehow figure out how the game is put together and cheat your way to a win? It also seems like these are video games, rather than board games. And I detest reading about video games (I’m still bitter about wasting my time reading Codex), but I feel like that might have made more sense here. But then you don’t get the immersive experience with Valkyrie, and that was admittedly pretty cool.

I think I would have liked this more if I could have just plowed through it, but I kept having to pick it up and put it down (stupid holiday weekend and stupid work!).

Pessl is really great at writing a book that makes you focus and use your brain in an attempt to figure out where the story is heading. Not only is the story itself complex but there are letters and newspaper clippings dropped in randomly to add an extra level of depth.
The whole concept she lays out for this was mind-bending. Pessl really knows how to set an eerie atmosphere and turn the tension up high. Completely engrossing with so many elements of deception, this was an elaborately written story with a unique ending and I loved it!

This falls into the YA mystery genre and I think that’s mostly due to the age of the characters. The characters and their interactions felt more elevated while I read so for those who aren’t in YA, don’t let that keep you away!

Thank you Random House Children's for the arc via Netgalley.

Rating: 4.5/5⭐️
Pub day: Nov. 26 - out now!

Dia has always been a bit of an oddball, fitting right in at her mother's failing antiques shop with her 1920s attire. Against all odds she's selected for an internship at Darkly, a secretive gaming company whose mastermind, Louisiana Veda, disappeared years ago. Along with six other oddballs with no social media presence, she is brought to a remote island near London, where they will all play a game. Dia can't help but find herself drawn towards Poe, who is both a genius and incredibly wealthy along with being devastatingly handsome, but she can't trust anyone when they are all vying for the same prize.

This story called to mind [book:The Inheritance Games|52439531], where everyone is trying to solve riddles and also trying to sabotage each other, but with a historical escape room vibe. The history of the Darkly games and company, and their founder, was complex and intriguing, and I loved the little bits of ephemera sprinkled throughout the text. All the clues were quite twisty. There seemed to be something missing among the climactic chapters (<spoiler>at the end of one chapter she's hopping into a car and then the beginning of the next she's waking up as if kidnapped</spoiler>) that made me wonder if a chapter was omitted or if it was some error in the ARC. Despite that, the ending had a great wrap-up that hints at a sequel.

This book was very good. It did flop all over the place forcing you to keep up with the story line but it was very good . Had a feeling she was more involved than she knew .

Ahoy there mateys!  I really loved the last book I read by the author and had high hopes for this one.  I read it over two days.  On the first day, I was convinced that it was a five star read.  However, when I was finished I was very dissatisfied.  Basically there were issues with the characters, settings, and ending.

I have to admit that the Darkly company games and its founder, Louisiana Vera were fascinating.  I loved how the board games were discussed and elements of them were revealed as the book progressed.  I loved slowly learning about Louisiana and her upbringing.  It felt like both the board games and the artist behind them could be real.  These elements were the highlight of the story and had me spellbound.

The problematic elements had overtaken the excitement by the end.  I didn't mind the main character, Dia.  However there was a lust-triangle that I seriously found distracting.  Also there were seven teens (4 boys, 3 girls) involved in the contest.  I honestly forget about one of the boys by the end and don't even remember his name.  The two other girls continued to be confused by me.  I am not sure if that was due to the narrator's accents for them or how they were written.  I feel like there should have been four teens total so that they could have been fleshed out better.

The setting also bothered me.  The teens get taken to an island where the factory is but for seemingly no real reason given that the majority of the action took place on the mainland.  Also some of the plot took place in the Valkyrie game.  Both the game and the "internship" really seemed to be nonsensical most of the time.  The more I thought about the realities of the setting and the situation, I more I was bothered.  Especially once the "twist" about Louisiana's family is shared.

But it was the ending that drove me bonkers.  Dia goes home and extremely conveniently finds a secret about her own family.  This twist annoyed me but it is what Dia decides to in the last pages that made NO sense given her personal growth during the course of the novel.  I understand that the author was going for symmetry.  I just hated it.

I know that my opinion seems so negative but I promise that I had so much enjoyment listening to the novel.  I don't regret the read and will be reading whatever the author writes next.  I just wish that the book held up upon reflection and that it lived up to the prior novel I read by her.  Arrrr!

I loved this book. The characters are great, the flow of the story will have you tearing through pages, and I’ve never wanted to play a game as badly as the Darkly games. Just like in Night Film, there are articles and letters throughout the book that help add to the mystery. I felt the Darkly games were complex and mysterious; ngl when I say it even felt a bit dark-academia (without the school?) to me. I loved this and I hope you will too! This is out now!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte for the copy of this ARC!

This is an excellent YA mystery with a side of fantasy. It's sweeping in scope and engaging to read, with excellent characters and doesn't talk down to the expected audience.

What a shockingly amazing and well planned book. I loved it so much, but was also intrigued the entire time. What a fun and enticing book for young adults - and not just young adults either. In true Marisha Pessl form, this book had amazing twists, turns, character development, and dark academia-style writing. I felt transported, and haven't felt like that in a while. The universe this book takes place in is so interesting, and the story is so cool as well. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has appreciated this author's prior writings, but also to anyone looking for something interesting, fun, and new.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Arcadia “Dia” Gannon has been a fan of Darkly games for years. These board games– dark, twisted, and scary– have developed a cult-like following around the world. Unexpectedly, Dia wins an internship along with six other teenagers, and she’s shipped to England to solve a mystery in the home of Louisiana Veda– the eccentric, mysterious, and deceased creator of Darkly.

Darkly is one of the most atmospheric YA books I’ve read. It’s a dark, fast-paced read that reminds me of a mix of Tim Burton films, Dave McKean drawings, Emile Autumn aesthetics, and NYC’s immersive art experience “Sleep No More”. The chapters alternate with artifacts from Louisiana Veda, creating a multimedia experience. Truly a unique read.

If there’s a fault, it’s the side characters. I had trouble telling most of the six other teens apart even late in the book. The boat captain is a walking cliche. The love interests are lackluster, and I found Poe in particular just annoying. But these take up few pages compared to the rest of the compelling book.

I’m a big fan of Pessl’s other stuff, primarily Night Film, and I’m thrilled to see her release another book. I think a lot of readers will enjoy this, and hopefully it will serve as an intro to the rest of her books. Thanks to Special Topics in Calamity Physics, I still refer to the defrost button in my car as the bacon button.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics remains one of my favorite books so I will always come back for Marisha Pessl.

I think I liked this one almost as much. I love a good mystery and the premise is interesting. Something about it feels a little unfinished but I remember that feeling with Special Topics too, which inspired me to read it more than once. I’m sure I’ll come back to this for another go at some point. To see all the dots I didn’t connect the first time around. I like that there’s always more to discover.

This was an interesting read and the premise, plot, and writing all kept me intrigued. Dia has been obsessed with the creations of Louisiana Veda and is one of the many, many people who have applied from around the world to work as an intern at the Foundation. The question to apply? ‘What would you kill for?’ Now Dia is caught in a trap with six other teenagers, and she will have to work with them to solve the riddles and puzzles of Louisiana’s life in order to solve the greater mystery and crime. Louisiana’s god-like presence lingers throughout the book. Her Darkly empire with its still strong gaming glory is playing out in real life in the story regardless that the company is all but defunct and no longer in production. There’s a sort of gothic quality to this one as our competitors/interns are solving one problem that’s really part of another issue. Kudos to the author for tracking all the moving parts of this one and making it come together beautifully. I’m intrigued to read more backlist titles now.