Book Review: The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

Pages: 336
Publish date: April 19 2016
Publisher: Delacorte: Random House Children’s
ISBN: 0553521454
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

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.

The Darkest Corners:

I received an e-arc of The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas from Random House Children’s via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

The Darkest Corners is probably one of my favourite YA psychological thrillers. This book will mess with your mind and you will have no idea what is coming next. There are twists and there are turns.

The Darkest Corners follows protagonist Tessa as she returns to a place that she was not keen on returning to. She left Fayette with she was nine when a travesty rocked her world, she tried not to think about the things that happened before she left – she tried to lock them away, but when she returns everything starts to crumble.

Then we have Callie, she is the one that stayed, but she was never the same again. She parties every weekend to hide from the memories that were burned into her mind and hasn’t talked to Tessa since she left. So when she returns, everything comes back to haunt her.

I really enjoyed Tessa, she was such an intriguing protagonist. She has gone through so much up until now and through the novel she has to go through more. My heart broke for her so many times.

Callie, annoyed me at times, but I understand why she was the way she was. Like Tessa she has gone through hell and her mechanism of dealing with it was different to Tessa’s.

We see throughout The Darkest Corners that their friendship is quite strained. They haven’t talked to each other in forever and when events are brought back into the light that happened the summer before Tessa left – you know there is going to be trouble.

I really enjoyed the writing style of Kara Thomas in The Darkest Corners. It was quite easy to read, but the way that she can flip the plot on its head was brilliant.

I liked that The Darkest Corners had little to no romance. I usually find it quite hard to read a book without romance, however the book was that engaging that it didn’t need it for me.

The book had me on the edge of my seat. I didn’t know who to believe, what to believe or what was going to happen next. There were some things that I did guess, but that had nothing to do with the main plot. The book kept me thinking and I could not put it down, until I knew what had happened.

Nevertheless, we see questions that Tessa has been asking herself for years come into light. About Callie’s dead cousin, to what really happened that night.

Overall, The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas is a mind-blowing, heartbreaking, intense thriller, which questions; truth, friendship and if someone can manipulate what they thought had happened. It shows us that family is not always family, not matter what you believe. If you like any book that will mess with your mind and ask you to question everyone, then this is the book for you.

Have you read The Darkest Corners? Did you like it? Are you going to read it? Let’s Chat.

Inah @ The Bibliophile Confessions

· Reply

January 3, 2017 at 12:21 AM

I saw that you enjoyed this book on your 2016 End of the Year Survey so I decided to read your thoughts about it and this is a lovely review! I also loved this book and I bet you’ll love Kara Thomas’s upcoming one, Little Monsters! I’ve had the pleasure to read it last November and I really really enjoyed it! It’s crazier than The Darkest Corners hahaha!