Darkly

Paperback Published on: 25/09/2025
Price: £8.99
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
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Bookseller Reviews

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Darkly
Ingenious YA psychological thriller!
Night Film is my favourite psychological thriller, so it's very high praise for me to declare Darkly its perfectly twisted little sister. Darkly contain... READ MORE
Victoria at Aviemore
Darkly
Amazingly twisted!!!
This book was such a additive read, I kept thinking about it during my day to day activities & guessing what might happen and I think due to this - I guess... READ MORE
Carrie (Store 823)

Synopsis

What would you kill for? Settle in for a spine-tingling Halloween read full of dark twists and turns, romance and chills.

The New York Times bestselling author of Night Film spins a twisted web in this masterful YA psychological thriller about the dark legacy of a notorious games designer.

“Pessl is gargantuan: wildly smart, extremely surprising, a wordsmith, a queen. Read her." – E. Lockhart, #1 New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars

A seemingly ordinary high school student. A mysterious summer internship. And a legendary games designer, now dead.

When an ad for an internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation appears, Arcadia 'Dia' Gannon rushes to apply. Veda's game-making empire, Darkly, was renowned for its ingenious and terrifying games back in the day and Dia is as obsessed with them as anyone.

The remaining games are priced like highly sought-after works of art, with the rarest and most notorious commanding tens of millions of dollars at auction. Now, Dia is thrust into the enigmatic heart of the operation. But who are these other interns? Why do they all seem to have something to hide? And why was she really chosen? It soon becomes clear that this summer will be the most twisted Darkly game of all.

PRAISE FOR DARKLY

"Complex and captivating." Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows.

"Creative and unique, this is a special treat for readers who wish Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s The Inheritance Games had been set in the world of Jumanji." School Library Journal

"[A] crazy, funny, addictively suspenseful story." The Washington Post

"Like a Darkly game, the whole is mesmerizing, improbable, deeply compelling, and best enjoyed after dark....Roll the die, flip the card: We have a winner." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Twists and connections are satisfying and surprising in this high-stakes thriller by Pessl, who takes familiar YA tropes and turns them on their head using confident prose." Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Full of atmospheric thrills." Los Angeles Times

"Pessl set forth with an ambitious concept, and the result is thrilling, mysterious, and full of shocking twists through the very last page." Booklist

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
  • ISBN: 9781529529197
  • Number of pages: 416
  • Dimensions: 198 x 128 x 32 mm
  • Weight: 280g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

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Darkly
Fast paced fun
Teen/YA and adult puzzle thriller. For those that like clever, fast paced stories. The plot is simple overall, but nicely complicated within. In fact so co... READ MORE
Peter Thorburn
Darkly
A labyrinthine gem
Darkly is a labyrinthine gem of a book. It follows a dark and twisty path, but the final destination is more than worth the journey. I was initially so... READ MORE
Emily (ashortbooklover)
Darkly
YA thriller that doesn't overcome an unbelievable premise
17-year-old Arcadia ‘Dia’ Gannon knows that she’s the school weirdo. Her mum, Gigi, owns an antiques shop in Eminence, Missouri but it’s Dia who keeps it ... READ MORE
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