A Flicker in The Dark is the second book that I’ve read by author Stacy Willingham and it did not disappoint. As an avid reader something I really enjoy about my personal book journey is trying to guess the plot-twist or figuring out the “who done it” and two things I love even more than being right about the twist is:
Being wrong about the twist ending
Willingham’s other book Only If You’re Lucky is a great example of an amazing nail-biting read where I was convinced one of my theories was true and once I reached the crescendo point of the book; it turned out I was completely wrong! Which made the whole experience more novel and fun.
Being right about the twist, but the author “gaslighting” me until the very end, where I realize I was right all along!
A Flicker in The Dark lands in the second category where from the beginning I just knew who the murderer was but as I kept reading so many twists and turns were making me doubt if I was going to be right this time or wrong. I won’t go into too many specific details so as not to spoil everything, but it was such a satisfying ending and reveal that made the whole read an almost perfect read.
I really only have two critiques about this book…
Slow Start
While I never became disinterested in the book at any point, I will say it felt like the book was kind of slow going especially before things started ramping up. It felt like we went from 0 to 5% to suddenly 100%.
Abrupt scenes ending and new ones beginning
It always feels jarring when you’ve just finished one chapter and the next chapter starts off at a completely different point in time or scene. Whenever this happens I always have to go back and double check that I didn’t accidentally skip a chapter or some crucial pages. This is one of my biggest reading icks because it takes me out of the story, very disruptive. However, this didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the read and after a while I didn’t mind it.
Outside of those two critiques, I really enjoyed the book and the characterization of each character feels realistic, a bit traumatized, and tortured. It’s clear from the very beginning that the MC, Chloe Davis, is haunted by the horrible misdeeds and murders that her father committed when she was a young age, that’s followed her into her adulthood when the worst happens….girls start disappearing again and the UNSUB’s MO and signature matches up to her father’s murders. I will say if you’re a big fan of reading books similar to this you may be able to catch on to the twist pretty quickly, regardless I think its a good read even if you end up guessing the twists like I did.
4/5 stars