This book is so sharp and brilliant. This may be in my top list of the year! A southern gothic read that haunts a disapearing past. All the suspense and quirky energy is in this book!

The story's uniqueness did not disappoint. The concept of pecan children was like nothing I'd encountered before. The imaginative plot intrigued me.

However, I found I had a mixed experience reading this book. While I admired the book's imaginative leaps and bounds, I struggled to fully immerse myself in the narrative. At times, the pacing felt sluggish, and I found myself trudging through paragraphs, yearning for a quicker tempo to keep me engaged. Yet, amidst the frustration, there was a strange allure to the book's weirdness. Its refusal to conform to convention was both refreshing and oddly charming.

While the unpredictability of the storyline kept me engaged, I was left with lingering questions about the pecan children themselves. The loose ending, while open to interpretation, felt unsatisfying, leaving me wanting more closure.

While the story dares to be different and embraces its oddities, its pacing issues and unresolved mysteries prevent it from truly capturing my heart. Yet, for those willing to embrace the journey, it offers a glimpse into a world where the line between reality and imagination blurs, despite its flaws.

This book was outside of my normal reading habits. It's billed as Magical Realism, which I guess it was, but it definitely straddles the line between Magical Realism and straight-up Horror. It's not exceptionally bloody or anything like that, but even the peaceful chapters are kinda underwritten with a certain 'wrongness' that just kind of seeps through the surface-level story.

That story revolves around Lil and Sasha, twins who live on one of the last family-owned pecan farms in their town. Gradually, families have been selling their farms to corporations and moving away and their town has definitely seen better days. When Sasha's long-lost best friend/crush, Autumn, and Lil's ex-flame, Jason, reemerge, the twins start to experience things that aren't easily explained. These experiences build and leave the reader wondering what's going on. Then it's explained.

I was interested in this book all the way through. The subtle creepiness at the beginning and my genuine curiosity about where this was going at the end got me through this book pretty quickly. It reminded me of Mexican Gothic in some ways, although it was totally its own book. I would definitely recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

The Pecan Children starts off as an atmospheric look into two sisters, Lil and Sasha, and their last stand at their family-owned pecan farm. As a buyer edges in and threatens them, strange and ominous things begin happening and the sisters will have to decide whether fighting or fleeing is the right choice.

I began this book enjoying it and finding myself intrigued by the fractured relationship between the two sisters and the way the human threat (the buyer) was combined with the supernatural threat. There’s also some great food descriptions so that definitely didn’t hurt, and the way Connor brought this town was great. I didn’t mind the romances either that were set up for the two sisters…until I did.

The supernatural aspects and relationship between Lil and Sasha are so interesting yet the romance gets the most time. I couldn’t root for either of these couples because their dynamics were so bland. We spend time with Lil and her love interest in particular to a grating degree and the dialogue was hard to get through because there’s no sense of chemistry between them. They are childhood friends but they didn’t feel like people that had spent years together.

I enjoyed Sasha and her love interest a bit more but then we get a sudden POV from her love interest about 60% of the way through that threw me for a loop. I don’t mind sudden POVs but this one didn’t reveal anything especially interesting about the character and her dynamic with Sasha at all so I question why it was there. By this point, I was having a hard time getting through the book but did want to know more about the unnatural things going on.

Then the twist happened. Then another twist happened. I hated them both. They felt tacked on and shoved into the story for drama although I could see them being done well if there was more set up. They don’t feel earned and resolving them was too easy so it wasn’t satisfying to read. On top of this, I had zero investment in any of the characters at this point so I didn’t care what happened to them.

Overall, The Pecan Children had a promising start but as I read more, the lower my rating dropped. In particular, I’m disappointed in the way Sasha and Lil’s relationship never evolves throughout the book. There is so much time spent on the sisters and their respective love interests whom they have little to no chemistry with that I felt frustrated because I wanted to know more about Lil and Sasha and see their relationship either heal or completely break. The supernatural element is great in theory and were my favorite bits but ultimately felt poorly executed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This review will be published on my blog (clearsummers.wordpress.com) and Goodreads on May 21, 2024.

Gorgeous stunning horror realism with gorgeous world building and a hefty plant and soil motifs thanks for the arf

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This, on paper, is an absolute winner of a book for me. In theory, this should have been a five star, one that ended up on my favourites shelf - and aspects of it do belong there. The horror elements and the eventual climax are well worth the wait, but the build up was not quite what I had hoped for.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the first half of the book feels like it just takes too long to get where it's going to. There is so much that could be alluded to or explored in the early part of this book, but it doesn't quite get there.

