"Darling" by Mercedes M Yardley is a novel that delves into the dark and haunting aspects of a small town with a troubled past. While the premise is intriguing, the execution leaves room for improvement, earning it a three-star rating.

The story follows Cherry LaRouche, who escaped the ominous town of Darling, Louisiana, only to be reluctantly drawn back after her mother's death. Returning to her childhood home with her children, Cherry is faced with unsettling occurrences, including the discovery of murdered children. The eerie atmosphere and the sinister undertones of the town add a layer of suspense to the narrative.

However, the novel falls short in fully capitalizing on its promising premise. The pacing is uneven, with moments of tension interspersed with lulls that can disrupt the flow of the story. The character development, particularly that of Cherry, feels somewhat lacking, making it challenging for readers to fully connect with and invest in the protagonist's journey.

The supernatural elements and the town's dark history are intriguing, but at times they may come across as underexplored. The plot, while engaging, could benefit from a more thorough exploration of the mysteries surrounding Darling and its malevolent forces.

On a positive note, Yardley demonstrates a talent for creating atmospheric settings that evoke a sense of unease. The whispers in the walls and the mysterious skittering on the roof contribute to the eerie ambiance of Darling, enhancing the novel's overall atmosphere.

In conclusion, "Darling" has the potential for a gripping tale of horror and suspense, but it falls short in fully realizing its ambitions. The uneven pacing and underdeveloped characters detract from the overall impact of the narrative. Despite its shortcomings, the book might appeal to readers who enjoy atmospheric and mysterious small-town settings with a touch of the supernatural.

I am a huge Peter Pan fanatic. I collect different editions and retellings. I also love horror.
So I was very excited when I got this as a man ARC.
However, I struggled to get invested or stay interested.
That may be a me-problem and I will try it again in the future.
I wanted so bad to love this.

This is my first Mercedes Yardley book, and it might be my last. Although, I have been reading reviews from other readers and most of them say that this book is sort of "out of the box" when it comes to Yardley and what she has written in the past.

I just could not get invested in this book or its characters. It felt very much like a mix between Sharp Objects (which I did not enjoy) and something else I can't quite pinpoint. Either way, the writing was fine but the plot felt very dragged out. Also, the romance subplot was a little strange to me in a book like this? The ending was pretty anti-climactic for me personally and I have seen that quite a few other readers also feel this way. When everything came to a head, it was just over.

Unfortunately this book was a bit of a struggle for me. It took me ages to get into and overall was a bit of a let down. There was so much going on, maybe too much, yet I just couldn’t connect with the characters.

It's a parent's worst nightmare when their child disappears and though... I couldn't connect with the protagonist. The mystery part was boring also.

Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley brings to you story of a town, Darling. A small town with a history is definitely going to captivate you. Although, the plot took a long time to reach somewhere, still it did not lose its charisma. Cherry, a caring mother is running from her abusive husband, lands in her hometown as she has no other place to go. And, after that the plot takes many twists and turns but you need to be patient to enjoy this. The only thing I could not understand was Cherry's character. She is a caring mother, no doubt, but her relations with every other man in the town was totally a no from me. The climax was a bit different.

Definitely 4 stars from me. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an opportunity to read and review the book.

I'm a diehard fan of Mercedes M. Yardley so anything she puts out is gold. Darling felt different than most Yardley joints, it's hard to put a finger on why. It feels a little bleaker, a little less whimsical than what I've read before. No matter what the difference is, Darling is a great read. Compelling in it's narrative, and Yardley's dialog is a joy. Keep your eyes peeled for a character you may recognize.

While the ending left something to be desired I still really enjoyed this book!

“At the age of sixteen, Cherry LaRouche escaped the clutches of Darling, Louisiana. Cherry and her children return to Cherry's childhood house following her mother's death, where the walls murmur and something horrible skitters across the roof at night.
The bodies of several murdered children crop up as Cherry tries to reintegrate into a town where evil is spreading like an illness.
Cherry is forced to confront the true horrors of Darling when her own kid goes missing.”

If you’re looking for a southern gothic I’d recommend this!

Starts as a lighthearted read with plenty of southern charm, ends up gripping with so much darkness.
A little muddled trying to be so many things at once but still a very good read that stayed on my mind for a while afterwards.

I adore Yardley’s writing, and this book was no exception. I was immediately pulled into this story. It’s atmospheric and haunting in a beautiful way—something this author does so well. Yardley is able to find the beauty in horror and make it come alive on the pages. I felt So much empathy for Cherry and her kids, and honestly all of the characters just came alive in this story. It was tough to put down and I just flew through the last half of the book without stopping. Not my favorite read from this author, but still a solid story that I’d recommend.

A classic example of trying to juggle a few too many balls at the same time. By trying to be so many things for so many people, certain elements end up muddled, and though the characters and action are enough to keep the attention, one can't help but think that a more streamlined narrative might have been more effective.

Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley starts out as a light read but quickly turns dark & chilling.

