All the Colors of the Dark: A Read with Jenna Pick
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4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the 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).
Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today
The Boston Globe’s #1 Thriller/Mystery of 2024 So Far
A Best Book of the Year: Washington Post, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews
“Kept me frantically turning the pages and somehow made me cry at the end . . . Brava!”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women
“Melds tense suspense with a powerful exploration of devotion, obsession, and love.”—People (Best New Books)
1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the smalltown 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This atmospheric read is like a thriller, a romance, and a coming-of-age story all at once. In a small Missouri town in the mid-’70s, teenage outcasts Saint, a beekeeping tomboy, and Patch, the one-eyed son of a single mother, are each other’s only friend. When Patch sees the most popular girl in school getting abducted, he fights the stranger off her, only to get held captive himself. Author Chris Whitaker (We Begin at the End) follows both Patch and Saint over 25 turbulent years after that fateful day. Practically each short, tight chapter ends on a cliffhanger, which makes it almost impossible to put down. This powerful novel lingered in our minds long after we stopped reading.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1975 Missouri, 13-year-old orphan Saint Brown and her scruffy, eye patch–wearing classmate, Patch Macauley, are drawing closer by the day when Patch's disappearance rips them apart—setting in motion this lyrical, decades-spanning outing from Whitaker (We Begin at the End), which is both a riveting serial killer thriller and a heartrending love story. Before tragedy, however, comes triumph: Patch strikes a man attempting to abduct local golden girl Misty Meyer—Patch's secret crush—with a rock from his slingshot, allowing Misty to escape. By the time police arrive, however, the only trace of Patch is his bloodied T-shirt. The colder the investigation becomes, the stronger Saint's resolve grows to find her friend, a task to which she applies both precocious deductive skills and ferocious tenacity—traits that will prove invaluable in her future with the FBI. Meanwhile, Patch withers away in an undisclosed location, growing obsessed with a young woman being held in captivity with him. When Saint and Patch finally do reunite, they're both irrevocably changed. With deeply affecting characters and ambition to spare, Whitaker has conjured a dazzling epic that defies easy categorization. It's astonishing.
Customer Reviews
See AllOne of the Best
The story so vivid, you felt a part of it.
Left leaning
I liked the way the characters were brought to life but I didn’t like the way others were terminated. I was very disappointed with who it glorified in the end. And a friendship that was taken advantage of for decades. I dunno, didn’t sit well with me.
Brilliant
One of the best books I’ve ever read