Reviews with content warning for Murder - Daisy Darker

I am confused as fuck by this book. I don't even know how to review it without giving away huge spoilers so I'm sorry but this is going to be blacked out for majority of it.

The characters, besides Daisy, Nana and Poppins, were all horrible people. Usually in these sorts of stories, at least someone in the family besides the main character is redeemable but there is literally no one redeemable to me in this story and that's kind of the point. Reading about how Daisy's sisters and her own mother and father would treat her and make her feel less than constantly without consequence made my heart physically ache for her. She was so young and already so broken and she didn't deserve any of that, I'm just lucky she at least had her Nana.

The entire supernatural aspect took me by surprise but also confused the fuck out of me. Also, the ending did not really make a lot of sense... but I think that's also to do with the fact that the entire supernatural element didn't jive for me. It made sense, the way Feeney wrote Daisy's POV and how as a reader you weren't sure if people were responding to her or not. Some dialogue seemed like they were talking along with Daisy, but then you'd think back, and you'd realize omg no they were just talking to one another. There were a few times, I think it was Conor and Rose, who both spoke to Daisy as if she was there... Conor said he was sorry that she had to see all of this happening to her family, and then Rose asked Daisy if she was the one doing this. Those two encounters didn't make sense, considering no one could see Daisy and she had been dead for many years at that point. Why would Conor say 'I'm sorry you have to see this?' if Daisy is dead... For Rose, I guess it could've been her talking to herself and questioning if the ghost of Daisy was murdering people, but that just seems so... weird? I don't know, other than those two encounters, the rest of it flowed really well and it was definitely such a mind fuck for me to realize that no one actually spoke directly to Daisy. AND how she kept saying 'my family stopped speaking to me that day'... BECAUSE SHE WAS DEAD! I did enjoy that bit.

The whole Nana and Trixie killing everyone together was a bit out of left field. I was totally expecting Conor's dad or the agent, thinking maybe the agent was a secret child of nana's (at one point, Daisy describes that they have similar eye colors and smiles, but I guess that was to throw the reader off the scent). I did not think it would be Trixie and nana together, and that was just... a lot. Trixie is a 15 year old girl, why would she agree to murder her entire family? Also, why when nana died, did she not stay with Daisy? Why did none of them stay with her? If her soul is trapped in Seaglass, I can only imagine that so would Nana's and since the other people died there, wouldn't they also be trapped there? So why weren't all their souls just hanging out? Also, why was Rose the only one who saw Daisy right before they died? Because Daisy was in a different room? If Daisy's job in the afterlife is to usher souls into the afterlife (i.e., her job at the 'old folk's home') why did she not sense that the other family members were dead and go and usher them?? Is it only specific people? That part honestly seemed like lazy writing to me since it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Why did Daisy have an entire dialogue about making her way to Seaglass when Trixie and nana make it clear at the end that she's never left. I get that Daisy is in some sort of purgatory, while the others have potentially moved onto hell most likely, but why did she act as if she left the house and Nana greeted her at the door? I don't know, just some things are unexplainable and I don't know if Feeney did a good enough job attempting to explain them. She left a lot of the supernatural questions unanswered... like how did Daisy manage to write a book and play Scrabble? It is just so... bizarre.

The whole Trixie being able to speak and play scrabble with Daisy is honestly terrifying. Imagine you see your daughter playing Scrabble and the other pieces are moving but no one else is there? Horrifying.

If you like American Horror Story: Murder House then go read this book! I didn't even put the correlation together until my fiancé mentioned that the premise was the same as that show.

One of my favorite things in stories is when you finish the book and realize you're reading the book that the person in the story had wrote. We were reading Daisy's book the entire time! The only hint is the note before the book, presumedly from Nana's agent who published the real Daisy Darker's story, but you're waiting the entire time for Nana's new book to make an appearance when it's actually Daisy's book all along! I really liked that aspect.

Since I can't say much without giving away the entire story, it was a solid 3 star for me. Too many things were unexplainable and confusing so that is keeping it from being a 4-5 star, plus it was draggy and slow up until the last 70%ish percent, at least imo. The videotapes didn't gel for me with the rest of the story, and after reading some of the flashbacks, it felt like I was reading different books. Some of the flashbacks didn't matter at all, giving nothing in terms of plot or anything to the story, and it was just a slog to get through sometimes. But overall, a solid, fun, edge of your seat, page turner thriller!

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the_pink_pharmacist's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was a good one, I didn’t figure it out until the end when it was all placed before me. 🤣🤷🏼‍♀️ It wasn’t cheesy or silly to me at all. I really enjoyed the writing, the candor, the story.

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

You know as I was reading I knew this wasn't going to be my favorite thriller, but Alice Feeny was the 1st ever thriller author I've ever read so I decided to give her another go after all this time considering I've been craving a thriller. Now the first 60 pages or so are very slow, almost reaching dnf territory but I decided to trust the process and it definitely did get more interesting after that. Lots of red herrings and misdirects. There were some dull parts, but I was enjoying my time overall until 90%-ish when we found out the "big twist". I already guessed who the murderer was, but the twist had me subconsciously rolling my eyes. Like c'mon.

I will say this till I'm blue in the face, but I can't stand when thriller authors make a non-supernatural story supernatural just for shock value. It will always feel like a cop-out to me. I did like the reason behind why Trixie and Nana murdered the family though. It was sweet, macabre, but sweet.

This book was approaching a solid four stars until the twist, but it was an okay book overall. Oh also, something that irked me was how deliberately poetic the author was trying to make this book. Like it felt like every paragraph was filled with some nonsensical metaphor.

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mariahw00ds's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

First Alice Feeney novel and I read it in 1.5 days. I really enjoyed her storytelling and the family dynamics. The twist was quite shocking and left me wanting more from Alice!

While I appreciate the nod to And Then There Were None, it felt heavy handed given the obvious parallels to Christie's 1939 novel. Given the original title of the book; I think Feeney could have left it out. 4.75/5 which would have been a 5 without reference to the racist book.

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