An atypical teenage fantasy, and no mistake. Our heroine, Dia, is stuck in a small Missouri town, snidely charting her life for us with not a decent word to say about anyone, anywhere or anything, beyond a few exceptions that work like her in her mother's rubbishy antiques shop. She is a great fan of legendary games of the past few decades, all created by the mysterious female guru, Louisiana Veda, for her Darkly company, before her death. The reason we're reading Dia's story is because there is an internship at the gaming company being advertised, even now, and she's going to beat near-astronomical odds and be one of the seven seventeen-year-old kids picked for it. But boy it won't be what she expects…

This was readable, and then some, however I never once believed a word of it. Scenes in America seemed too British, those in Britain sounded too American. Dia, as I say, is eagerly dismissive of so much you lose sympathy for her long before she's crossed the Atlantic. And nothing at all rings true about the games – ridiculously sought-after prototypes, the way the world's had so few successful players of them all, the way their lore is known to all, the way the play is – in one instance at least – a weird mix of rolling a dice and learning steps and clues by slicing through the gameboard, to find something you can't unlearn ready for the next time you play.

Clearly the book wants to put the seven teens into a mahoosive game of their own, and they have a task at the internship much like a brand new, unknown-of Darkly creation. But this is where the readability counts for less – what we're ultimately doing, at times if not throughout, is seeing people playing a game. There's no attempt to give us something to solve, for we're getting Dia's present tense narrative and nothing else, apart from newspaper cuttings and things to build the world. No, we're seeing people, slightly reduced of agency, playing a game – and a game that has a poor and uncanny mishmash of can-do-anything and picks-just-that.

For yes, in this world of London phone shops being open past 10.30 at night, we have so much potential, and such mundanity. And when things take flight from the mundane, there's a mistake or some poor writing to leave it all unclear. It all revolves around the shock revelation that "women? They had it bad..." – which you don't really need a daft real life version of a fantasy board game to realise. Really quiet meh.

Darkly was a weird book for me.

Originally I was really intrigued by the idea and began to create scenarios and expectations in my head before diving in to the book — not big ones, nothing really concrete, but there was some small idea of what this bool was before I went in.

And then I went in and it was good and intriguing, and I felt slightly invested but at the same time the book couldn’t grab my attention. It felt so slow, I didn’t get on with some of the characters, and I felt it was so repetitive and not going anywhere.

Then I got to about the halfway point, and I feel like the book really hit its stride and I was able to get in to it. I thought the settings were really unique and vividly described, I could picture the scenes easy and felt the emotions they were evoking. At times, the book was incredibly intense and exciting.

I liked the overall plot and had a good time theorising and some of my theories were even correct, which is great. However, sometimes I do feel as if though the plot got lost within itself and some of the reveals weren’t as clear as they should be. I also think the book could’ve totally gone without the romance! There was no chemistry with Poe and it didn’t add anything to the book.

Finally, I see what Pessl was trying to do with the ending but I found it so abrupt and baffling and I can’t say I like it.

Arcadia 'Dia' Gannon applies for an internship with Louisiana Veda Foundation. Veda was a feted creator of intricate board games which now go for thousands of dollars apiece. Although Veda is dead, her foundation is apparently carrying on her work & 7 lucky applicants will have the chance to work for the company. The application is surprisingly simple, just answer one question: what would you kill for? When the 7 successful young people converge on London, they are drawn into a mystery surrounding one of Veda's games - one that was thought to be just a myth 'Valkyrie'. It seems the game is real & it has already claimed one victim....

This could have been epic, but for me it ended up confusing with an unsatisfactory conclusion. It is very fast-paced, so fast in fact the pace seems to outrun the plot. The whole thing is supposedly built around these fantastical board games but for me there wasn't enough explanation about how they were supposed to work. The reveal at the end wasn't really surprising & I thought the conclusion was disappointing. Complete miss for me I'm afraid but others really enjoyed it.

I was so excited for this book and the twisty nature of the book kept my excitement and interest on high alert throughout. It kept me guessing and invested all the way through.