I did enjoy the small town vibe and the feeling of being choked out by the place that you love most - and that feeling is one that is so familiar to me that it can hurt. I thought that was beautifully explored within this novel, and so it wins points on that.

The characters are reasonably well fleshed out - they take on the impact of their surroundings well and respond to what's happening around and to them really well. There could have been a little bit more of their pasts included, but this didn't quite filter in as much. I do think though that this book has wonderful smatterings of magical realism, and the horror was good, but it didn't quite hit the note as well as I would have liked in places.

Sapphic
Mysterious
Coming of age
Fantasy
Adult Fiction


After the death of her mother, Lil Clearwater has to look after the family pecan orchard on her own until her twin, Sasha, returns home after living in New York.

Their home town is slowly dilapidating as families are forced to sell their land and move away, but the twins refuse to sell their mother’s land.

The annual pecan festival brings home all their old friends including Jason, Lil’s ex and Autumn, the best friend and object of Sasha’s affection.

Nothing in town is as it seems. Phantom fires, children born from pecan trees and someone known as the hungry man are but a few things wrong with the town.

This book was weird but good, the same way that Twin Peaks was weird but good. At times you don’t know what’s going on but you keep going. In the end everything comes together but leaves you with so many questions.
The book was extremely creepy and I highly recommend to it others who enjoy reading weird and wonderful stories.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.
A huge thank you to Netgalley for this copy

The Pecan Children is the hauntingly beautiful story of the Clearwater sisters, set in a Southern town famous for it's bountiful pecan trees. Lil, the primary caretaker for the family's orchard, has dutifully harvested the pecans season after season since the death of her mother. Sasha, recently returned to town after years living in New York, is trying to find her place in town without stepping on her sister's toes in their orchard. I loved both Lil and Sasha, and the secondary characters that shaped their everyday life.
Laced with hauntingly beautiful magic, this absolutely engrossing Sothern gothic tale is one of my favorite reads in a long time. I was a huge fan of Quinn Connor's debut novel, Cicadas Sing Of Summer Graves, so I was so excited to be able to get an early copy of The Pecan Children, and I felt like it absolutely lived up to my expectations. I look forward to reading whatever these authors put out in the future!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of The Pecan Children in exchange for my honest review.

After reading “Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves” last summer, I immediately jumped at the chance to read and review a new book by the talented author duo. And let me tell you, this book was everything I wanted it to be.

The story follows twin sisters lives, as they try their best to keep themselves - and the isolated, dying town - afloat. Lil takes care of the pecan orchard, as she always has, now more carefully than ever, as all the surrounding orchards keep falling to ruins. Sasha has returned from New York, and now does odd jobs around town, helping out everyone but her sister. The two have a rhythm that gets shaken by old friends and lovers turning up unexpectedly, truly testing the fragility of the life they’ve been living...

There is just something so cozy and comforting, and yet at times suffocating, about a small town setting, and the authors have once again managed to pull it off really well. It was essential in the story being told, the way characters fit together, the subtle - and then not so subtle - darker parts of the book. Speaking of which, the magical realism was a perfect and balanced blend, even more so than the previous book by Quinn Connor, at least in my subjective opinion (a good thing got better? it’s more likely than you think).

This was a short and well crafted story I would recommend to anyone looking for quality read during long evenings - while the book is set to come out in summer, I can only imagine the experience of reading this in autumn.. both dark and sweet, just like a pecan pie.

First of all thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this digital ARC of The Pecan Children .

This was such a unique read and kind of gave me Where the Crawdads Sing vibes .

Be prepared to be transported to a small southern town following the lives of twin sisters Lil and Sasha , where we find ourselves lured into something mysterious on the edge of Pecan Trees and its dark and haunting , people are losing their homes and there is a realism that is playing with the sisters ...and an ending I didn't see coming !! 👀

I thought the writing in this novel was so well crafted and loved the character building , thank you Quinn Connor for this ARC, I really enjoyed this different and unique read !!

Am I bad for wishing this was weirder?

The biggest issue of this book is pacing, the first half ( until 55% ) dragged and I had to force myself to continue reading, only to finish the other 45% in a single evening. There were times I feared the authors had forgotten they were writing a horror - I've never actually seen a Hallmark movie, but the first half very much read like one. There was some foreshadowing sparkled along the way, but rather than evoking a sense of dread and tension, it just confused me.

And even then, the unnatural things happening were strange, rather than scary - with the exception of the "hungry man" who could have been much better built up. We learn everything we know about him through "telling" rather than showing, and we never actually see him do any of the implied bad things.

