Dark Flowers

By Caytlyn Brooke

Life at St. Agatha's School for Girls is anything but a fairy tale. With ratty blankets and a torturous device called the box, it's not hard to understand Eliza's desperation to escape. When the timing is right, Eliza manages to run away with her best friend Millie, heading through the Louisiana swamps to the town on the other side. But the swamps may be even more dangerous than the orphanage.

Silver and black fairies invite the girls to experience a world where they can have it all, but Eliza doesn't trust the sparkling beauty. And when Millie suddenly becomes violent and attacks another girl, Eliza knows something awful is about to happen. She will do anything to protect Millie but once Eliza remembers her own terrible secret, it is impossible to forget.

The fairies' songs are calling to Eliza, and it’s getting harder and harder to pretend it's all in her head.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BHC Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781948540698

Reviews for Dark Flowers

[lvmygrdn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is not what I thought it would be. Very dark. Good book. I recommend it.Ree

[sumisbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a dark little read...This book is very dark yes, and I wouldn't necessarily aim it as a children's book (YA). I think the target audience is a little young for some of the things that are discussed as well as presented in this book. But this book is definitely binge-worthy and is a creepy little read for anyone looking for such things. It's well-written and well-thought-out. I do recommend it.

[mrbove · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I won an ARC through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. The book was not well-written and was a bit tedious. I was part-way through it and was trying to figure out whether to continue or not when a large section of the audiobook went missing. I assume that this was a simple, unintentional error, but it says quite a bit that, instead of contacting the publisher for a corrected version or trying to muddle through without the missing section, I simply abandoned the book without finishing it. I gave it two stars rather than one (my standard rating for a text that I could not get myself to complete) solely because I am not certain I would have stopped had the book been whole.

[shelby_kuzma · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5*This audiobook was sent to me by BHC Press in exchange for my honest review.*Eliza and Millie are both orphans living at St. Agatha’s Home for Girls, which is a less than ideal situation. When they grow tired of the cruel punishments at St. Agatha’s, they attempt to run away into the woods only to run into a group of evil fairies and are forced to return. Following their encounter with the fairies, Millie begins to act strangely and when she becomes violent, Eliza attempts to save her friend from herself.This novel went in directions I didn’t expect and always kept me guessing. I am not entirely sure what time period this book is set in- some parts made me think it was somewhat historical, but then there were references to newer models of cars and Tic Tacs that made me question that assumption. Overall, I thought this was a decent story, particularly if you like fairy stories and magical realism (which I do). I actually wish the fairies played a bigger role in the story! While at times the book felt a bit repetitive, this rarely impeded my enjoyment.Unfortunately, I do not think that this book is best consumed in the audio format. The narrator had a pretty blank and monotone voice, and while this is ideal for some parts of the narrative, it took me out of the story in the more “action-y” scenes. I think this book is worth a read- however, I would not choose the audio edition.

[pantsu-896157 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received this audiobook as part of the Early Reviewer program, as a direct download from the publisher. As others have stated, most of chapter 5 was missing, and there were many errors in the recording (repeated sentences, mispronounced words, etc.).As for the actual content of the book, this is most definitely NOT a YA/teen book....middle grade at most. It was trying to be a bunch of different tropes tied up into one (orphanage escape, repressed memories, etc), which made for a choppy and less than engaging story. I also wish the author had used 'said' more often, as hearing people hiss, growl, smirk, laugh, and whisper every time they talked got really old after about 2 chapters. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had read this instead of listening to it, but it definitely bugged me. Like others have mentioned, I also had trouble figuring out when this book took place....I had guessed Depression-era until we got signs of technology later on in the hospital/asylum.I enjoyed some of the psychological horror parts, and the scenes in the asylum were suitably depressing. However the ending felt cut short and REALLY unsatisfying to me. (as a side note, I also dislike the "kids are right and adults are always wrong about everything" trope that got used heavily in the 2nd half of the book)More like 1.5 out of 5 stars