Arcadia ‘Dia’ Gannon has always been obsessed with Darkly games, so when an internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation is advertised, she knows she must apply. Along with thousands of other hopefuls, all infinitely more qualified than she is. So that’s why she’s surprised when her name is announced, and she finds herself on a plane to England.

When she arrives, she is whisked away to a mysterious location and it soon becomes clear that it won’t be a summer spent filing in an office. A game of Darkly is afoot. Not just any Darkly game, the final game that was thought to be lost decades ago.

Darkly contains puzzles within puzzles, just like the games it’s about. I loved it. When I first picked up, it I had mistakenly thought it was about video games, but it much more analogue than that. The revolutionary games are a mix of board games and real-world role-playing. They have big fat manuals to tell you how to play. They sound fantastic.

The games have gained a bit of a cult following, the physical objects being considered works of art and, in some cases, expensive collectibles worth millions. One of the interns arrives with a Darkly original padlocked to his wrist. So an unauthorised playing of a Darkly game does not please the money men at the company left behind to run the Veda estate.

The story contains several mysteries. A missing teenager linked to an underground Darkly game. The case of the final Darkly game that vanished years before. The strange circumstances around the selection of the interns and what connects them. All the while, we’re learning about who the real Louisiana Veda was.

It’s hard to say exactly what I loved about it without giving too much away—it’s that kind of story. I could say it had Squid Game vibes, which it did in places, but it’s not the same concept at all. The physical games at times made me think of Frances Glessner Lee’s crime scene dioramas. But the story behind the creator also kept me turning the page.

Dark and gripping, Darkly is one of my favourite reads of the year.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I got the chance to download this title from NetGalley because the publisher auto-approved me in the past. Thanks to Walker Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

I'll be honest: Darkly was a wild, fun ride, and I'd recommend it to any younger reader looking for an immersive read rife with secrets and action. On the other hand, there were so many implausibilities and convenient coincidences that the plot was stretched thin. I couldn't buy the premise that a game designer who had been dead for decades could still have such a following, especially among teens. I didn't understand how her creations were supposed to be played, since they were, for all purposes, board games that bled into reality, and allegedly required the participation of random people (I'm not talking about the game the characters play in the story, since that one was staged). Everything and everyone was over the top for some reason (including the MC, with her passion for all things 1930s) or talked funny (speaking of which, how come all the interns were fluent in English, even those coming from France, Iceland or Nigeria?). And the question they had to answer in order to apply for the supposed internship ("What would you kill for?") turned up to be a false hint, making us anticipate something that wouldn't happen in the story at all. Last but not least, there was *cough* the good old love triangle. And yet...I tore through the book in two days, and I did have a good time - so, if you don't expect something deep, memorable and plausible, but are looking for mystery and plain entertainment (with a touch of female empowerment), by all means go ahead and grab a copy.

A twisty and tiny psychological thriller that despite it's simple plotline, keeps the surprises coming throughout the book. A super intriguing read!

Darkly is a labyrinthine gem of a book. It follows a dark and twisty path, but the final destination is more than worth the journey.

I was initially sold on this book by that stunner of a premise. It is such a unique set-up and I love a game that spirals out of control (it very much reminded me of The Inheritance Games, which delights in puzzle solving and ingenuity). Pessl more than lives up to that premise. This has such a wonderfully rich, twisted world to explore. I loved the sound of each of these games and the way they blurred reality and gameplay. They have a way of pulling you in and I just wanted to know more. Also, Pessl keeps an air of mystery around them so not all of their secrets are given away to you. Let’s just say if they were real, I would play them in a heartbeat.

The actual mystery is executed well too, with plenty of intrigue and moving pieces to keep track of. There is always this sense of a game within a game. You question which players know more than the others. I loved that fierce rivalry and the competitive element - the meeting of these bright minds in slightly sinister circumstances. There are plenty of rich thematic questions as well around genius, legacy and maintaining artistic integrity. Class definitely comes into play, as well as the established social structures wanting to prevent upward mobility. Throughout this, Pessl’s writing is captivating and uncanny in equal measure, keeping you on an uneasy tightrope throughout. Everything is sketched out with cinematic flair. It feels so atmospheric and Gothic.

