All the Colors of the Dark

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Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that “hits like a sledgehammer . . . an absolutely must-read novel” (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl).

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope.

Synopsis source: Goodreads

Review

Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery
HB&W Rating: 4.5 stars
View on Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon

“Best education you can get,” he said. “See through someone else’s eyes and you understand more of everything.”

Wow. There are so many topics and themes covered in this book, some pretty dark ones included. However, with the eloquence we have come to expect from Whitaker and the nuance that he brings to his characters, this story is a powerful example of human resilience.

This book is a love story, but not in the way you would initially think. There is romantic love, but moreover, there’s the love of a friend and of those we call family, blood-related or not. This is a story of unconditional love and the loyalty it inspires. It’s about trauma and how the same traumatic event can affect different parties to it in very different ways. It’s about guilt and how we try to assuage it. It’s about faith and hope, morality and justice, motherhood and choice. It’s about obsession at the cost of everything, how when you spend too long looking at the past, you miss what’s in the present.

With short but compelling chapters, Whitaker created a slow-burn mystery that builds to each new reveal as it ultimately builds to the final resolution. I did find it to be a little long, and the confrontation felt a little anti-climactic to me, but the slower pacing is definitely Whitaker’s style, and the neatly wrapped ending didn’t drag out what was already a long story, which I appreciated.

I really liked how pervasively the theme of “light in the darkness” was carried through throughout the book, not just within the story itself but also in the moments of levity parceled out through the story breaking up the darker moments and themes. I think this is something that was done really well in the audiobook narration that might get lost some on the written page.

While readers may be sensitive to some of the darker themes of domestic abuse, sexual assault, references to abortion and the death penalty, and violence to name a few, this is a book that deserves to be read, shared and talked about.

Until next time,

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