Daisy Darker’s little secret is why thrillers bore me
If you follow me over on my Instagram, you would have seen that I had asked the question to my followers “Is Daisy Darker worth finishing?” I was fifty pages into the book and felt that my interest was already slipping. The reviews on Goodreads seemed to be split 50/50 on this book when I was curious what others had thought. In the end I decided to put the audio book version on in the background, and listened to it while doing house chores and running errants with Lev.
The synopsis of the book:
After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.
The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows . . .
Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.
Had I taken the time to read that before I started the book I may not have picked it up at all. I would have known this was a murder mystery, and put the book right back down on the shelf at my local library. If you’re part of the Ghouls Who Read Book Club, you’ll already know my opinion of murder mysteries, but on the chance you’re new here they don’t cut it for me.
Now that you know I don’t particular enjoy thriller/mysteries let me explain more and how that related to this book.
I am a hyper analytical person, so I pick up on details that may not have been noticed by a casual reader FAST.
These genres very rarely deviate from cliches, they follow a pattern
Because of my pattern seeking and puzzle solving mind I predict the plot twist and entire plot in the first quarter of the book
This is what happened while reading Daisy Darker. While Lev and I were driving through the back roads of Vermont. My phone service died, and while waiting for the audio book to pick back up we disgust what we thought would happen. I nailed ever point almost to a T. This being said this is what I would consider a “user problem” not a problem with the literature itself.
It is a very slow paced story, which initially made me question if I should actually finish the book. Lev constantly makes fun of me for being a completionist, which led me to actually finishing the book. (It take a lot for me to DNF a book. I’ll hate read something with no shame)
However, the slow moving plot does build the atmosphere well. You understand how dysfunctional the family has become over time, through a series of flash backs and home video VHS tapes. You feel trapped in the house along with the characters while the wait out the storm, watching the family unravel more and more waiting for the tide to go out so that they can cross the causeway to the mainland.
I continuously found myself loosing interest in Daisy, our main character. I even forgot she was the main character and not a third party narrator at a few points. Looking back on this note, I wonder if this was a point that was supposed to be picked up….
The overall plot felt like someone had created a fanfic backstory a game of Clue. It was predictable and followed a very basic pattern, just like Clue. I got bored of the toxicity of the family dynamics and found myself saying “finally” each time someone turned up dead.
I give its 2.5 out of 5 stars. It’s not enjoyable for me when I know what i going to happen, but I can see why other can enjoy this book. Thrillers are just not for me. If you have read Daisy Darker head over to my IG post and tell me what you thought about it! Or click through this link to grab a copy (this is an affiliate link in which I could make a little something back)
