*New Format* – I am going to just do The Good or The Bad and then a list of potential warnings. Also, this is a departure from the A-Z list, but was highly recommended by a colleague.

The Good – This was really well written. It started a bit slow for me, but I think that is because my guard is up a bit right now because the A-Z thing is not nearly as cool as I thought it would be. (Reminder that I am trying to read all the books in our library alphabetically). I am going to attempt to write about this without any spoilers, but just beware that I might accidentally slip one in!

Daisy Darker is meeting her family at the tiny island home of her Nana for Nana’s 80th birthday party. Her family is a weird cast of characters who all have deep dark secrets (of course!). At midnight, Nana is found dead and then in a very Agatha Christie way, the family starts getting knocked off one by one.

The story of how the family got to this place is way better than the people getting killed. I do have to say the poems and deaths were very clever, but they did end up being almost too cutesy. The author, in Christie fashion, pointed you toward one culprit and then another. She even had suspects that we didn’t even really meet as characters. It was all very well done. Without giving it away, I was pointed at the wrong person almost the whole time.

The book as a whole felt very dark. The family is not a happy one and there really aren’t any good people in the cast of characters, even little Daisy has a dark and evil side to her. The author wrote so convincingly of the pain the family inflicted on one another. It was a really intentional look at what vanity, selfishness, and pride can do inside a family. While most families don’t hurt each other to the extent the Darker family does, you can see parallels between almost any family and this one. and I think that is where the connection comes to the book. It makes it feel real and raw.

*Look out List*

The look out list is where I will put some things that I would watch out for or be concerned about handing this book over to my pre-teen or teen readers. There have been books where I have concerns for myself reading them as well!

• No graphic deaths described or actual killing, but there is quite a bit of murder
• Spin-the-bottle at a teen party
• Divorce and extra marital relationships, nothing graphic though
• Short and non descriptive teen sex scene
• Teenage drinking
• Alcoholism
• Lots of really bad parenting!