I wanted to enjoy this novel so much because I love a haunted house novel, but this was not all horror as we usually would see. This novel touched on mental health issues, eating disorders and grief and the haunted house could have been a completely separate story with that in mind. When Ellis moves to her mother's small hometown, they feel that there is something strange going on in the town. Death has a different meaning here and the house on Cherry Lane may have something to do with it, but what kind of power can a house have?

This was a brilliant read. The story was well played out and had proper representation of the queer community. I only wish I could read it again for the first time!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I was hoping that I would adore this book. I went into it hoping for the best, and unfortunately I didn't find quite as much as I would have hoped. First off, I did really enjoy how hard this book tried to make a point of diverse identities. I admire and appreciate that the author did their best with this, and wrote the characters well in respect to this.

That said, I did not connect with the characters well. I struggled to like them, even through all their efforts, and I didn't feel like they were particularly connected to their story. They could have been substituted in with any other person or character and the same result would have come out. I just did not feel they had substance.

The main plot as well I felt lacked - there wasn't much of a twist or exploration of the story, and unfortunately I didn't feel like this was a pure horror novel. Conceptually I enjoyed the idea, but didn't find it enough to carry for a whole novel.

I just loved everything about this book! It had everything you could think of in a horror! You had death, grief, mental health issues, eating disorder, a deep dark cellar (NO, just NO). This is a queer psychological thriller and if you love horror you will have this book read in a matter of hours and not want to put it down! I would HIGHLY recommend this to all my horror fans!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to ARC read this masterpiece! LOVE IT! I was not paid to review this book and it is my honest review.

I loved this book for many reasons. The cast of characters, especially Ellis and Quinn, are a delight to follow. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but this didn’t strike me as horror. More like a ya supernatural mystery, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I just finished Withered by A.G.A. Wilmot. This was a very good haunted house story but with a twist. The core of this story is actually very emotional. There are so many elements that make this a great story. It has all the horror elements with some mystery and some romance thrown in there. If you like haunting stories you will like this one!

A queer paranormal psychological horror novel, in the style of showrunner Mike Flannagan, showing the complex real-life terror inherent in grief and mental illness.

This was really good. I loved the atmosphere and the overall plot. Nearly perfect!

Going into this I knew it was going to be literary but I was hoping the YA aspect would make it easier to read. It didn't and the book was heartbreaking

This story delivers on its title, for better or for worse. At face value, this story is an engaging read: I found myself flipping through pages toward the end because I wanted to know how it ended.

But this story is much like its title, like the heartstrings of the house: it is simply spread too thin. The cast of characters is a little larger, and they're introduced at times when you're not entirely sure how prominent or relevant they'll be to the story as a whole. It made keeping track of everyone difficult at times. Flashbacks are dropped intermittently throughout the story, and while they're effective, they're not paced well in the first half of the book (better in the second half, though). Multiple POVs are usually fun for me, and I do think Wimot uses them well here to help build out the characters and history (in the first half) and a sense of anticipation toward the climax. I don't think all of them were necessary, largely because we don't get to spend enough time with a lot of the characters to make those POVs feel lived in enough. (And Wilmot occasionally had a habit of randomly switching POV halfway through a scene or even a paragraph, and I personally find that incredibly irritating.)

I think most of my issue with this book is just that I didn't really connect with the characters. On paper, they're diverse and interesting, and the plethora of issues they deal with (both mental and physical illness, death, grieving, control, body dysphoria, eating disorders, etc) is generally handled with care and thoughtfulness. But everyone just... fell a little flat for me. No one jumped off of the page at me, and not connecting made it hard to be invested in *their* stories, rather than just unraveling the mystery/plot.

And the climax itself just kind of... withered. I found myself wanting the characters to reach a certain point of acceptance, but there was so much resistance that was being touted as the "right" thing to do that by the time they *did* get to that point of acceptance, any sense of satisfaction didn't feel terribly earned. The wind had gone out of the sails, and I didn't feel a sense of catharsis.

All in all, this is a decent book and an interesting read! I didn't connect with the characters, but that doesn't mean someone else won't.

[NetGalley was kind enough to provide me with an ARC for this title.]

