Genre: YA Thriller
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: Feb. 21, 2023
Order Link: Amazon
Special thanks to Wednesday Books for an arc of this book.
Reviewed in Mystery & Suspense Magazine
Andrea Hannah's Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.
Review:
Where Darkness Blooms is a young adult thriller/horror story set in the bizarre mid-western town of Bishop - an eerie place with a reputation for devastating wind storms, endless fields of anomalous sunflowers . . . and a long history of women mysteriously disappearing without a trace. The story follows the lives of four unique girls (two are twins) who've all lost their mothers to a mysterious phenomenon.
Bo, Whitney, Jude and Delilah lived together with their mothers on the outskirts of town until the day their mothers vanished. Now, two years later, the girls gather to honor their mothers' memories at a memorial when disaster strikes. Long buried secrets blowing on the wind escape leaving the girls questioning everything they thought they knew about this creepy, supernatural town with sunflower fields that appear to be threatening. It's soon apparent that each girl has her own buried demons and secrets that threaten to destroy them all. However, it's what the girls don't know that has the most power over them.
Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural horror story that gives off vibes of The Handmaid's Tales as well as Children of the Corn. Readers are immediately drawn in by the super creepy prologue and then thrust full force forward into an unearthly tale of corruption, murder and patriarchy. The author's expertise at creating an immersive setting through her descriptive prose is nothing short of brilliant. The town's buildings and surrounding land and plants take on a menacing, blood thirsty life of their own. I swear the hair on my neck stood up as I raced through some of the scenes, losing myself in this strange little town alongside the characters. The imagery evoked transports readers to a mysterious, magical place where all is not as it seems. The characters are well fleshed out and authentic. I found the girls' relationship with each other to be a strength that garnishes empathy for their collective struggles as they investigate the murders of their mothers. Readers are privy to their dark secrets even as each one is forced to face some terrifying truths.
Where Darkness Blooms is a dark, twisted, eerie paranormal thriller that fans of the genre will devour. Hannah's control of setting, plot and characters is highly impressive as is her descriptive prose. I have to say that I'll be keeping a wary eye on my own garden of sunflowers this summer. While their heads may follow the sun, I'm now aware they're also watching me! Highly recommended to fans of young adult fantasy and horror.
Synopsis:
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.
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.
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