Book Review: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

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Introduction:

Quick Facts

• Release: June 2024 Read: February 2025
• Reading Time: 8-10 hours
• Pages: 608
• Format Recommendation: I read the ebook book and even at 600 pages I found it easy to navigate.
• Perfect for: People wanting to get into Literary Fiction.
• Genre and Writing Style: Literary Fiction. Very slow paced and not in a bad way.
• Spice Level: 🌶️
• Trigger Level:💀💀

Starting Thoughts:

This is like a slow moving river of a book. It takes place over decades and touches several genres. You have to do math or pay attention to when they mention ages to remember how old the main characters are and I was fine with that. This book is an amazing example of character development. Its characters experience tragedy at a young age and it affects them all differently.

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Summary: A Brief Overview (Without Major Spoilers)

From Good Reads:

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.

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What Worked for Me:

Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley: I read this book several weeks ago and it has taken me some time to really process the tragedy that is Patch. I am not an emotional reader typically. I have soft spots for kids, old people, and people being bullied for things they can’t control. The evolution of Patch throughout this book now has me adding traumatized and emotionally complex characters to that list. It is hard for me to put into words how much of a jagged knife through my heart this character was for me. He went through so much at such a young age. He had people wanting him to be there as a friend, lover, son and he tried. He gave every part of himself over to those around him but a part of him had been ripped away and haunted him with the character of Grace. He needed her, was haunted by her, wanted to save her even when a large part of the community thought he had imagined her. It was gut wrenching to watch him try so hard to be whole when he was so clearly broken into pieces that no longer fit together.

The short chapters: I know for some people this was not a highlight but I love a short chapter. As someone with ADHD I can easily squirrel around a book like this. It helped me break it into chunks. I could read a few chapters and then go off and do something else before coming back and cranking out a few more.

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What Didn’t Work for Me: Trigger Warnings and Criticisms

Grace: From wondering if she actually existed to finding out she did… she was a catalyst that I wished Patch hadn’t had to face. While I understood her purpose while he was in captivity, I hated watching him try and exist while also trying to save this unsaveable entity.

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Final Thoughts: Loved! I had not explored Literary Fiction much but this one got me hooked. It’s pace kept me turning pages, it’s characters had me by the heartstrings, and it was just a great read.

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📚 Study Guide

I got these from Penguin Random House

In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal certain aspects of the plot. If you have not finished reading All the Colors of the Dark, we respectfully suggest that you do so before reviewing this guide.

1. Class and social status are themes throughout the book. How do wealth and poverty affect or inform the characters? How do they affect the search for Patch? 

2. Why does young Saint feel a responsibility to Patch? Why does she continue the search against the advice of her grandmother and the authorities? And why does Chief Nix humor her? 

3. Throughout the novel, each of the characters pursues someone—i.e. Jimmy pursues Saint, Saint pursues Patch, Patch pursues Grace, et al. Does anyone ever get what they are truly looking for? 

4. How do Patch and Saint evolve over the course of the novel? Or do they? 

5. Today, tracking someone down can be as simple as typing a name into a search engine. What is different or remarkable about how Patch and Saint conduct their searches in the 1970s and ’80s? 

6. Why does Saint join the search for Grace? How does this change the trajectory of her life? 

7. Talk about the different paths Patch and Saint take. Why do you think they make those choices, despite other options available to them? Is one nobler than the other? 

8. It would be the first time Patch saved a missing girl, Saint notes. Why doesn’t Saint take the credit? 

9. How does the town and the country change over the period of the book? 

10. Even decades later, why does Saint still see Patch as a kid? 

11. Having a purpose is another theme of the book. Why is it important to have one? What happens when purpose changes, especially for the characters? 

12. Aside from the missing girls, how many victims are there of that fateful day when Patch was taken? Or do you see them as survivors?

13. What do the paintings offer to Patch? What do they mean to Sammy and others? 

14. It seems everyone in Monta Clare has secrets. Which secrets surprised you most? 

15. As the years roll on, what did you think about Grace? Did you think she was real or simply a coping mechanism of Patch’s imagination and survival instinct? 

16. What did you think about the ending? What surprised you? What is resolved? 

17. What does the book say about family? About love? 

18. What does the novel say about letting go?