I have to say this was really good. I couldn’t put it down. I think I sped read this in less than 6 hours and then went back over it and re-read some of my favorite parts before finally turning to bed last night. Though this book is part of St. James’s Fell, New York series, you don’t have to read The Sun Down Motel before this, but it would help I think for you to get context of the location of this town.
A Box Full of Darkness follows three siblings, Violet, Vail, and Dodie Esmie. The three of them have rarely gotten together, and barely talk, but when Violet gets a ghostly message from their long ago missing brother Ben saying “Come Home” the three of them come home to their parent’s house in Fell, New York. All of them in various ways are barely hanging on, but they all are united on finding out what happened to their little brother who went missing 20 years ago during a game of hide and seek in their house. The book shifts between Violet, Vail and Dodie as you find out that their upbringing was one of neglect and fear with them keeping each other safe when they could.
I have to say I liked each of the siblings equally. I usually in these types of books have a clear favorite, but honestly, they all won me over. They reminded me a bit of my brothers and sister. We all may work each other’s nerves (on purpose) but we love each other to the bones and would do anything to protect each other. Violet I felt the most for since she can actually see ghosts. And for her it’s never been anything but terrible in some select cases. She’s done what she could to protect Vail and Dodie, but I loved that the two of them were both focused on protecting her too. Vail and Dodie were equally hot messes (like Violet) but they just both quickly won me over while reading this. And you can see why they all loved Ben and how they were united on protecting him from their parents total lack of interest and love. We get secondary characters out of wazoo and some callbacks to The Sun Down Motel which were great I thought. I though the ghosts we get were interesting and honestly I started a mini flow chart after a while to keep them straight.
The overall plot about what happened to Ben and why was great, but also great in my mind was the greater mystery of Fell. The flow worked even though we have three perspectives we keep going back and forth to.
The setting of Fell is still creepy. It feels as if the town just abhors light and anything good and we find out the main reason why in this one. I liked the slow reveals around Fell, the Esmie house, and how that all connects to what happened to Ben when they were younger.
The ending was great I thought and it was clever of St. James to set this up that there may be a future Fell, New York book following someone else.
Clown – fool; physical comedy; performer; tears of a clown; clowns can be a tragic figure, a scary figure, a misfit. There’s definitely a scary figure in this one.
