Cherry escaped her hometown of Darling at sixteen, with no idea ever to return. But now eight years later, with two children and no money, she is desperate. When she receives a call to say her mother has died, leaving Cherry – now Cerise – the family home, on the condition she lives there for five years, she reluctantly returns. The house and the town are full of the darkness and negativity she ran from, and when young children begin to disappear, it seems that the darkness may be coming for Cerise.

The description of this book, the dark crime and the hint of the supernatural, appealed to me. The idea of a malevolent town is creepy enough that I was prepared to be up all night. Other than some admittedly heinous descriptions of child murder, I found little else sinister in the first part of the book. Cerise returns to the town, and encounters her brother in law Mordechai, old flame Runner, Rosemary, an old friend, and kindly elderly neighbour Ardeth. She quickly begins an affair with Runner, while Mordechai becomes her champion and help her with the house.

Cerise’s personality seemed quite inconsistent to me. While I liked the idea that she struggled to retain “Cerise” when she was back in Darling, the frequent and quick switches between mama-Cerise and Darling-girl-Cherry were sometimes dizzying.

From the off Cerise refers to the town of Darling as a monster. I found this to be a bit harsh, as until about halfway through, all the reader knows is that Cherry didn’t get on with her mother, and is now victim of some vicious banter from one-time acquaintances. As the idea of the town as a monster developed, there were some genuinely creepy moments.

Darling just didn’t do it for me. While the themes and ideas were promising, the pace of the action was frustrating and heavily weighted in the second part. I was also frustrated that some very serious and upsetting subjects dealt with rather dismissively, seemingly just dropped for a quick jolt.

A word on some inconsistencies. Within the first few pages it is mentioned that Cherry left Darling at sixteen, when she was pregnant. A few pages later her eldest child is described as five years old, then a few pages later as seven. Cherry laments that it must be hard for a friend from school who has missed out on having children. By my calculation these women can only be 24 or 25? At one point Cherry wears a skirt she’s had “for fifteen years.” And while Cherry became Cerise, the name is written on one occasion as “Cherise.” These might just be little things, but for me, discrepancies like this can really interrupt the flow.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! Cerise (Cherry) escapes the town of Darling at 16 with the father of her unborn child. A few years later, abandoned by said man and with 2 children in toe, cherry is a shell of herself. She receives word that jer mother has passed away and left the house she grew up in to her. Cherry doesn't want to go back but alone with 2 children and struggling, she has no choice.

Children are going missing in Darling, people are turning in each other, things go bump in the night. This book keeps you glued to the pages!

I want more

It’s probably a 2.5 stars for me. It was a good read in the part that I had no clue what was going to happen, that rarely happens. Most books are pretty predictable with their story lines….this one is definitely not. As soon as you get the sense of where the story is going it’s takes a sharp right turn. Was not a big fan of the main character….she was predictable and an idiot. Also, couldn’t really tell you who the ‘handsome butcher’ was….was he even real? Or was it just the hysteria of the small town??? I don’t know. I feel like I had so many questions throughout this book and even more at the end. At the end I thought okay that explains a lot, I get it and then hello handsome butcher……I no longer get it and who was the handsome butcher????

Wow!
I read this book in one sitting. It sucked me in from the first page.

Cherry gets sucked back into the small hometown that she clawed her way out of so many years before. And like all small towns that you have to claw your way out of, it is crazy. The people are crazy. The events are crazy....
Much like my own small town that sucked me back in. All the crazy checks out. Humans are the real monsters.
POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD:


I loved everything about this book! My only *slight* complaint is that I knew about Daisy the whole time. But maybe we were supposed to? It was perfectly setup to know what was going on there.
Everything else was amazing!

“Happy is for people who know how to be calm.”
Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley

Wow! This was a creepy page turner. Cherise “Cherry” Larouche goes back to her town of Darling, LA shortly after she learns her mother has passed and left her childhood home to her. Cherry had left Darling determined to never come back to the town that hid darkness and abuse and the walls of the house that whispered in the night.

With no money to her name and concerned about keeping a roof over her head, Cherry returns to her hometown with her two small children in tow, Jonah and Daisy. Upon her return, she finds a friendship with Mordachi, who is Jonah’s uncle and a romance with an old acquaintance. Darling however has its secrets and evil seems to be lurking in the shadows. Small children have gone missing and are found in pieces in the town. And soon her own daughter goes missing. As Cherry searches for Daisy, she starts seeing who the monsters are in her town.

I received this read from @netgalley. It was a twisty and dark read. Please note that there is some triggering content. I enjoyed the story line, and have questions about that epilogue! If you have read this or end up reading it (it publishes on August 23, 2022) um pls, reach out! I need to discuss!

☆ ☆ ☆.5/5

I loved everything about this book. The writing, the characters and the storyline had me turning page after page wanting to know what happened. It reminded me of the movie Haunting Hills even though it was a totally different premise. It’s still a great book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something good to read!

If I have said it once, I have said it a million times - if you want to create a good horror novel with some serious fright, you have to have a simple storyline with very few characters. Why? This allows for the expansion of atmosphere, a better control of pace and a more intense amount of fright along with a nice heavy-hitting denouement due to the rush of the climax. Apart from that, you will need good character development and fleshed-out themes and symbols, these are secondary in order to help the reader make more sense of the story. What you don't want under any circumstance ever is thousands of useless characters scattering around the story making it more complicated than it has to be. Why? The reader can't get lost in the terror and nightmare of the narrative. The more you keep introducing characters and places, the less chance you have of letting your reader breathe in the atmosphere and key scenes. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened with this book: Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley.
Now, let's start off with what I enjoyed about the book to begin with something nice and positive. The concept of the story is brilliant. A woman returning back to her home after her mother dies in order to see over it for five years. She has two small children and she is a single parent. Obviously, the offering of a character as a single parent brings the question of the other parent into the story naturally. As the concepts of the story evolve, we get to see more of the struggles of single parenthood, especially where women are concerned. That was really it for the positives.
There were too many characters. In a horror novel, you want to keep your character circle small and well-developed. The more the reader knows about a few characters involved, the more they are attached to them, the more empathy they have for them and the more intense it feels when they go through some horrible things. Unfortunately, because the cast of the story is so large, even where minor characters are concerned, you end up kind of getting lost in a who's who. You don't really know Cherise as well as you would want to, but there are many characters whom I feel that if they were cut out of the narrative, it would not make too much of a difference. For example: that scene at the shop with a woman called Wendy, that could have very easily been left out entirely and not much would change in the story.
There wasn't must atmosphere and when there was sometimes it felt a bit rushed for me. This is more of a personal opinion. I like my atmospheres to go on for pages and pages, the longer the better. But these atmospheres for me, were a bit short and a bit rushed. I mean, in the pace of horror they are conceptually interesting and probably liked by a lot of people. But, as a personal opinion, it wasn't for me. I prefer the Victorian-length descriptions where things go on for ages as far as the eye can see.
In conclusion, I thought the story was a great idea, the character of Cherise could have been developed more by her past rather than her interaction with random characters who generally don't do anything for the story. But on the whole, I feel like if you enjoy horror novels with short chapters and a lot of pace then you will certainly like this one. It just wasn't my thing, but it is probably yours. Definitely take a read of this very different horror novel.