The Darkest Corners is a YA True Crime Inspired Story
The Darkest Corners is a YA True Crime Inspired story. My review of Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas explains why I’d recommend this YA book to fans of Gillian Flynn.
Jen’s Quick Take on Darkest Corners
- A YA version of Gillian Flynn
- A teen main character I found depressive and mopey at times
- A solid true-crime inspired thriller
The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas
To be published on April 19, 2016 by Delacorte Books
The Darkest Corners is a YA True Crime Inspired Story
I recently needed a distracting book, and clicked on The Darkest Corners, thinking it was an adult thriller. It’s not. There’s something about the writing style that made me wonder, and it seems from others’ Goodreads shelves that this is, indeed, YA.
I’d call The Darkest Corners sort of Gillian Flynn-lite.
That’s not meant to be a dig – I thought The Darkest Corners was a solid YA thriller for fans of true crime. It had some similarities (besides the title) to Flynn’s Dark Places, with true crime themes and a main character revisiting her crappy, traumatic childhood. Though the writing in this lacked the sly, dark humor that I love in Flynn’s writing, it definitely would appeal to fans of Flynn.
For me, The Darkest Corners took a bit too long to get started. The first half to two-thirds of the book kind of meandered along, stuck in exploring the main character’s dysfunctional family and friendship relationships as she traveled to her childhood hometown to see her dying father, but then ended up entangled in the case of a convicted serial killer she helped put on death row after a childhood acquaintance was abducted and murdered.
I also thought there was way too much time spent on Tessa’s moping around about the fact that her friend Callie has moved on, about her missing sister and negligent mother. But I’m glad I kept reading, because the last quarter of this book or improved a lot and the resolution was much more surprising than I expected.
Besides wishing that the first three-quarters had been condensed a bit and more time spent on the meatier, more interesting (to me) part of the story at the end, I recommend this to fans of true crime stories.
I find suspense/thrillers tend to take a while for the story to be set up. I honestly can't remember too many books in this genre that spent the better half exploring facets of the story related to the plot. This is one of those only-if-I'm-in-the-mood type of reads.
Some of them do. I think it's tough to create suspense from the get-go and slowly build it. This book didn't quite succeed in my opinion, but I think this is an author to watch!
I must say suspense/thrillers are never a genre that I automatically reach for, I think I might give this one a try when I'm in the mood for a slow read because as you said the beginning is a bit slow. Lovely review 🙂
They're my favorite and I read a lot – so I have high expectations!
It's good you stuck with it then!
Karen @For What It's Worth
I know – I'm glad I did!
When you called it "Gillian Flynn-lite", I was sold.
czai @ the Blacksheep Project
Oh good – look forward to hearing your thoughts!
They only thriller I've read is Gone Girl, so this one sounds interesting. However, I've read many bad reviews about it, I'm so glad it wasn't the case with you!
Hmmm – I haven't checked out many reviews. I will have to go do that!
I just started this book and I agree with you on the slow start. After reading your review, I will keep working on getting through the first half of this book though to give it a fair chance!
Great – look forward to comparing notes!
I have this to review and I've been seeing that most think it's ok but not amazing. I do like true crime and thrillers so hopefully it's enjoyable. Great review Jen!
Thanks for being honest! I haven't read many thrillers for some of the reasons you noted above but I do want to try a few. Love meeting new book lovers. Hope we can connect more 🙂
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