Daisy Darker

It started out slow. But it picked up around chapter 8. And the twist at the end was unreal!

My FAVORITE book by this author

The people who love us the most hurt us the hardest because they can. A locked room mystery in the style of Agatha Christie. While gathered on an island for the 80th birthday of the Darker matriarch, who is a celebrated author of children's books, the family is stranded at high tide. As they wait for low tide in order to safely leave the island, members begin to die, one by one. I'm a sucker for a book about books, so I loved the parts that paid homage to the virtues of reading. ...If I do know more than most, it's because I read. Books will teach you anything you want to know. And they tend to be more hontest than people. I wasn't a fan of any of the characters, but the eerie children's rhymes kept me engaged and curious to see where the mystery was going. I very much appreciate Feeney's knack for building a spooky atmosphere with just enough darkness and creep factor to get under your skin.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. Yes, it's a locked room mystery type story where a group of people are trapped somewhere and they start dying one by one. Like some others stories with that premise, the people are mostly bad and hard to sympathize with, which makes their deaths seem less tragic. In this case, we also get loads of backstory from Daisy's perspective that seems to want to round out the characters of the family members and give them a little more depth, but ultimately still remind you that they are terrible people. I kind of want to re-read the story after the big reveal at the end, because it frames things in a very different light, but I didn't like the book enough to go through it twice. If you are looking for a thriller, this might be a little too slow paced for you. If you are looking for a spooky Halloween read (the main plot is set at Halloween), this may be too focused on family drama for you. The dysfunctional family and episodes from their past are really the focus. I listened on audiobook and I think the narrator made it a lot more enjoyable than I would have found it otherwise.

Dark, twisty. I expected the plot twist but still enjoyed it. Bit slower