Cover Image: The Cherished

The Cherished

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Member Reviews

Okay, so here's the thing. I haven't wanted to write this review because writing negative reviews is hard for me. But I think this one needs to be written. I loved the idea behind this. The description had me genuinely excited to read the book. But I didn't get further than chapter 4. Part of it is genuinely the writing style. The style is a bit stilted, and there are some stylistic choices that make the narrative very hard to follow.

The big problem is the straight-up offensive language used in this book about race, mental health, and fatness. Like, what in the world. The disrespect and disregard shown for people not like the author was infuriating. I won't be recommending this book to anyone and will likely actively encourage people not to read it. Congrats on the very-rare-from-me 1-star rating.

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This book had me very confounded. I really don't understand what the author was going for, YA horror? The cover seems to imply that, but I feel that the cover, albeit beautiful, is misleading to the tone of the story. I didn't think this book was good, but not horrible either, just very confusing in tone. The subject matter was fairly dark, but written lightly, especially the ending. The first half felt very jumbled and clunky, but it does improved during the second half. The majority of the book just seemed to be the MC complaining about her mother's marriage to her step dad, instead of the actual plot about fairies.

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I really wanted to like this book, but it just wasn't for me. As some other reviews have described, there are a quite a few racial, fatphobic, and generally problematic sections towards the beginning of the book which made it very difficult for me to get into the story. I also found some of it to be a bit repetitive. I see how the author was likely trying to make certain characters unlikeable but it didn't work for me. I've chosen not to finish it at about 1/3 of the way through.

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Unfortunately, I cannot give a great review of this book because I found it to be too filled with underlying racist themes, racist comments, fat phobic comments, homophobic comments, and terrible descriptions and slurs for mental illness. I love a good YA Horror book, but even adult horror doesn't bring this level of evil phobia to the page.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the e-Arc.

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i could not finish this book. the scenes were so graphic i had to put it down and i couldn’t pick it back up. i tried multiple times to read it because i love horror and i can usually handle a lot but this was too much for me.

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Typically I give a book 100 pages before I DNF... I didn't even make it that far with this one. I couldn't find a single thing to like about it

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What started off as what should’ve been a interesting premise turned into a long chore of a read. Most of the books is filled with unlikeable characters with fat phobic and harmful mental health dialogue. The story doesn’t begin to pickup until the 75% mark and at that point I was left wishing the story had ended 50 pages ago.

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I thought this was pretty good. I am not big into the whole horror genre but this one had me hooked. I liked the characters and the writing was easy to follow. Plus I flew through this book. I love when that happens. This book would be perfect to read during the spooky season.

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okay hear me out. i really wanted to like this book. truly, i did. but alas, it did not work for me. i'm so sorry! but i'm so thankful to netgalley for allowing me to read it early!!!

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The Cherished is the story of Jo whose life is upended when her paternal grandmother dies and leaves her a house. Jo's mother, anxious to sell, takes Jo to the house where they meet the odd caretaker Tom and a mysterious ward of the house, Hattie.

The Cherished is problematic at best. The way this book talks about mental health, fat people, and POC is quite unsettling. Additionally, Jo is super annoying. She hates her mother because she's pregnant? I don't understand. Also, I don't think I've ever come across another character (or person even) who says "ew" as much as Jo. We get it. Everything is ew. If that weren't enough to put you off this book the pace is excruciatingly slow.

While I think that this book had a good premise, it was very poorly executed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. However, I did not enjoy this book.

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As a fan of creepy novels, there was a lot I loved about this novel once I got into it. The house was well described and set the scene well for sinister occurrences and enjoyed the premise and the midpoint where things began to slot into place and the tension increased. For me fae are best when they're the dark versions linked to folklore which these were.
But I struggled with how some characters including Enzo Jo's father were described. In some respects, I could see the author was trying to show how different Jo was from the rest of her family and probably her maternal grandparents were racist, but there could have been better language to use. If it had continued throughout the book rather than just at the beginning, I'd have stopped reading.

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The premise of this book got me really intrigued and I was excited to pick it up, thinking it was going to be super dark and twisty, but it didn't quite reach what I was hoping it would. In a lot of books I want to root for or identify with the main character, but in this one it's hard to do that with the attitude that Jo has most of the book.

I did feel that the book was mysterious and I wanted to see where it was going, but it did seem like a lot of the story was set up in a way. There were also a lot of plot holes that never really god addressed. I almost feel like this was set up with the intent of there being more to the story or further books, but there isn't.

I wanted to really love this one more than I did, but in the end I was left a little dissatisfied. There were certainly moments where it was fun and I was enjoying it - and I feel with some editing and refinement it could definitely be bumped up higher as the premise was fantastic.

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I’m giving the book 2.5 stars. The idea was really good but execution didn’t live up to its potential. It wasn’t very well written and some of the ways people were described was insensitive. I don’t think calling a pregnant woman a whale, regarding a brown man as low class and a white woman as the “epitome of class,” calling someone a nazi because they were mean. I don’t think any of that is necessary, doesn’t add anything to the story or POV, just odd things people don’t say anymore. The ending wasn’t very satisfying but I’m not sure how else it could have been without making the book longer. I also think the first half could have been much shorter.

