This book started slowly for me, but picked up after the first 50 pages or so. I appreciate Southern fiction and although the book sometimes leaned toward stereotype, I felt it captured the spirit of the place well. A haunting story that investigates generational pain. Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC; all opinions are my own.

I thought this was a good book. I enjoyed how the story paralleled the history storyline with the present.

CAROLINE GEORGE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!

Now that I've got that off my chest, let me start off my review with some words that encompass Curses and Other Buried Things: unexpected and unpredictable, deeply profound and moving, beautiful and tragic, storytelling at its finest.

Curses and Other Buried Things was so different from what I was expecting, and I think that's what made me love it even more. I've never read a book like this. It stands out from others. It's unique, it doesn't recycle over-used plot lines. And it's so dang cool.

The characters of this book had my heart. The storyline had my attention. The page-turner plot twists had me reading late into the night. There's such a rare depth and beauty in this story that I don't often find in YA fiction, and that's why Caroline is always an auto-buy author of mine.

I have *so* much to say about this story, but I feel like I don't have the right words because Caroline's book was full of the perfect words to summarize this beautiful and tragic novel. The themes were so impactful and timely and important, and they were conveyed so beautifully throughout the storyline and Caroline's poetic way with words. And don't even get me started on the plot itself, because it was just an insanely wild ride in the best possible way. Also, the faith aspect of this story was one of my favorites and the most prevalent in any of Caroline's books, which I so appreciated.

Cautionary: This book deals with characters who have hallucinations and deal with mental health struggles, so for readers who are more sensitive to this I just wanted to make you aware of this. Mentions of teen pregnancy and rape, but it's not explicit and only mentioned in a conversation between characters (readers don't see this happening in real time on the pages). Two MCs take their relationship too far (nothing on the page but it is mentioned that the girl would sneak off the boy's house and stay the night) and make wrong choices, but they recognize that they can grow from their mistakes and not repeat them, and we witness how they learn how to truly love each other in a healthy and pure way (SO appreciated that we get to see this!).

I think this may be my favorite Caroline George novel yet?! All this to say, I highly recommend this book for so many reasons--it's *so* worth the read, and I know I'll be rereading it again!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an eARC of Curses and Other Buried Things. A positive review was not required, only my honest opinion. All thoughts are expressly my own.

I need Goodreads to create an extra feature on their rating system, because there are five star books, and then there are books like this.

Caroline won me over with Dearest Josephine, impressed me further with The Summer We Forgot, and then left me speechless with Curses and Other Buried Things. Each was beautiful in their own unique way, but this one is truly a masterpiece.

To start with, Caroline has so perfectly captured rural, southern living. Our slang and colloquialisms, the quirks about our communities, all of it. She brought Berryville to life, both through the people who lived there and the landscape around them. Each character was so well developed and so real that I could see their equivalent in my own life.

The plot was equally as amazing. The way that the dual timelines wove together was seamless. The story builds so that the reader learns some life lessons, while still leaving some parts perfectly mysterious. I absolutely loved that so many of the plot points were based on Caroline's family history and psychological findings (the way she tied everything in was brilliant), and I also loved that while there was this level of reality, there was just enough left as a supernatural mystery.

Susana's story represents such a raw, honest side of humanity. The challenges and celebrations, the ups and the downs. I had to pause several times to fully appreciate some of the lines. Here's a few of my favorites:

"Live a life so impossible that when you die and people tell your story, listeners will question whether you're a tall tale."

"I think if you look for it, you'll find beauty in the uncomfortable things, the inconveniences, the uglies. You won't cover your mouth when the air fills with dust. You'll savor the earth, taste the smut. You'll stop looking for perfect and instead relish simply existing."

"You don't have to change all the dirt, but a little change - the addition of something new - does wonders. Even plants can't reach their full potential in familiar ground. Same goes for people, I suppose. We all need to change our dirt from time to time. . . Until you change your dirt, you won't know where you best grow."

I'm sure there are other things I could rave about, but suffice it to say this book was stunning.

So this book got me hooked, I read it in one day.
The characters had you invested in their lives and wanting to see what happened next. Susana is trying to figure out how to break a family curse and move forward with her life, or die trying..
Caroline George is a great author, she has a way of conveying a story so fluidly. Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of Curses and Other Buried Things by Caroline George