My Five Word TL:DR Review: Great Start to New Year

A Box Full of Darkness was one of my most hotly anticipated reads for 2026 and was in fact my first book of the new year – and what an amazing way to start.  I loved this and it’s made me more determined than ever to go back and read some of this author’s previous work.  I’ve already read and thoroughly enjoyed Murder Road and I also have a copy of The Sun Down Motel but the Book of Cold Cases and the Haunting of Maddy Clare are also trying to tempt me!  So many books to look forward to.  Anyway, focus woman!  Review.

A Box Full of Darkness takes place in Fell, New York.  This is a strange place where many inexplicable things occur.  The Esmie family live in a particularly creepy part of town where few children play and it doesn’t bode well to develop any curiosity about what goes on in the woods.  Years ago the youngest son, Ben, who was doted on by the whole family, disappeared.  His body was never found and the stress and unhappiness eventually broke the family apart, not that they were particularly close in the first place.  Now, it seems that Ben is calling his siblings home and the three have no hesitation in returning.

I practically inhaled this ghost story.  It has the creep factor in spades and I really loved the main characters.  This is only my second book by the author but she really does write her characters so well that they jump off the page.  This is mysterious, dark and completely compelling.

The three siblings in question are Violet, Vail and Dodie.  Violet is the eldest sister, she has a no nonsense attitude and a way of looking at people that makes them not want to mess with her or get on her wrong side.  She currently works as a cleaner for a company who go into houses of the recently deceased where there are no relatives left to finalise their affairs.  Its perhaps not the best job for her given that Violet has been able to see ‘ghosts’ for as long as she can remember.  Vail is the middle child – but essentially ‘big brother’ to both his sisters.  He used to be a diver but now investigates alien sightings and UFOs.  Dodie is the youngest of the three, she models (hair and hands) out of New York and of the three of them she is the most explosive.  The three have never got over the disappearance of their beloved younger brother.  Their parents have long since passed and the three are estranged but a sighting of Ben is enough to bring them back together.

Why I loved this.

The writing is excellent.  I found myself immediately drawn in, and I do mean after just a couple of pages.  The chapters are split between the three siblings and at first, whilst they try to hold you at arms length, you eventually find yourself really caring for them.  They all have very different natures and yet what eventually shines out is that they are in fact incredibly protective of each other.  They were predominantly left to their own devices, their parents seemingly ambivalent about whether they ate/didn’t eat/went to school, didn’t go to school, etc.  Basically, it wasn’t the happiest childhood for any of them and rather than pull together they fractured and fell apart.  But, and this is perhaps a key element of the story, their upbringing has given them a strength and resilience, especially to Fell, that they would otherwise not have had.

Of the three, Violet takes the lead in getting out and about, trying to find out more by any means.  She finds herself accompanied, willing or not, by another local (a boy that she had a massive crush on at school – even though he had no idea she existed).  Vail is trying to apply his investigative prowess closer to home, taking pictures, examining the attic room and eventually calling in a colleague with the right expertise.  Dodie is less active in this way, she’s more likely to breakdown and yet she finds herself discovering information through the least likely means.  The three complement each other really well.

I loved the house and the dark carrying ons.  For me this was just about as creepy as I would like to read and had a good balance of backstory and other human interest elements to stop me from feeling overwhelmed.

In terms of the setting Fell is definitely a spooky place and I understand there are references to other stories in this book which makes me even more intrigued to search out this author’s earlier work.

In conclusion, I couldn’t put this down.  It had me hooked from the get go and I can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next (and in the meantime I have the pleasure of reading some of her previous work).

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars