If you’ve read any reviews on my website, you know that I’m a huge fan of Simone St. James. The first book I read by her was The Broken Girls, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve read every book that she’s released (and most of them were before I started this blog, so you won’t find any reviews unfortunately), and I’m feeling like it’s time for a reread of them all.

So, to start the review for this one, apparently it’s set in the same town as The Sun Down Motel (and the motel is actually mentioned several times), but other than mentioning it, that’s about all of the similarities you’ll see. A Box Full of Darkness has a lot going for it in terms of the scares, mystery, and characters. I thought the story was really well done except towards the ending (which really sucks because that’s the part you want to enjoy the most). 

As far as the scares go, this novel had a decent bit of dark, tense, and scary scenes. I wasn’t terrified to read the book at night, but it definitely had the chill factor going for it. 

With the mystery, you’re following the Esmie siblings as they try to figure out what has always haunted and plagued their family home. They try to find out what truly happened to Ben all those years ago when he disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek. They’re also trying to figure out who the weird entity is that Violet has always referred to as “sister”. Violet can see ghosts, so she always had the worst of the hauntings, but Vail saw bright lights that he has always assumed were aliens, and Dodie was always haunted by rising water coming to drown her, so they all had their fair share of darkness in their family home. Towards the end, you get a lot of things answered as far as the mystery goes, but there are also a lot of things left unanswered which is why I think I was so disappointed with the ending of the mystery itself. 

Our main characters are okay, but I can honestly say that I did not connect with them as much as I hoped I would. Violet was okay, but felt very flat. Dodie, who is a model, came across as very stereotypical and made me just not enjoy the character very much without the depth that real human beings have, and Vail didn’t feel like he was developed at all. I liked the sheriff’s son but honestly can’t even remember his name right now. 

Spoilers ahead.

So, you never find out what actually happened to Ben. You find out what happened to the pre-reincarnation? of Ben, but not the actual Ben. Sister is actually pre-reincarnation Ben’s mother who drowned him because he was an illegitimate child. Alsoooo, what confused me for a good bit after finishing this book was Violet’s dead friend’s ominous message about how three of them went in, but only two would come out. I was like, “but they’re all alive???” at the end. When I actually connected the dots, though, I realized that Vail never “left” the house and lived there instead. So, yeah, they defeated “sister” within a few pages, all went their separate ways, no one dies, they never truly figure out what happened to Ben, and all is well. I don’t know, I just didn’t really like it compared to her other books.

Overall, while I seriously loved the beginning, setup, and middle of the book, the end felt lackluster and kind of ruined the experience for me. I loved the story as a whole except for the ending and I really loved the supernatural aspects. While definitely not my favorite, I’ll still be picking up the next Simone St. James book as soon as it comes out. Probably a solid 3/5 stars for me. 

Source: Audiobook from Audible

(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Everand, which gives you one free audiobook or ebook of your choice!)