A Flicker in the DarK, by Stacy Willingham

A Flicker in the DarK, by Stacy Willingham ★ ★ ★.5 Worth reading

11/30/2022

A thorough book review of a New York Times Best Seller!

A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacy Willingham
★ ★ ★.5 Worth reading
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“A Flicker in the Dark” is about Chole Davis, a young girl who is living an idyllic life in Louisiana with her family the summer she turns twelve. However, the lively close-knit community is shaken to its core when one by one, teenage girls begin to disappear without explanation. Chloe’s biggest fear is that she’ll be the next to fall victim to this mysterious villain. That is until she discovers that the cause of all her fears is, in fact, living in her very own house. Chloe’s father is accused, convicted, and hauled away to jail, never to be heard from again.
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Now, it’s nearly 20 years later and Chloe is a therapist, barely able to cope with her own past, but still striving to help others. With a wedding in the works, Chloe is seemingly happier than ever until more girls begin to mysteriously go missing. Chloe is somehow at the center of the disappearances and is determined to finally get to the bottom of what happened that awful summer all those years ago. Taking matters into her own hands, and with the help of an off-beat reporter, Chloe begins her own investigation.
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The beginning of this is a little slow. I really just wanted to know what happened with Chloe’s father and the first girls that went missing, but it was very drawn out. I understand that the author probably wanted to create more suspense with this, but I felt there was enough of that in the second half with some decent twists and unexpected turns. The timelines bounced back and forth between the present and 20 years earlier, which usually works for me, but it really just made me feel disconnected from the main character. That, paired with the fact that she’s an unreliable narrator threw me off from the beginning. I also felt her actions were a little far-fetched at times.
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What worked? The pacing really picked up about halfway through. I appreciated the twists and I eventually did get caught up in the suspense of it all. There was no chance of not finishing it. I absolutely had to know what happened.
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What didn’t work? The main character, a woman dealing with trauma, is made unreliable because of her habit of self-medicating — a trope that is really starting to feel overdone and is overall a little surface-level.
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For some reason, I just felt underwhelmed by this one. I read such amazing reviews and was expecting more. However, I blew through the second half and found it decently entertaining. I’m rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars, and worth reading!
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They can’t afford to think in the past because the past doesn’t matter anymore—it’s a distraction. A waste of time. They can’t afford to think in the future because the future is too terrifying, too painful—if they let their minds wander there, they may never return.”
― Stacy Willingham

Also by Stacy Willingham:

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One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.

Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust... including herself.