All the Colors of the Dark
Author: Chris Whitaker
Rating: â 3/5
Date Read: 2025/01/15
I shouldnât have believed the hype.
A good mystery will keep me turning the pages late into the night, but this wasnât a good mystery. Iâm willing to overlook pacing issues when the writing is excellent, but this was a bunch of purple prose. Multifaceted characters will cover up a multitude of sins, but these characters were roughly-cut gemstones with little color and poor clarity.
The worst thing about All the Colors of the Dark: all the action takes place off-page! The author will spend page after page (or should I say chapter after chapter, since the chapters were obnoxiously short) writing descriptions full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Exit, pursued by a bear. Then, in the next chapter, the main character is in the middle of serving a prison sentence for committing bear-related crimes.
Whitaker writes as if itâs clever to leave out plot-critical scenes and force the reader to say âhey, did I miss something?â There will be no further explanation. There is only exasperation.
Realistically, this should garner a two-star rating, but I can see glimmers of brilliance here and there. Still, I canât recommend this bookâunless youâre interested in mentally polishing a raw mess into a diamond.