Thank you, NetGalley and HarperTeen, for offering me an e-audiobook of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Jo is the sole inheritor of her late grandmother’s estate. Her grandmother also included specific care instructions for the grounds that are quite strange. This narrative is about being estranged from one’s family, searching for belonging, the mystery surrounding Jo’s memories of her father and his death, and the fae. It takes a long, long time before this story begins to pick up and make sense. A large factor that contributed to this was the writing style and the characterization of Jo. She seems to be sanctimonious and judgmental of her family and that forced her to feel estranged from them. It is partly Jo’s own doing. It was frustrating to not want to shake some sense into this character. I found myself not able to care or pay attention to the story too much after I realized this.

Overall, I think The Cherished is okay. I personally wouldn’t place it in the horror genre, but I think that just deals with my subjective opinions of horror.

Being a teenager is hard enough when you've spent your whole life being told that your dad suffered from hallucinations and you might have inherited the same mental illness. When Jo's grandmother dies she leaved her house to Jo. Her mother wants her to sell it immediately and evict the strange collection of tenants. When they visit, there is clearly something more going on. Through a relatable protagonist readers are drawn into a deliciously creepy and detailed world where human work to live peacefully with their fairy neighbors and a girl who has always felt out of place discovers where she belongs.

Not really much positive to say. The characters were annoying, the writing was off, and I just couldn't engage in the story.

This was a very slow angst teenager adventure.
From inheriting a house that her fathers adopted mother gave her.

Becomes an evil creature guard.
She lets them out ‘accidentally’ and the faerie steal a baby. Turns out she feels guilty…
And decided to take the inheritance and keep the gate guarded.

Would not read again.
But if she goes into the faerie world, I would read that.