Item: Where Darkness Blooms
Rating: 3.50
Author: quirkycat

by Andrea Hannah

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.

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.

Book Summary:

We've all heard of a strange town. It's often isolated. More importantly, the rumor mill often has much to say about this town's strange happenings.

One such town is known as Bishop. It's always been (in)famous for windstorms and sunflowers. And now it is famous for missing people. Add it to the list of strange occurrences and move on. That's what the police are doing.

My Review:

Gotta love a spooky, isolated town where things always seem to go wrong. At first, I wanted to read this book because the description made it feel like it had Children of the Corn vibes. However, Where Darkness Blooms very much does its own thing here.

There is undoubtedly a dark undertone that runs through this story. Obviously, with missing women as the premise, I was expecting that. But I don't think I was quite prepared for the rabbit hole that is Bishop. Seriously, you almost have to read it yourself to see what I mean.

It did feel like the ending went on forever. As a digital reader, I had to keep checking the percentage because I was sure the big final twist was just around the corner on at least four different occasions.

Read Where Darkness Blooms if you like creepy vibes, plant aesthetics (gone wrong), and a good thriller.

Highlights:
Fantasy
Mystery/Thriller
LGBT/Lesbian
Horror Elements

Trigger Warnings
Missing People (women)
Cultish Vibes

Thanks to Wednesday Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Where Darkness Blooms

by Andrea Hannah

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Jul 3, 2023

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