What can I say about this book? It devastated me!! Such a raw, emotional book about a young girl trying to cope with the fact that her mum is seriously ill, and so she heads out in the forest and meets another girl who helps her to process what she's going through.

So beautifully written, but so haunting and bleak.

The Clearing by Cassandra J. Kelly had me hooked from the blurb.

Sadie's mother is very ill and is going to be dying soon and she knows that with her death, her childhood will be over, and she misses having her imagination - she's stuck in reality and can't seem to find her way back to being able to pretend. To cope, she goes into the woods behind her house where she goes back to her roots - literally - by trying to find herbs, and she collects and presses flowers.

In the woods, Sadie meets Cali, and becomes friends with her, and who shows her the wonders of the forest and gives her what she needs to cope with her mom's impending death and what life will be like without her.

I may have sobbed my way through part of this book, processing everything right along with Sadie. I loved this debut novel and can't wait to share this with my book club when it's published.

I look forward to reading more from Cassandra Kelly in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who gave me this ARC in consideration of an honest review. All opinions are my own.