Review: Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided both the print and audio arc via Netgalley, as always all opinions are my own.  Thank you to OrangeSky Audio and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for providing me the opportunity to read this early.  I spent most of my time listening to the audiobook, though I feel either choice would work well for this story.  

Check the trigger warnings before reading this one, as there are some heavy topics in this book.  There is a trigger warning page in the book, the following are mentioned as well as some I've added:  underage drinking, physical violence, death (some gore), sexual assault, and teen sex.

I felt that the multiple narrators in the audio worked really well here.  Rachanee Lumayo, Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Emily Ellet, Lindsey Dorcus did a great job with the narration.  I really appreciate when there are multiple POVs that there is more of a full cast narration so I can tell each of the characters apart.  I thought they all did a good job bringing the girls to life in this YA horror novel.

This follows 4 teen girls trying to survive after the disappearance of their mothers.  They live in the creepy town of Bishop that is surrounded by sunflowers and has constant windstorms, oh and women seem to disappear or drop dead without much concern.  Each of the girls is coping with the loss of her mother in a different way, but they each have secrets surrounding the night their mothers went missing.  When the town decides to honor the missing women with statues, the girls are prompted to look more closely into the history of the town the trail of missing women that the town has left in its wake.  I don't want to say too much about the plot and spoil it.

I really enjoyed this.  This is like if Children of the Corn met The Handmaid's Tale and mixed together into one horror novel.  I would say it is meant for a more mature YA audience given some of the content and themes.  I've read several books this last week about female empowerment and this is the one that sticks out to me the most.  Hannah did a good job making the town of Bishop have the creepy and atmospheric vibe that you need to drive a horror novel.  I'm not sure I can look at sunflowers the same way ever again.  Each of the girls is on her own journey of self discovery to break free from the terrible things that happen in the town and break the cycle going forward.  

If you are looking for an interesting YA horror book to pick up this spring I recommend this one!

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