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I have conflicting feelings about this book. I feel like the beginning and ending are frivolously drawn out. The first 3 chapters could’ve easily been left out and the story still be comprehensive. I almost DNFed it about 20% of the way through, until I read a review that compares it to the Labyrinth.
I wouldn’t totally agree with this comparison, but I will say the baby theft, fae being evil little demons, and a teenage girl who must solve it all match up. I’m not sure why we don’t get to experience faerie world, but I didn’t hate the mystery of it. I can only say that this book is vibe heavy, frustrating at times, and definitely not for everyone.

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The Cherished is such a beautifully written YA fantasy. There are horror vibes throughout. The world-building is outstanding. The story is well written with an enchanting storyline and well-developed characters that engage from start to finish. The world is atmospheric and feels real with vivid descriptions and rich imagery. I cannot get enough. Highly recommended. Be sure to check out The Cherished today.

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Jo has not had a relationship with her Gammy since she received a horrible scar as a child. But when her Gammy dies and leaves her a house and work to do, Jo must "do what must be done".

I loved the premise of this novel. There was the feeling of uneasiness as soon as Jo and her mother set foot on the property. But ultimately the book did fall flat. Jo is an ungrateful child that seems to complain about everything. It is not endearing. Add to that how her mother is, I found it hard to like them.

However, the characters of Tom and Hattie are intriguing. You know something is up with them the moment Jo meets them. But it's when we truly find out what they are that they become the best characters in the book.

Then there's the writing. It wants to be terrifying and pull you in with its visuals, but at many moments it was lacking. And I would honestly would have loved to get more than the little tidbits of Tom's point of view. Especially with the revelation about him near the end.

Overall, this wasn't a bad novel. It has the basics of a great concept and a few interesting characters. But I think it definitely needs to be fleshed out a touch more.

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I gave this book a four out of five stars. I really enjoyed this book. I loved how this book went and I wasn't expecting it but enjoyed it so much.

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I love the "woman inherits mysterious/sinister/weird/scary house from her deceased relative" trope that was going on here. It's an automatic read for me when I see that is the plot of a book. I like that Jo was developed fully - that's something else I like, when a single character in a single location is the main focus of a book. This story focuses on her fears, traumas, and findings in this house, and does get spooky/scary, but not too terrifying. I see that she is compared to Claire Legrand, Rory Power, and Danielle Vega. As someone who has read all of them, I can see how the comparison was made - each brings in the nuances of female trauma, often focusing on younger women.

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I don't read reviews before I start a book, I never want to sway my opinion before reading, especially for review books. I received an email about The Cherished and thought that the premise sounded interesting and spooky, albeit there were also a lot of comparisons in it so I was a little skeptical. I started the book and was not initially feeling it but knew that I should press on.

The book follows Jo, a teen who is just trying to get by. Her mother is with a new man, her stepdad, who is controlling and her mom is pregnant and moody. One day she gets a note from her dad's mother that she is leaving her the house in Vermont, and it is her duty to take care of it. The note seemed weird and ominous, but Jo and her mom decide to go look at the house and see what needs to be done to sell it.

From the start, we hate Jo's mom, she is moody and rages a lot and takes it out on Jo mentally and emotionally, and Jo has been through a lot. Jo was kidnapped by her dad when she was young and he was having what seemed to be a mental break. So there is a lot of this story that is about mental illness and trying to heal, but none of it is done particularly well, and oftentimes even horribly to be honest. I hated the mother, she was not supportive of her daughter at all, in any ways, not even in her healing process... the stepdad was controlling and their relationship was weird too. It all felt forced. Once the plot really got going, I expected more creepiness and horror, and while the ending was a little scary, I didn't find myself too freaked out. I knew what was coming, the creatures were expected, and their reasons didn't feel fully fleshed out. There were a lot of ways the story could have gone, that the village could have been more proactive about to help the situation but they were all so passive and sad.

Overall, I just didn't like the book all that much. It had some ok elements and I finished it versus just putting it aside, but it as only Ok and I am not sure I would recommend it. If you are looking for something odd, and mental health doesn't bother you, i.e. you can put aside how horribly it is discussed, you might enjoy this book. If you are into cute fairies - also not for you.

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I honestly am not sure what this book was aiming to be, but I’m guessing it didn’t achieve it. This book has some problematic and offensive language regarding race and mental illness to start with - which is a bold move in a book that is not set in a time period that could be leaned on to provide some basis for it.

In addition to that, there are mini entries between paragraphs, that I was thinking of as like diary entries of a not yet revealed other point of view…except those entries were never once explained. They were just dropped in for no apparent reason and didn’t add to, explain or support the story in any way.

As for the story itself, for me it was slow & stilted feeling for most of it. Closer to the end (maybe 75% in) I felt like maybe it was finally going somewhere, just to have it fall flat again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for early access to the e-ARC. My opinions & views are my own and while I hate to leave reviews that aren’t good, you just can’t win them all and this story didn’t work for me.

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