DNF Review: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney  

Publisher:  Flatiron Books
Publication Date:  August 30, 2022 

 

Format: Audiobook
Source: Borrowed from Libby, owned (gave away) BOTM copy.

Rating:

Did Not Finish


Goodreads Synopsis: 

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

Review: 

I stopped listening to this book at 30% (~100 pages in). 

This was toted as an Agatha Christie-like mystery but it feel short for me. 

Daisy, the MC is whiney and sad through the first few chapters and her family is SO obnoxious. I waited until here was a murder to stop reading, hoping at that point it would speed up/ get better... but it was unbearable even after the mystery started. 

I kind of called all the paranormal twists... and that is NOT very Agatha Christie. She might have withheld information and reveled it at the end for the conclusion but there wasn't paranormal things. 

The reason I really stopped reading was the pacing was just so off for me. It was SO SLOW... I was listening at 2x speed hoping that would help and it didn't... that an everyone just sucked. Daisy, her family, her grandmother, all bad. The grandmother seemed like she just wanted to start things with the family, making her seem just as uppity as she perceived them... and she raised them, made them this way, so her trying to be the bigger person in the end (or seemingly so) was a loss. 

I just couldn't get passed the 'why start now?' element here... and stopped caring because in 100 pages nothing really happened.  I was disappointed and passed the book along to a friend with the disclaimer that it wasn't for me. I hope that she and others enjoyed it more. I am a huge fan of Christie, and this did not match up.