Darkly is an utterly gripping YA thriller filled with intricate gameplay and twists that will shatter everything.

I am not 100% sure about this one. I love the premise of the story: board games, island and mystery, but there are bits that a bit confusing.

Teen/YA and adult puzzle thriller. For those that like clever, fast paced stories. The plot is simple overall, but nicely complicated within. In fact so complicated and fast paced that I sometimes felt a bit lost. But as this is meant to be about a stolen mystery puzzle game and it’s dead inventor that was okay for me. And it all made sense in the end. I really liked the ending. Thank you to Walker Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Really unique story, very dark and so many twists and turns, really well written and the cover is just stunning!

This definitely wasn't my favourite book but it wad okay. Very twisty and kept me guessing but I didn't love this but I'd recommend it for sure if it sounds like something you'd enjoy

I really relished the intricate mythology underpinning Marisha Pessl’s gloriously gothic, utterly gripping story. It centres on a crime linked to now-legendary Louisiana Veda who died in suspicious circumstances - decades before this opens. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Veda drew on her art-school training to produce a series of elaborate, macabre board games collectively known as the Darkly series, many of which required players to undertake real-world tasks. One game was considered so dangerous it was banned. Now Veda’s handmade prototypes sell for millions on the art market. But the details of reclusive Veda’s life remain shadowy at best. Veda’s become an iconic, controversial, Plath-like figure, her legacy fiercely contested. 17-year-old Arcadia (Dia) Gannon is a diehard fan and now she’s been selected from thousands to travel from home in Missouri to England to intern for the Louisiana Veda Foundation. On arrival Dia’s whisked away, along with six other teens, to the private island where Veda once lived and her games were manufactured. Their task to solve a possible crime that involves playing “Valkyrie” her perilous, final game, one that was never officially released but has somehow claimed its first victim.

Pessl’s novel, with its remote island and limited cast, operates rather like a vintage Agatha Christie mystery. And like Christie’s crime novels this is less about character development than it is plot and world-building. There are echoes of Poe and Daphne Du Maurier detectable here and there too which add to an underlying sense of unease. Pessl interrupts the action with reproductions of enigmatic letters and photos, tantalising clues to events in Veda’s past - and to what’s happening to Dia and her fellow interns in the present. Pessl’s narrative could feel overly ornate at times but it’s laced with inventive flourishes: from recreations of Victorian seances to the menacing, masked figure who seems to be haunting the island. The final reveal – and the minor romantic subplot – didn’t totally work for me but otherwise this was eerily atmospheric, consistently intriguing and incredibly entertaining.

An unpredictable mystery with a dose of suspense and some delicious twists.

Día, short for Arcadia seems to be an old lady in teen clothing. Used to being surrounded by geriatrics and occasionally her distracted mother, Día juggles her time between school and keeping the family antiques business barely afloat and her mother from bankruptcy. She doesn’t feel that she has much of a life and so is taken by complete surprise when she lands one of the seven coveted places in the Louisiana Veda Foundation summer internship programme. Thrown into a bleak weird existence on a windswept island where the secret Darkly factory is located, Día and the other six interns are tasked with finding out who is behind the unknown stolen Darkly game and locate George, a previous winner mysteriously disappeared. Nothing is quite what it seems. Will they play and if they do, will they win or be sent back home as failures or worse??

So that you are aware, Darkly games are like a board game but played in open spaces like abandoned warehouses and usually at night. Think of them as Traitors mixed with Dungeons and Dragons.

I have to admit that this had me hooked trying to work out what was going to happen and abandoning a few tasks that I really should have been doing instead of having my nose stuck in a book. I think it’s a great teen read especially for those into gaming,. It’s entertaining and not too heavy. A good escapism break from schoolwork.

When Arcadia sees the advert inviting applications for an internship at the Louisiana Veda Foundation she toys with the idea of applying. A summer in London would be a welcome break from the chaos that is her family antiques business. And the Veda group are, amongst certain people, renowned for their links to the Darkly games.
Arcadia soon finds herself amongst the lucky group of seven interns, tasked with trying to locate a missing boy who seems to have vanished after playing one of the company’s games.
There’s a mysterious island, a number of bizarre occurrences that slowly help the group to work out some of the details they will need and an unnerving sense of someone conspiring against them. The ultimate prize is a previously unheard of Darkly game…or is it?
A tightly woven web of intrigue, Darkly was a clever book. As the story progressed I found myself catching glimpses of details that pointed to a quite different story being resolved. Highly entertaining and one I’d recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC. Night Film by Marisha Pessl is one of my favourite thrillers of all time and it’s been a while since we got a new release from her so I was beyond excited to get this ARC!

It definitely didn’t disappoint and was just as twisty and well plotted as I’ve come to expect from this author. I didn’t see any of the twists coming and the multi media elements sprinkled throughout the book added a layer of realism. The board games themselves were so well thought out and the island where most of the book is set was eerie and creepy.

I didn’t care for the romance and to be honest I never really felt connected to any of the characters. The ending really disappointed me, not the final reveals, but the last page was just so out of left field and ridiculous. There were also many glaring errors and inconsistencies that made it obvious this was written by an author from the US. The biggest one that really irked me and showed a lack of research was the reference to pound notes. The pound notes in the manor I can forgive because they were still being printed when the house was abandoned but a character in present day “throws a wad of pound sterlings” onto a table to pay for their drinks in a club/pub. This in itself is an issue because in England we don’t leave money on tables, you have to pay directly either before or after your meal or drinks. We also don’t have “motels” and most of our houses are two storeys, you’ll rarely see an entire street of one storey houses like you do in the US. It might seem nitpicky but it really took me out of the story.

Apart from that I really enjoyed this and I definitely recommend this to thriller fans and also fans of this author’s previous work. It has the same tone and immaculate writing that made me fall in love with Night Film. This will be released on 28th November so there’s still a little wait but I promise it’s worth it!

When the legacy of a now-dead game creator with a cult following appears to be up for grabs, Dia is just one of the students who apply for an internship, and possibly the chance at something bigger, at the corporation he set up.

But it doesn't take her long to realise that there is more to the situation than is immediately apparent.

For one thing, those games that gained cult status were notoriously dark, so what has Dia really got herself into? And for another, whenever there is a game involved, you can bet that there are a few serious *players* as well...

The story is fast-paced and told in short chapters, which is useful. There are times at which it becomes a little confusing, but overall the entertainment value here is pretty good. Fans of Pessl's earlier work will most likely devour this one! It gets 3. 5 stars.

Ever since my favorite book of all time, Night film, this author has always been on my radar. I loved this book, it was the perfect puzzle game like a darker and juicier Jumanji. The story had no nonsense and felt like everything was very well tied together. 5 stars.

I loved Marisha Pessl's book Night film so I was extremely excited to get an ARC of Darkly. I was soooo intrigued by the concept of mysterious games (I loved Jumanji as a kid). This book was so good, and the short chapters made me read it so much faster. Great stuff

I was intrigued but the premise of this book when I saw the blurb as I love a mystery and a story that involves games too.

I did like the short chapters which meant the pace was quick and kept me engaged just enough. I also enjoyed how everything was revealed and then interlinked together, that part was very well thought out and written.

I found that the story became convoluted with ideas and at times, especially when explaining previous games and the current one, it became confusing. I didn’t form any connection to the characters and the romance parts felt forced as there was no chemistry between them. The ending was also an issue for me, it felt very rushed and out of character.

The book had alot of potential but unfortunately for me personally it fell a little bit short. I would give this a 3.5/5 overall

Thankyou to NetGalley and Walker Books UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review