Oh my word. What a book. I finished this earlier today and I've felt bereft ever since.
It's a sweeping epic - part crime fiction, part love story - but far more than that.
This is a genuine modern classic, up there with the very best.
The two central characters, Patch and Saint, are so well drawn, you can't help but love and root for them both.
Readers are going to gobble this up and want to shout about it from the rooftops.
It's honestly the best novel I've read in ages.
I loved Whitaker's award-winning last book, We Begin at the End, and wondered if this would be able to match it.
In fact, it surpasses it in almost every way.
An incredible achievement.

I don’t think I’ll read a better book this year, it’s as simple as that. Within hours of finishing this digital proof I pre-ordered the hardback! This is a beautifully written novel with unforgettable characters that totally swept me away. At just short of 600 pages this is not a quick read, and not one you can skim at all, not that you’d want to.
Patch and Saint are the closest of friends. They are still children when we meet them. Patch, known as such because he wears a patch where one eye should be, lives with his widowed struggling mother who is more likely to be asleep than paying any attention to him. Saint lives with her grandmother and is into wildlife and keeping bees. Neither of them are welcomed by the rest of tell town children but they have each other. A truly solid friendship.
And then their world is shaken forever when Patch foils a kidnapping of a young girl in their town but is captured himself. And he finds himself kept in the dark, injured and alone, at the mercy of his captor. Whilst Saint energises the whole town to try and find him, Patch is alone for days until a girl, Grace, joins him. And in the dark, trying to find a way to survive the hell he is in, she is there with him.
In the outside world Saint is relentless in her search for her best friend, and after many months there is a breakthrough which leads to Patch’s escape. But in escaping he loses Grace. And so begins the quest of his life to find the girl that saved him in his darkest times.

And then the story really begins.
A wonderful book. Twists and turns throughout. I could not have loved it more.

My reviews are normally long and detailed. This one isn't.
This is, quite simply, the best book I've read in years. It's a powerful novel which defies genre. Beautifully written about horrible things and the lifelong effect it has on all those involved.
Stunning.

I absolutely loved this book. It needs to be talked about widely and it needs to become a huge bestseller like Where the Crawdads sing.
It’s beautifully written with heart and insight. If you have read this authors previous book We Begin at the End you will know the style, and this is written in the same vein. Small American town with a collection of wonderful characters. Saint is somewhat of a misfit, keeping to herself. She lives with her Grandmother, who drives the school bus and is talked about as being a dyke because of her short hair and cigar smoking amongst other things. Patch is also a misfit. He only has one eye, a mother lost to drink, and has taken to dressing like a pirate with his eyepatch and hat. These two misfits kids become friends, with Patch often at Saints where he is fed and has an eye kept out for him. Life changes for everyone when Patch saves a local girl from a would be abduction, in the process he is wounded and abducted himself..
So the story really starts, when every avenue leads nowhere, Saint keeps looking for her friend. It’s such a beautiful story with many twists, colourful characters and a whole lot of heart. Covering some 30 years, I kept checking the page count because I did not want this book to end.

#AllTheColoursOfTheDark. #NetGalley