I'm really happy to be a part of this blog tour :D Thank you Anna for asking me to take part in it. <3 And for sending me that gorgeous ARC package. It was so amazing. Sadly, I didn't love this book, but I do think others will like it a whole lot. It also looks so pretty. Sigh. You should all read The Darkest Corners :) So curious to see what you all think of it. I'm also having an US only giveaway for a finished copy, given by the publisher. You should all enter that :D For my post I'm sharing my full review of the book. You should all check out the gorgeous website,
TheDarkestCornersBook.com :) This book is so pretty.
I'm so unsure about how to write my review for this book. I read it on February 28th. And I was so excited. It meant the most to me to get it from Anna at Random House Children's Books for review. It also came with some amazing extra evidence papers, which was so cool. I wanted to love this book so much. I thought I would, since it sounded so interesting and creepy. Sadly, it wasn't any of that. Not really. And I was so disappointed. Sigh. I shall try to share all of my thoughts about why I didn't like it.
I tried so hard to like this book. But I must admit that I knew from the beginning that it wasn't really a book for me. I love mystery things. And reading about how people deal when there is a killer. I love when there is a main character who was a part of something bad when she was younger. Sadly, this book did nothing for me. The writing wasn't all that good, but I tried to ignore that. But then there was the story. And how nothing happened. At all. There was three hundred pages of just about nothing. Disappointing.
This is the story of eighteen year old Tessa. I must also say that I was so confused about the timing of this book, as it says different years for everything all the time. Ugh. It bothered me. And then it was hard to remember characters. Considering there is a Nick, Rick and Ryan in this one. Ugh. But anyway. Tessa. I did not like her one bit. She's supposed to be shy and quiet. And never asks for anything. Or eat much. Or even shower while at others. Ugh. I did not think she sounded very real at all, which sucked.
I tried so hard to like the characters in this book. But I just couldn't. Tessa came back to her old home town, where she had lived for.. ten years, probably. Who knows. So many different versions of it in the book. She came back because her dad, in prison, was about to die. And then he died without her getting to see him. Sigh. It was a bit annoying. But anyway. She stays at her old best friend's place. I did not like Callie either. One character that I did like was Callie's mom, Maggie. She was kind and sweet. Loved her.
But sigh. Callie. I could not deal with this girl. First, she ignored Tessa for eight, probably, years. It annoyed me. Then she acts a bit mean in the beginning, when Tessa arrives. She changed fast, though. And she is also a drinker. She drinks so much. And do some drugs, it seemed like. Either way, I did not like her much at all. She was a bit kind at times, but mostly she was just boring. And also, I didn't like Tessa. How she kept thinking about other people. Nothing too much, but so much bothered me. Sigh.
But anyway. Back to the plot. I'm not sure how to even describe it. There is a serial killer. Tessa and Callie put him in jail all those years ago, after their babysitter was killed. Except now they think it wasn't him after all. That they lied to put him away. Because another girl is dead, in the same way as those few other ones. Sounds like a good story, yeah? It was not. It was so, so boring. Tessa did a little bit of research and she didn't tell anyone. It bothered me so much. She just.. wasn't a smart person.
For most of this book nothing happened. Which was boring. It took me a long time to finish it, as it wasn't a fast read at all. Oh, how I wished I had loved it. But it was impossible for me. Because it was so boring. I wanted more murders. But there was only that one, which Tessa didn't really care about. So I felt nothing for this mystery. No personal connection. Which sucked. I wanted more dead people. I want more excitement. More horrible moments. There were none of those. I was disappointed. In a bad way.
I'm unsure what else to say about this one. There is no romance. Which was also disappointing. There is one boy that Tessa talks to for a few moments. I have no idea at all what he looks like. None. And so, no romance at all. I think it would have made the book better. Sigh. There were some interesting things, though. Like Tessa's family. Some were weird. But it was a better mystery. And I liked getting to know it all. But then the ending. Interesting in last forty pages. But it was so rushed. Again, I'm disappointed.
The Darkest Corners looks like such a pretty book. And my ARC is so precious to me. And I do think that others will end up loving this book a lot. But sadly, that was not me. I'm a bit upset that I didn't like it more, but then, it was just not for me. The writing bothered me. But especially the pacing. I just. I felt like it could have been so much better. Again, thank you so much Anna at Random House Children's Books for letting me read and review this book early. Means the most. I'm sorry it wasn't more for me.
Preview Review of The Darkest Corners
The Darkest Corners is a psychological thriller about the lies little girls tell, and the deadly truths those lies become.
There are ghosts around every corner in Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa
left when she was nine and has been trying ever since not to think about
it after what happened there that last summer. Memories of things so
dark will burn themselves into your mind if you let them.
Callie never left. She moved to another house, so she doesn’t have to walk those same halls, but then Callie always was
the stronger one. She can handle staring into the faces of her
demons—and if she parties hard enough, maybe one day they’ll disappear
for good.
Tessa and Callie have never talked about what they saw
that night. After the trial, Callie drifted and Tessa moved, and
childhood friends just have a way of losing touch.
But ever since
she left, Tessa has had questions. Things have never quite added up.
And now she has to go back to Fayette—to Wyatt Stokes, sitting on death
row; to Lori Cawley, Callie’s dead cousin; and to the one other person
who may be hiding the truth.
Only the closer Tessa gets to the truth, the closer she gets to a killer—and this time, it won’t be so easy to run away.
Buy The Darkest Corners: Amazon - B&N - The Book Depository - Indiebound
Kara is the author of THE DARKEST CORNERS, coming from Penguin Random House/Delacorte Press in Spring 2016. She also wrote the Prep School Confidential series (St. Martin’s Press) and the pilot The Revengers for
the CW under the pen name Kara Taylor. She’s represented by Suzie
Townsend of New Leaf Literary & Media for books and United Talent
Agency and Brillstein Entertainment Partners for film. You can find her
on Twitter, Instagram, or on the couch with her rescue cat, Felix.
Where to find Kara Thomas:
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