I’m still trying to process what I just read and what my feelings are towards this book. <i>Where Darkness Blooms</i> has been on my to-be-read shelf for quite a while now. Ever since I saw the beautiful cover of the decaying plants growing out of the girl’s body, I knew that I had to read this book. Here we are, almost a year later, and well. . .

I just don’t know.

I certainly liked it, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t know if it amazed me, or wowed me. Honestly, I found it to be quite short and wished it could have been longer.

Our story follows four different points of view with four girls. At the young ages of seventeen and eighteen, these girls live together with no parental guidance. What happened to their parents? Well, I honestly cannot remember if their fathers are even mentioned. As for their mothers, they all disappeared on the very same night. Which isn’t uncommon for the town of Bishop.

People go missing all the time. More importantly, women go missing. One of these young women happened to be the girlfriend of one of our heroines, and as you can imagine, she is still suffering from the losses.

Haunted by the recurring disappearances, and the constant storm, the town has decided to honor the girls’ mothers by hosting a memorial. They have constructed statues displaying their “remarkable talents”. One of the girls, Whitney, gets fed up and takes a stand to speak against the town. She is still upset that no one has tried to look for her girlfriend, Eleanor. But just as Whitney brings up Eleanor’s loss, the storm picks up and sends the statues crumbling to the ground, injuring Whitney in the process.

In the rubble, another one of the girls (Bo) finds something mysterious that raises a lot of questions. What secrets is the town hiding? What is the mayor and his sons hiding? Why did their mothers suddenly go missing? What happened to Eleanor?

I feel like this might have been a fantasy spin on the MMIW (Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women) movement and there was a split moment when something similar is mentioned. But alas, it is never actually said and I’m really bad when it comes to implication. I honestly don’t even know if the characters or author are of Indigenous descent.

The “monster” at the end is never revealed or even explained what it is, so that was another thing that I wished had taken more time to explore. Also the “magic” between the men and women is never really explained either. There was just a lot that was left unsaid and it ended really fast.

<b>SPOILERS</b>

Before you leave and go about your day, I just need to rant about something really quick. Spoilers have already been warned so if you no likey, then you are excused. Have a good day!



So I think what really hit the final nail for me was the reveal of the girls’ mothers. We learn that they are still alive, or at least somewhat. Honestly, I think it would have been better if not all of them were alive. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just used to the tragedy trope in horror, but it just seemed so <i>mehhh</i> that they all hadn’t died. (Not me still wondering where the dads are.)

By the very end of the book, once our four protagonists are finally able to leave the town, they just so happen to come across this shop where the owner just so happens to give a description of their mother’s. Turns out that all three of them were just shacking it up together while their daughters suffered the possibility of being murdered/sacrificed.

And for whatever reason, they couldn’t come back to Bishop. Sounds fake, but okay.

I’m sorry, but if I knew that my kids weren’t safe, I would not just up and leave them in the middle of the night. And even if that were the case, I would be finding a way back to them. What? They couldn’t give the girls a call and be like, “Yo, the mayor is murdering and sacrificing people to the land, get outta there”? Hmmm.

And the girls just <i>forgive</i> their mothers. Couldn’t be me. Nope. I would be holding a grudge so hard like, wow guess I know where I stand. Sure got your priorities straight there, huh mama?

I don’t know. I just didn’t believe it.



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• 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 •

✰ 3 ✰ Average read. The story/characters were nice, but I’ll most likely forget about it in a month.
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