Darling has its demons and Cherry worked hard to escape Darling and everyone there when she was 16. However, her mom passes and she’s left the house which may be the best restart for her and her children.

Some of the town seems bitter she left but others are welcoming. It also gives her children a chance to meet their uncle for the first time. Things start out well but the house seems like it’s making weird noises at night and she’s sure she can hear something move across the roof at night too. Then she finds out kids have been disappearing in the town and their bodies start turning up.

Cherry’s daughter goes missing from her bed overnight and now she’s got to figure out who in this town could be responsible before her daughter’s body is the next to be found in pieces.

This was a truly dark and twisty read and I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to @netgalley , the author and @blackspotbooks for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A big thank you to @blackspotbooks @netgalley for this #gifted copy!

Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley

After a long absence, Cherry and her two children move back into her childhood home and are greeted by sinister forces.

⁉️ Would you stay in a house that might be haunted?

What it has to offer:

💨 Quick Read
🔍 Mystery
👀 Creepiness
💋 Romance

Quick thoughts:

✨ Lyrical writing that reads quickly
✨ A general feeling of unease throughout
✨ A touch of a sweet romance
✨ I devoured this one in one sitting

Atmospheric and engaging, it was the perfect amount of uneasiness mixed with hope.

Overall thoughts:

📝 I really liked the writing style in this one, it was lyrical and kept me engaged with the storyline.

💨 I read this in one sitting so it’s a quick read.

🔍 There is a mystery element to this story that was interesting.

👀 The atmosphere is definitely creepy in this one and makes you question the intentions of every character you meet.

💋 I’m a sucker for romance so I was happy to see a little bit of a romantic subplot but it was bittersweet.

💜 The thing I loved the most was the writing in this one, it was just executed beautifully.

If you like horror stories then this would be a really good read for you!

Another swing and a miss in my October horror novel journey. As other reviewers noted, this book tries to do too much, be too much. While Yardley is a talented writer, she certainly has a propensity for the florid and could have really used some tough love from an editor.

The book suffers from an identity crisis - is it supernatural, a murder mystery, a romance, or meditations on the evils of charming small towns a la <I>Salem's Lot</I>? All of the above! Cherry's house whispers horrid things to her and she dreams of dead children, but there's also a serial killer on the loose and the town itself may or may not be possessing its citizens and turning them into demons (or are people just awful by nature? You decide). Meanwhile, Cherry is caught in a love triangle and spends most of her time parenting her special needs son (which is fine and all, she's a good mother). I am not a fan of children, especially not in my horror, and I found the emphasis on parenting and the focus on the children to be exhausting.

The book is also very, very white and very heterosexual. There's a lot of emphasis on Cherry's love life, and Yardley continuously describes her as white and thin in an almost fetishistic manner. Her white hands, her thin arms, her delicate bare feet... it's as though Yardley wants Cherry to be both a strong mama bear capable of surviving the most awful things, and a fragile damsel in distress in need of rescuing. The only named character of color is also described rather fetishistically, with repeated mentions of his "liquid eyes" and beautiful features. The only diversity here in the form of Cherry's special needs son.

TW for just about everything under the sun: blood, gore, rape, violence against women, violence against children, murder, incest, you name it, Yardley threw it into the crockpot.

From the publisher:
Darling has its demons.
Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she is forced to return after her mother’s death, Cherry and her children move back into her childhood home where the walls whisper and something sinister skitters across the roof at night.

While Cherry tries to settle back into a town where evil spreads like infection, the bodies of several murdered children turn up. When Cherry’s own daughter goes missing, she’s forced to confront the true monsters of Darling.

Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley was published August 23rd, 2022 by Black Spot Books.

My thoughts:

The book comes across to me as Southern Gothic. Cherry is something of an antihero. This book is her story. She is a little hard to like at times because of the choices she makes. So many of those choices bring her trouble. Moving back to Darling is one of them, though it's kind of going from the frying pan into the fire.

Setting wise, there's the somewhat dilapidated house that Cherry has inherited. She and her two small children move in even though it's creepy. And then there is the town of Darling as a setting with characters. Some of the townspeople treat her well at first. Some treat her badly from the beginning, mainly the cashier at the one grocery store in town. The ugliness of the cashier in her treatment of Cherry is just the tip of the iceberg.

There were other things too that lead me to believe that this is a Southern Gothic piece. There's a suggestion of the supernatural. The way that Cherry's past affects her present as well as how some of the characters seemed to be one thing, but were really another also made me think that way as did the exploration of madness.

The plot moves along at a decent rate. There are some lulls, but many of them have a creepy aspect and help advance the plot. I didn't expect the way it ended.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. Overall it's not a bad example of a Southern Gothic piece. The characters are interesting - even the unlikable ones. The plot moves decently. And the ending is twisty. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy gothic stories, those who enjoy thrillers and suspense, and some horror readers.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect my review.

