“I’d say follow your heart, but in that way madness lies.”
It’s Stephen King meets Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides with the faintest dash of Fredrik Backman’s Beartown’s small town heart. It hums with hints of My Girl and Fried Green Tomatoes – perhaps it’s the bees or the friendship or both. In short, Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark (Crown 2024) is everything I want in a book, and it currently ranks in my top two reads of 2024.
Spanning 1975 – 2001 and traversing all across the country before landing in my very own Carolina where there is purple honey and pirates, All the Colors of the Dark is the story of Saint, an inquisitive and smart beekeeper turned FBI agent, and Patch, a one eyed boy who envisioned himself a pirate and who took things turned artist turned bank robber, two misfit children whose friendship transcends all odds. On what Patch dubbed would be “the best day of [his] life,” he finds himself stabbed and bleeding out in the woods after stopping the abduction of Misty Meyers, daughter of one of Monta Clare’s wealthiest families. He saves Misty, but he is taken instead. And Saint will leave no stone unturned in her attempts to find her beloved pirate. The trajectory of their lives is forever entwined and forever plotted the day Patch is taken.
When he is found, he is no longer Saint’s Patch. He spends his days chasing the ghost of a girl who had been held captive with him, and Saint spends her days trying to find her for him. They both begin very separate journeys to find all the lost girls. Other people walk in and out of their lives, some more permanent than others like Misty and Nix and Jimmy. (Jimmy is my one complaint. I liked Jimmy. I liked how he saw Saint when they were children, how he loved her. I’d have made a different decision after prom and likely introduced a new player. But that complaint isn’t enough to make this less than five stars.) The world continues to revolve around Patch and Saint; America seems in a constant state of change. Roe v. Wade has a very important role in the novel, from Misty’s involvement with the rally to the other missing girls, to Saint herself. That thread is delicately woven into the novel in a shade akin to blood, not a shocking shade, but a shade that blurs and burns. It’s just so well done. And that’s but one thread – there are so many brilliant shades that weave in and out of each other in this captivating novel of obsession, loyalty, hope, and a fierce love that stings but tastes like honey.
Read this book.
A Girl Named Tommi 