When the Stars Go Dark: A Novel

Had the potential to be a really interesting mystery with an exploration of trauma. However, I had some serious issues with how it was carried out. First, the whole thing with using a real-life tragic murder of a teenage girl (Polly Klaas) as a backdrop seemed exploitative, and also the importance of a psychic to the case, when in reality so many so-called psychics prey on the families of victims in need of closure, i hate when mystery books an...read more

3.5 stars. I enjoyed this story - but it was a bit too slow for my tastes. I liked the true-crime feel it had because unfortunately things like this happen all the time & it was cool to know that there are people out there who refuse to give up on the victims.

The last 50 pages...wowza that was a lot to unload on a reader but man was this story good. I struggled with giving this a 3/4 because it felt hard to get into at first and a bit dragged on at times, but the amount of research, symbolism and visuals the author uses really kept me gripped. Definitely a must read for fans of true crime/murder mysteries!

Overall, one of the best modern murder mysteries I've read in a long time. I was drawn into the main characters life and the ending gave me everything I was looking for. Author did a great job at character building

This made me really happy :) I felt like the book was well rounded and kept me on my toes wanting to know what would happen next! The ending was really good and I thought that it had a really good final boss battle.