4.5 stars rounded up. I like that this was mysterious and suspenseful while also making complete sense when what was really going on was revealed. It's always nice when the ending of a horror book is well thought out and clearly planned for. I also liked that the characters were very diverse and had a lot of layers and even the 'bad guys' had depth and reasons and weren't all bad or caricatures. The pacing was good for revealing a bit at a time but enough to keep it interesting.

Wow, I enjoyed this book more than I could have thought when I started it. Very fast paced, suspenseful HORROR. I love the Erie sense you feel with each chapter. Well done!

The author did such a good job writing the characters that each of them felt real to me. You can see that the author poured their soul into these characters to help bring them to life on the pages.

A slow burn, but a good story all in all! The use of "they/them" pronouns is a new one for me but much appreciated! Definitely looking forward to more from this author.

Difficult to read but maybe that's the point read up to a point but didn't continue as concentration was lacking with this.

Withered tells the entwined stories of Ellis, who is recovering from an eating disorder, their mom, and the town they move to. Their house is much more than it seems, as the townspeople warm them from the very first day they move in.

This book had excellent queer representation. It read much more like a YA novel than I was expecting, focusing a lot on Ellis working through issues that plague a lot of teenagers. Overall it was an interesting read.

This book was fantastic. I love this take on a haunted house story, original and brilliant. Couldn’t put it down.

AGA Wilmot puts an interesting spin on the haunted house genre in their forthcoming novel Withered. Be prepared, this one might pull on your... (ahem) ... heart strings!

Eighteen year old Ellis and their mother Robyn are moving back to her old hometown on the tail of their father's untimely passing. The house came cheap and the local teens waste no time explaining to Ellis that it's because the place is haunted. Their mother doesn't believe it, chalking it up to small town chatter. But as Ellis grows closer to Quinn, a pretty girl they quickly develop feelings for, who has also recently lost a family member, they discover there might be more to the rumors than just... rumours.

Neighbors begin to show up, begging Robyn to let their sick and elderly rest on the lawn, claiming "she" will care for them. Others claim to see their dead loved ones hanging around the property. And Ellis begins to notice odd bumps behind the wallpaper that, when pressed, appear to give off heat and throb beneath their fingers. And what of the strange voice they hear claiming "I am not what I seem"...

Withered does a nice job layering in topics of grief, eating disorders, fat shaming, queerness, and mental health, which do not necessarily tie directly into the creepy, haunted housey stuff but does help us invest more deeply into the characters and root for them more loudly as the battle between the living and the dead is brought, literally, to their front porch.

This one is best for readers who are in the mood for something with less scares and more heart.

Love a good haunted house trope! This one hits all the feels with involving mental illness & creating such genuine characters that you feel you know them personally. Great background story & plot, beautifully described throughout. Would definitely read more by this author!

Queer psychological horror that reads like YA. It took me a while to get into it, slow paced with a lot going on. I did like that it explores mental health, eating disorder, and many other important topics. Also this is a first time I read a book that uses them pronouns, which I thought was awesome. It was a bit confusing in the beginning but I eventually eased into the writing. Overall I thought this was ok, average haunted house story. Thank you

This was a wonderfully interesting, unique and intriguing take on YA horror. I really appreciated the nonbinary and eating disorder/mental health representation. It was very easy to slide into the mindset of Ellis, the main character, who’s pronouns are they/them. I found them to be very relatable, believable as a teenager, and the subject of eating disorders was broached with wisdom and care. The plot of the book was unique, smart and I found no huge or glaring plotholes. I easily believed it and got sucked into it. I enjoyed the pacing as well. The only two things I could complain about are that the overall dialogue between all of the characters, as well as the main characters relationship- Quinn & Ellis - is sometimes unbelievable, robotic, and clunky. That being said, it did not suspend my belief or take me out of the story.
The other small gripe I have, which may be my own problem or an issue with formatting to my kindle, is that the grammar was atrocious. Not spelling, but the periods, commas, quotation marks, etc., were not where they were supposed to be. I am assuming it was a format issue. I highlighted a few examples but it was the entire book.

Overall this was a delight and I can easily see this as a blockbuster movie with wonderful representation and vivid imagery. 4.5/5