Without spoilers, multiple strange things are happening in this town at once and I actually liked the explanations we were given - but the authors didn't work hard enough to entwine them with each other. Perhaps, it would have been better if they chose just one to focus on and give more depth too. There are questions we were never given answers to and I wonder if it is because the authors have forgotten to answer them, or if they did so on purpose?

I don't think this is a bad book. There were many things that I liked ( the reveal about Lou had me sobbing ), including the ending - but perhaps it just wasn't for me? There was no character development, all the foreshadowing and even the mysteries just felt shallow. I wish the authors spent less time picking up pecans and more time building their lore.

3.5 stars

The writing and story are very good, a little strange in a good way. However, the pacing is all over the place and almost cause me to DNF
I love a good slow burn, but something need to keep me in the story and turning the pages. Here we have king moments of nothing, to finally getting a good bite, to nothing again, that good bite kept me going, but barely.

I really enjoyed this book - it felt eerie and kept me hooked and a lot of the twists were unexpected and very well executed.

THE PECAN CHILDREN is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. I especially appreciated the mystical and/or magical elements, and the author does a wonderful job of creating an atmosphere and making the reader feel like they are immersed in the story world. Essentially this is a story of two sisters who come together despite their differences. The sense of family bond is very strong and propels the reader forward. The small town life and value of land are portrayed accurately and emotionally. As others have noted, the pacing can be a tiny bit slow at times, but I appreciated how intricately woven the plot was and how everything comes together in the end.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance e-galley; all opinions expressed herein are 100% my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

The book is beautifully written. I found it slow at the start but it kept me intrigued enough to read on. I'm glad I did. The mystery drew me on and the pacing increases

I wouldn't classify this a magical realism. It's more of a mystical thriller. Whatever the genre it was worth the read.

This book was an unique experience for me. I was pulled to the story because of the pecan harvest which is something unique in itself, and yet, at first it felt like there's something wrong with the book. It was a little slow, and sometimes a little boring, and I thought that I would suggest that author needs to craft and correct it a little. But it all resolved somewgere in the half of the story. There was an interesting turn I didn't see coming and it turned out that it was worth waiting because from then on the story sped up and a lot of my confusions came out clear.

I liked that I never really knew when the novels was coming. It was an interesting read, very weird but neat in prose and, as it turned out, in a planning too. I would recommend the book for fans of magical realism, and weird, unique stories that you won't find often.

4,5 star but I will turn up to 5 :)

A wonderful, quietly thrilling novel set on a pecan plantation in rural Arkansas.
I actually grew up in rural Arkansas myself and we had many pecan trees on our property. I still remember my mother using them for so many recipes. This book brought that memory back in a good and compelling way.
Add in the mystery that always seems to happen in small towns and the harshness of families losing their homes and land and you have a beautiful novel.

I received this book as a digital ARC from net galley for my honest review.

First off thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book!! It was so highly anticipated and after finishing it I’m thrilled to confirm what I already suspected - Quinn Connor (Robyn Barrow & Alex Cronin) are new auto buy authors for me.

Much like Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves, The Pecan Children transports us to a sleepy southern town soaked in mystery. These books have such a unique way of making you feel at home in the world but also so very unsettled at the same time.

Lil and Sasha are twins who couldn’t really be much different if they tried. One is trying to live up to her mother’s expectations while the other wants nothing more than to run away and find a new life where she feels wanted.

Our setting is a kudzu (take a shot every time that word pops up) infested reality where children might fall out of pecan trees and a beast lurks in the shadows with a relentless hunger. I followed our characters along overgrown train tracks, dilapidated treehouses and buildings that seem to spontaneously combust then put themselves out in the blink of an eye.

Follow the breadcrumbs through this twisty tale of sapphic love, symbiotic connections, magical realism and more pecans than you can shake a stick at. But don’t stay in place too long… nature is very much alive and has the habit of coming attached if you stick around.

Atmospheric and Intricate.

I think this book creates such a beautiful backdrop and
I loved the imagery, and the family aspect which follows the two sisters who are polar opposites but have come together and bonded love and loss.

Also the storyline’s are so subtle but they weave together so well, the mysticism and the issue of the small Arkansas town is being bought up due to living on large expanses of land and these two competing forces that actually so closely aligned.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the mystical, folklore aspect of this novel as it was very subtle and it left you clues along the way and does tie everything together.

I did think that was well written but it did take me awhile to get into it but I do think this is a great read especially since this is for fans of the midnight library and I adored that!

I definitely think this was an inventive and interesting book, but I think that it was a little too out there for me, and I don't think that I fully "got it".