[kmascera · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was given an audio copy of Dark Flowers by Caytlyn Brooke in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Since the copy that I received was an audiobook, I will comment on both the narration and the story.***Spoilers***Story – I had a problem with the incongruencies of this story. The story is told from the point of view of a young girl and most of her interactions are with other young girls. Keeping that in mind, either the demographic of the story is out of place or the content is. As a mother of two young girl who I let read above their age level, I would NEVER let someone within the age group of these characters read this book. It is too scary and gory. The basic plot line is that of an orphan who was essentially adopted by the fairies and used to lore other innocent children to the fairies as sacrifices. I liked that the protagonist had no memory of her involvement with the fairies, but once again I really felt it needed to have a more mature target audience and older protagonist or cleaned up to make it appropriate for the protagonist’s age group. Another issue I had with the target reader age was the exposure to antidepressants and antipsychotics. A girl Eliza’s age doesn’t need exposure to such things. While the medications were pertinent to the story, this is another example of where increasing the age of the character and the age of the target audience would have helped. Over all, I was disappointed by such heavy content being portrayed by such a childish and light tone.Narration – The quality of the recording I received was awful. The narrator read way to fast and the recording quality was too poor to change the listening speed. Also, the file that I was sent had an incomplete file for chapter 5. The copy I received had only 2 min and 30 sec of audio. This caused me to completely miss Millie’s attack on the other orphan girl and the successive police involvement. I did notify the publisher of the missing chapter and never received a response.

[avanders_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review based on **Audio** ARC (Advanced Review Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review).I think this could have been a great book, but the various issues left it at good for me. It is touted as Young Adult Horror, and I think perhaps, if I had been reading it myself or if the narrator had been better, it might have pulled that off. Unfortunately, although the actions were horrific at times (very dark things happen), the tone of the book as read was very light and almost instructional. I felt like a Sunday School Church teacher had been trying to teach a lesson to fifth graders rather than someone reading a horror novel to me. It was quite disconcerting, particularly in the context of the book at times. When someone is committing an act of horror, but it's being talked about as if you were being offered "coffee and bars," it's jarring.There were also issues with the recording -- it skipped at times, repeated little snippets at times, and, as others have already mentioned, omitted an entire portion of the book in the middle. Frustrating. On top of that, the reader mispronounced a variety of words -- the one that stuck out the most was pronouncing "bared" (as in, "bared teeth") as if it were barred. Oops. That definitely also threw me. In addition, because of the format it was sent in, it kept restarting the chapter (and sometimes the whole book), so I had to keep track of where I was at all times in terms of chapter & minutes/seconds in order to not have as much interruption. But the story was good. Although there were elements that felt "debut" and amateur, mostly, I think it was a well-thought-out teen horror. The creep-factor is strong, there is definitely gore and psychotic or sociopathic behavior, and supernatural elements. At times it felt a little undirected (for example, some things that I felt would go somewhere ended up not really being relevant to the story), but I nevertheless really wanted to know what happened next, and how it all resolved. For me, there weren't really any great surprises, but I thought it could have been a great, quick read. I would read something else by this author. Unfortunately, however, I would try to avoid listening to this reader again.overall, THREE of five stars.

[kwadyko · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this audiobook via LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. This book's summary is more thrilling than the actual book, not to mention that the book is being pushed as a YA "horror," but is actually a middle grade fantasy. I struggled to get into this book...I couldn't figure out when the book was taking place, at first I thought it may have been the turn of the century (1800/1900s), but there was mention of modern tech and medical reference, so that threw me off. Additionally, there was one whole chapter that was cut short - read **missing,** so I missed a chunk of the plot which basically pushed me further into being checked out of the book. The narrator was also a bit bland, no real distinction between characters voices.This book definitely has potential, the premise is awesome, and the brief dip in the "realm" definitely kept me hoping for more on that end. I wish the author all the best in her writing endeavors...she, too, has great potential!

[ella_wold · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think this book is really good. The plot isn't repetitive, and the characters have been built in a nice, easy to understand way. Unfortunately, the copy I received through the early reviewers program is missing the majority of chapter 5.

[hredwards · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received a code to download the audio version of this from Librarything Early Reviewers. This was an ok story a little too dark for my tastes. I can't believe this is considered a young adult novel. As for the production side there were sections of the story missing as well as sentences repeated over in several places. the reader did an ok job, but it was all pretty pedestrian and i felt like the story could have been fleshed out more it might have been more interesting.