Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC!

First, this is a beautiful cover! I was in awe of it everytime I went to read the book. BUT, I agree with a few of the reviews I have seen. The way the author describes mental illness and race can definitely be taken as ableist and offensive. There should have been better editing and honestly, some of that could been edited out considering how poorly it was done. I also agree that this book was SUPERRR slow and hard to get into for at least 40-50% of the book. I can definitely appreciate the way the fairies were written, as their evil and mischievous selves and there was vivid imagery painted. I enjoyed some of it, but a lot was hard to overlook. Also...Abigail sucked.

This book had so much potential but ultimately fell flat for me. The mother daughter dynamic was rough and written immaturely at times. The overall “villains” of the story felt ableist in writing and it made me more sad than anything. It felt a bit outdated.

This book was terrible. It was hard for me to get through it to be honest. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. The synopsis was so intriguing but the author failed at executing it in a way that readers would enjoy

Was such a lovely book! The writing and the imagery you can picture in your mind while reading was everything I need in a book

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this, but I wish I’d read the reviews before requesting it.

Similar to other reviewers, I did not appreciate the author’s descriptions of mental illness and race in this “book”. The characterizations were misguided at best and ableist and offensive. The writing itself also feels like someone’s poorly written fan fiction; the plot is all over the place, the MC hates their family, and is the epitome of “not like other girls”. Additionally, the useless parents/adults who rely on a child to solve their problems is a major mark against this.

My biggest frustration, however, comes from the fact that the “villains” in this are abused and mutilated children who are seen as inhuman monsters that must be destroyed. That just does not work for me.

I wanted to like this. I really did, but I really struggled with this book.

While the idea is very of original and sounds intriguing , it was not executed very well. I found the pacing of the book to be odd and it didn’t really pick up until 60-70% in. The first 2/3 of the story was slow and felt like it was filler- material.

The writing style just personally wasn’t for me.
With the pub date being in April 2023, I’m hopeful that there is time to critique some things.

Not the biggest fan. The synopsis sounded good and the cover is soooo cute. But it just didnt connect with me.

This was perfection. We have typical mother and daughter issues. our protagonist clearly loves her mom and is so annoyed with her. I loved their dynamic.
Then you have the estranged grandma leaving this girl a whole house to deal with. The house has a million issues and then you discover it has a very serious issue this girl can't quite understand, and neither can her mom who is focused on the obvious issues.
Mom almost loses her baby and our girl has to go back to the house alone to figure things out.
There are a lot of funny lines and some super scary stuff. It was amazing. Will there be a second book? I would read a series of these.

Okay so the cover of this book is so cute. I wanna buy it just based on that.
But the story was kind of ehhh. I wish I liked it more. But I am so grateful for the ARC.

I was very curious and interested about the premise. But when reading, the way the writing style changed constantly from short and stilted to long winded and run-on, I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be reflective of the character and we had an unreliable narrator on our ands or not. Honestly, it was a struggle to get through this book and it is not one I would recommend to patrons.

As always, thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! So, I had just finished reading Wilder Girls when I got approved for this ARC and lo and behold, the blurb says that it’s perfect for people who enjoyed Wilder Girls. Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book as much as I hoped to. I found the pacing to hold back the true potential of this book. It seemed to take a really long time for things to truly pick up in this story which is unfortunate because when they finally do pick up, it’s magical. I also didn’t really find myself connecting with any characters and actually found myself really disliking Abigail in particular. I know, I know. We’re seeing a mom from a teen’s perspective, so it is a bit skewed. But Abigail was truly a bit insufferable. This book spent so much time focusing on a poor mother-daughter relationship that it didn’t have enough time to really showcase the true mystery and magic that it was all about. The second half of the book does pick up speed and make up for certain things in some ways. However certain repeating comments made about weight and race/skin color were also extremely off putting. Unfortunately, I don’t think this was the book for me.

This book needs very serious, editing, both on the flow of the narrative, and also the way in which it approaches the subject matter. I some of the things in this book, make it feel far older than it should be.

Horrifying and feminist, THE CHERISHED brought so much nuance and freshness to the table. I think this one will stick around with people for a while.

I really wanted to like this book but it just wasn’t for me. This story has a lot of potential but needs some filling out.

This book has an interesting premise, the cover looks really cool but it just didn't resonate with me. I didn't like the style if writing or the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

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I have to admit that I struggled greatly with this book. I did not connect with any of the characters. They seemed to be quirky for the sake of being quirky. The beginning of the plot was very, very slow - things didn't puck up until about halfway though the book...and even then, the payoff wasn't worth it to me. The lore was fairly interesting, but after spending half of the book only being given half-hints and hidden meanings, I was fed up. Essentially, the worldbuilding is clunky, I just didn't care about the characters or the events by the time things started happening.

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Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this as an e-ARC, and it's the first time I DNF'ed something...

I hate giving negative reviews, but this one just didn't do it for me. The synopsis sounded so promising, but the writing was hard to get through and halfway through the book, I gave up on it. I couldn't connect with the characters and I just got bored with the story.

This book has an excellent cover. Unfortunately, that's the only thing about it that can recommend. Gen Z, the target audience for this book, has (as a whole) a heightened sense of justice and acceptance. As I started reading The Cherished, I had the distinct sense that this was written in 1978 but only published in 2022. The dialogue between Jo and her mother, Abigail, doesn't ring true. Jo has a nickname for her yet-unborn half-sibling: "amoebert," which feels very much like something Beezus might say about Ramona.

Jo's father is described as "Someone dangerously broken. Plus, he was dark-skinned, Hispanic looking. He could be from anywhere. He might even be Arab."

Look, I'm not for canceling authors and policing every word that comes out of people's mouths. But this description pulled my up short, because "dangerous" is associated with "dark skin." I don't exactly know how to parse, "He might even be Arab." Is that the worst thing he could be? Really?

Evidently, Jo's father was also mentally ill. This is referred to, again, as being a "severely damaged" man; a "schizophrenic in a farm truck" who married Jo's mom but eventually ended up in the "loony bin."

On a pedantic note, I disliked that the book was in third-person present tense. It didn't seem intense enough to warrant that sort of immediacy in tone.

Sixteen-year-old Jo doesn’t feel like she fits in with her straight-laced family, and hasn’t ever since her father’s death. Her memories of him, though, while filled with love and fun, are also full of holes — things almost remembered. Things that feel dangerous. When her estranged grandmother dies, leaving her the family home alongside a mysterious letter, Jo may finally have a chance to solve the mystery of her memories and find where she truly belongs.

I liked the concept of this book and what it did with faerie lore quite a lot. It was interesting, and I liked the way it was clearly tied in to the history of the town and the family. However, this is currently being billed as a “visceral horror thriller in the vein of Midsommar” and it was decidedly NOT that. It’s more like a slightly darker version of the Spiderwick Chronicles. I wouldn’t categorize it as horror at all, although it could probably get there if some of the “scary” aspects were explored more thoroughly. The character relationships also seemed a bit stilted to me, and I particularly would have like more complexity and growth in the relationship between Jo and her mother.

This is still a good ways out from publication, so there could still be rewrites (and hopefully a sensitivity read) happening that would get this book closer to its vision. I still enjoyed it overall — it’s a quick read that should appeal to anyone who likes a good dark fairy tale.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy to review*

This book could have been a lot eerier, a lot more atmospheric, a lot darker, a lot... better. Nothing goes far enough, and the plot os so slow. The build-up takes forever, and where it leads is underwhelming.