There are some elements here that could make a strong southern gothic story but unfortunately there are too many things left unresolved, too many elements neatly explained without truly being grounded enough to make the reveal hold, and far too many story elements that just aren't solid enough for us to care about what happens by the end. It also suffers from issues like too many men vying for the heroine, a token Indian man who exists to be a tragic figure and scapegoat/marytyr/red herring, an unreliable hero and heroine we can never quite trust to fit those roles, several walk in side characters we hardly know enough to care about, lots of deaths that hardly register, and an overarching plot about a town rules by evil that only exists in the sense that the townspeople are constantly acting so out of pocket for the experience they're having simultaneously existing along with a plot about a child killer whose reveal is neither revealing or more than a brief epilogue. This reads like a first or second draft with a decent start which falls apart more and more as the book goes on, unraveling the reader's investment as it does.

Darling has its demons.
Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she is forced to return after her mother’s death, Cherry and her children move back into her childhood home where the walls whisper and something sinister skitters across the roof at night.
While Cherry tries to settle back into a town where evil spreads like infection, the bodies of several murdered children turn up. When Cherry’s own daughter goes missing, she’s forced to confront the true monsters of Darling.

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

DNF at 18%
I managed to get to 18% before deciding to dnf and I was so bored throughout it all. From the apparent perfection of Cherry/Cerise and although her hometown views her as a bad girl for various reasons – she ran off with a man, left him, had a baby with another man, made sure her kids were fed and dressed (but that was with a job that left them clutching their pearls) but she’s still seen as the ‘darling’ of the town. Two men want to be with her, or maybe only one really did, but I saw absolutely no chemistry with Cerise (in fact it felt like she had no chemistry with anyone, including her kids) with either of them. The whole spiel of all the townspeople disliking her because of her choices but then also constantly showing up to help her annoyed me so much. Either have them dislike her outright or have them help her out.

The language trying to be flowery but it just fell flat for me and somehow added to trying to make Cerise out to be an amazing mom because she’s great with the kids even when they’re ‘difficult’. It’s just all of that just tried to make Cerise a strong character and I didn’t feel it at all.

So the older kid, Jonah, is disabled. It’s said he has a genetic disorder and although it’s not mentioned anywhere, he’s autistic and largely non-verbal too. The author said in the acknowledgements that she wrote Jonah based on/for her disabled kid – and then she names his diagnoses – so we basically know what Jonah’s diagnoses are. I don’t know when the book is set because the year is never mentioned. Phones, their cords and cradles are mentioned but seeing as the book is set in a small town it makes sense for them to still have corded phones – let’s say still into the 2000’s. Jonah wears headphones, but they’re actually not a new thing (dating back somewhere to the 1800s, surprisingly). All of that is to say – the r-slur is used a few times in the book – when is this book set? Their usage of it felt so casual). Either way, I don’t like the slur – whenever the book is set.

I didn’t like how Cerise spoke about Jonah. Specifically there was this line where he wakes up and his eyes are like dulled by the reality of life. And then it says he’s ‘only fully himself when asleep’ which annoyed me a lot because he stims a lot. So what? He’s not himself when he stims? Stimming even helps the person feel more like themself. I stim (ADHD, not autistic) and stimming is something I like to do – it calms me down, it shows when I’m happy etc. Stimming isn’t only for happy or angry. sometimes we just like to make noise for fun! Also it felt like he was only there to prop Cerise up, to show how good of a mom she was because she’s taking care of him.

Darling is a small town located in Louisiana that is full of gossip, small minds, and evil. Cherry LaRouche was the golden girl of Darling until she got pregnant in high school and left her small town behind with her new husband, Ephraim Lewis. Cherry thought she was on to the life of her dreams, but her dead beat abusive husband abandoned her when she gave birth to a son with disabilities. Cherry tried to make a life for her and her children, but her life is a perpetual struggle. When her mother dies, Cherry regretfully moves back to Darling into a somewhat dilapidated three story home with lots of land. When she returns, jealous women scorn her, men line up to date her, and troubled life becomes even worse. Apparently there is evil lurking in Louisiana as little children are being found murdered and of course Cherry’s young daughter goes missing.
I like Southern Gothic horror. I like small town horror, but this story was just sort of meh. It was a fast read, but I hated all of the attention that Cherry received from pretty much every single person in town, especially the fact that she has two men fighting for her attention almost immediately and who have been pining away for her for years. This “romantic love triangle” really brought everything down for me. This could have been so much better had the focus been more on town of Darling and less about the love interests of Cherry.

The creepy vibes of this one really appealed and I was keen to learn all about the demons that Cherry’s hometown is hiding. Yardley sets out the dire situation of Cherry’s circumstance early on in the story, and her distaste for Darling including how much she loves her two children.

Upon her return to Darling, it took a while for Cherry’s story to start getting anywhere. I found it hard to connect with her and it felt really abnormal that practically all the men she meets are utterly obsessed with her - but I suppose that’s the depth of the evil that runs through the town and its inhabitants.

Whilst there were some moments that started on the creepy feeling, overall it just felt a little lacking for me.

Thanks to NetGalley, the team at Back Spot Books and the author for the opportunity to read this review copy.