Yes, I had a hard time sleeping last night. It’s definitely not a book I would have chosen or read.
Here’s an article about the author’s background.
I finished last night!!! I look forward to the discussion.
Harrowing article to read - thanks for sharing @HImom
Finished the book a few days ago, very readable, almost a page turner, ok a page turner, but it is long - hope no one leaves this one to the last minute 
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Read this for my IRL book club last year. Be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts!
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It’s April 1st! Welcome to our discussion of All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker.
I really wanted to like this book—it had promise—but I could never quite get there. I did appreciate certain aspects of it. First of all, I was grateful that we were spared any graphic details in a story containing murders of innocent girls, domestic abuse, prison beatings, rape, a botched abortion, etc. Whitaker managed to tell a relentlessly dark tale while keeping the worst of it “off-screen.” Secondly, the primary characters were well-drawn and they stuck with me after I closed the book. I didn’t necessarily like them, but after 600 pages in their company, they felt real.
However, I thought the book dragged in the middle. I wearied of Patch’s obsessive search and Saint’s unrequited love. The real kicker for me was the ending, which was just … too much. Too many far-fetched reveals, too many convoluted explanations that didn’t hold up under scrutiny. I felt like a couple of phone calls and a postcard could have ended the story 20 years earlier. And Patch’s happy ending was less than believable, to put it mildly: “…in time the heat would cool until such day that his name would slip from memory…”. Hmmm. A one-eyed wannabe Robin Hood, bank robber, avenging murderer and prison escapee, who also happens to be a renowned artist with paintings that “quietly change hands for millions of dollars”? His name is not slipping from memory. Yet amazingly, he manages to sail around in a fifty foot boat in the Outer Banks, pirate flag hoisted. Ah well, in any event, it was an entertaining (if overlong) read — probably best if I don’t look too closely at the details!
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Discussion questions to mull, if interested:
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?
I almost put the book down because I struggled so much with the theme of child abduction. I stuck with it as I was curious enough to want to know what happened to the characters, which is a testament to the author, but it was a tough one for me to get through.
I also thought the ending was really far fetched and while I was happy for the characters to have their “happily ever” it really didn’t work for me, nor did it seem to be in keeping with the book’s overall trajectory.
The one thing I really couldn’t reconcile was why Saint didn’t tell her grandmother that she had given the baby up for adoption. I understand wanting to hide it from Jimmy but the grandmother went to her grave thinking worse about Saint unnecessarily.
I also struggled with Patch killing Jimmy. At that point he knew about his daughter and knew how much he’d have to lose. My opinion of his as a person greatly diminished after that point.
I will admit to being totally blindsided by Nix and the doctor’s relationship and the cover up. It didn’t seem likely to me that Nix wouldn’t have confessed or ended his life much much sooner. Nix was another character who I felt much worse about.
Not sure I would recommend this book to anyone else.
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I had a very similar reaction to the book as @Mary13
I was pulled into the story and cared enough about the characters to want to see it through and finish the book. Boy did it drag in the middle!, really needed an editor. I got so tired of Patch’s obsession. I thought there was a good book in there but too much repetition. I would not recommend this book to others.
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Right. This was one of many things that made no sense to me. And I wonder how Saint managed to keep a full-term pregnancy a secret while still working. She may have not laid eyes on Norma for a year, but word gets out – this is pre-internet, but not the Middle Ages. I felt the same way about Misty’s “surprise” daughter. This is a small town; everyone would have known.
Patch didn’t intend to kill Jimmy, but just punching him was idiocy on his part, given all he had to lose. As for Jimmy’s death, I sighed at the explanation because it was such a trope: Patch “had thrown a single punch at the beloved veterinarian who struck his head as he fell back.” I feel like this happens in cop shows and books way more than it does in real life (a way to off a character without making the protagonist look like a cold-blooded killer).
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For me, the book was full of small irritants that kept me from really sinking into the story. Here’s another one that drove me crazy. You all will have to tell me if it’s just me: Several times, characters used the expression “fell pregnant.” For example “a friend fell pregnant” (p. 319), “I fell pregnant” (p. 324), “a local woman fell pregnant” (p. 435), “She was nineteen and fell pregnant” (p.453).
I’m from the Midwest and have never heard or used this expression. I wondered if this was something in local Missouri (or southern) dialect. I looked it up and the internet tells me:
“Fell pregnant” is primarily a British, Australian, and New Zealand English idiom and is not standard in the United States, where “got pregnant” or “became pregnant” is preferred.
So I looked up Chris Whitaker and he’s British – was born and raised in the UK, and lives in London. Could he really have repeatedly used a British idiom without his editor catching it?
The fact that he is not American and has never lived here also explained why the sense of place felt off to me in the novel. I’m not sure if anyone else had this feeling. I was definitely aware of it when he tried to explain the Missouri church community, mixing up Catholic and Protestant terms and practices. For example, the characters supposedly attend the same church; however, at one point Norma attends mass (Catholic) and Jimmy Walters attends a “service,” “Bible in hand” (so not Catholic).
My posts so far sound like I’m trashing the book, but I swear I’m not! It had many positives. Just have to get the irksome details off my chest.
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I caught “fell pregnant” too. I knew the author wasn’t American but do your research!
I almost feel bad criticizing the book after reading the article @HImom posted above. Chris Whitaker certainly endured–and overcame–a great deal of trauma in his life. So I respect him for what he has accomplished. But I have to separate the man from the work, and the work doesn’t always stand on its own two feet.
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This book was a roller coaster ride for me. I liked it, then I didn’t like it, then I liked it again and then I didn’t like it again. Overall, I feel okay that I read it, but don’t see myself recommending it to anyone else. It isn’t a genre I typically read, so that could be part of my like/dislike. The book also seemed really long to long to me.
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If I remember correctly, Patch did not mean to kill Jimmy. He did mean to punch hard but Jimmy fell backward and hit his head .
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Then the sentence didn’t seem to fit the crime or is it because he had a prior with the bank robbery?
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Probably Patch’s prior history (armed robbery).
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I also did not care for this book. In effect, it’s a procedural and I’m not a fan of that genre in books or tv. Nor of the type of crime, unpleasant to read. I wasn’t very interested in about the first half and was really skimming. I felt not much happened. Then I kind of got interested in Saint’s career and would have preferred to just read about that. She had great intuition (conveniently so at times). Never understood her love/obsession for Patch.
And yes, the whole last part of the book was some obvious and some rushed. And too many coincidences.
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Yes, I found Saint more interesting than Patch. His qualities–that seemed so apparent to the women–were not so apparent to me. Except, of course, that he instinctively saved Misty without a second thought. I give him a lot of credit for that.
One funny thing about Saint’s career: No Quantico for her. She did a good job on the local Monta Clare police force and suddenly got a call that the FBI wanted her, asap. I raised an eyebrow at that.
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