When the Stars Go Dark, Paula McLain

Hello Subscribers and Visitors of The Cozy Book Blog by Diane-Lyn,

Welcome back! Oh, it has been quite a while since I’ve posted, and I apologize for the hiatus. Life has thrown all kinds of monkey wrenches my way lately, as life often does. As an educator, I am grateful for these summer months and the chance to catch up, regroup, and share more reviews with you. Today, I offer Paula McLain’s When the Stars Go Dark. The novel is set in 1993 in a small, coastal California town; a community caught in the grips of the Polly Klaas murder and the disappearances of other young girls. I hope you enjoy my review, and thank you visiting The Cozy Book Blog by Diane-Lyn!

Best, Diane-Lyn

Synopsis (from When the Stars Go Dark)

Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now believes it might be her only refuge. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing.

The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna’s life, when the unsolved murder of a young girl devastated Mendocino, and changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with saving the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.

Review: The Cozy Book Blog by Diane-Lyn

I was excited to dive into this novel. The subject matter appealed to me (I’m intrigued by cold cases), as did the 1993 setting (I was young and into my first few years of teaching; a time when children were still allowed to be children, no cell phones, no standardized testing…). Anyway, I was drawn in; excited to be fully captivated and absorbed in what appeared to be a highly gripping read. The book had so much potential, but for me, it fell flat. I’m left disappointed and bored. Here are my thoughts:

• Anna survives a traumatic childhood only to be struck again with tragedy and loss as an adult. These particulars were helpful in understanding a wounded protagonist and the anguish that shaped her. She did hit the jackpot with a great set of foster parents, but there were so many unnecessary details about them that it slowed down the pace of what should have been a brisk plot. Over time, it just became a boring, overly wordy distraction that consumed too many chapters.
•  I really wanted to like Anna. I tried so hard to connect with her character; to empathize with the direction she needed to take following an unthinkable tragedy. However, Anna’s decision to travel across the country and throw herself into another family’s crisis felt contrived, unrealistic, and made it difficult to understand or relate to her on any level.
• There were way too many characters coming in and out of plot. I found this confusing and often had to go back in the book to remind myself of who these people were as it was difficult to keep track of them all.
• The whole whodunnit theme was predictable, weak, and lacked intrigue. I didn’t feel any rising tension or a big “pow” at the end, which is required in a novel of this genre.

This was my first Paula McLain novel. I’ve heard amazing things about The Paris Wife, so I may give that one a try; but this one just didn’t grab me. To be fair, there were things about When the Stars Go Dark that did hit the mark. I loved the way McLain embedded real life cases of that time frame (Jaycee Dugard, Polly Klaas) into her fictional story line. This gave an otherwise dull novel some energy and depth. McLain had clearly researched the subject area, profiles of predators, and the impact of trauma. She was able to successfully embed this knowledge into a wide array of characters. I just wish it could have been enough for me.

In Conclusion…

When the Stars Go Dark held great promise, but the execution lacked any semblance of a “wow” factor. Frankly, it was slow and boring. There were far too many confusing shifts and extraneous details, making this a frustrating read. I just cannot recommend this one.

Meh.