I had a general idea of what this story would be about when reading the summary but there is nothing that could’ve prepared me truly for the actual read.

Judith and her mom have a strained (to put it nicely!) relationship that eventually culminates with Judith killing her. This scene was gory and graphic. I thought about it for a while after shutting off my kindle.

She flees in to the woods. It’s important to know she is a grown adult at this point in her forties but stunted in a lot of ways due to her mom’s treatment. As she find her new life in her new home (that she calls the Candle) we learn of a bear that she feeds who later turns out to be Nemoira.

I loved their relationship. It was so unique and unusual. I’ve never read a sapphic book before and theirs was an interesting foray.

Judith and Nemoira eventually have a falling out where Judith kills Nemoira, even though they both know she will eventually return as a bear. Judith goes home to confront her past life so to speak.

I enjoyed this story and never one did I see the twists and turns coming. I would highly recommend for anyone wanting a darker read.

Such an ambitious and brutal debut for this author., covering the grief and joy of a Black woman in the south. The descriptions are extremely vivid and beautiful, even the gore. I also loved having a middle-aged protagonist! However, despite a strong start, the bulk of the story fell flat for me. As soon as Judith was in the woods, all the focus went to the romance, which also seemed very instantaneous and cliche. I would have loved to learn more about the house or the haints or Judith herself. I really had no motivation to keep reading this book. But if you like romance more than I do, this is definitely a great read!

The start... It will grab you and won't let go of emotions, rage, sorrow, eeriness. Such violence and fear, but action and survival. Judith finds shelter in the forest but she can't run away from trauma for long. Very lyrical and although violent it's beautiful like Beloved was when I read it for the first time in my teens.

This book is unique in a way that I can't explain. I haven't read anything like it. It does have some triggering topics so keep that in mind. The premise was great. We got into the mind of a 41 year old woman, named Judith, whom still does whatever mama says and can't seem to leave home until one day she can't take it any more abuse, loneliness and heartbreak. She longs to be loved truly and to be herself so she kills her mom. This part of the book had me hooked until we see Judith in a derelict house in the woods. The author makes up with the descriptions of the house and the house itself as an object. Unfortunately, this is where the story falls off for me. I like the romance but the animal part was a little too much for me. I like how we see how our past traumas can affect our relationships with the ones we hold close. The way the author lets us into Judith's head was nice. I liked that Judith grew by the end of the book and changed her perspective on life, love and family.

This is a hell of a swing for a debut, kicking off with a middle aged woman murdering her abusive, controlling mother, and evolves into a lush, gorgeous Southern Gothic as she escapes into the deep Southern woods to live in hermit-esque solitude, and what she does decades later when a middle aged woman comes across her doorstep. Doesn't flinch away from the violence of cycles and denial and generational trauma, and doesn't hesitate to get deep into some fever dream esque luridness. Absolutely pick this up this fall.

"I wish someone had told you the truth, that there's more to life than what's done to you.."

I finished this book with some mixed feelings. The writing is beautiful (even the gore). Part Two was so vivid; I could feel myself in the woods with Jude.

The story starts strong, following Jude as she escapes her abusive mother and retreats to a house deep in the Southern Georgia woods. But from there, things feel a bit disjointed for me. Part Two reads like an entirely different story. The pacing speeds up drastically (blink, and 13–15 years have passed). That shift made it harder to stay emotionally connected to Jude.

Part Three gives more background on Jude’s family, especially her mother and aunts, which adds some depth and gives the reader a better understanding of their family dynamics.

Not a perfect read, but a memorable one.

First off, creativity is off the charts with this book. I’ve never read anything like it. The love between Jude and Namoria is a visceral thing that is layered and multi-faceted. The family history and dynamics are physical and terrifying to read. Blood is such an integral part of the story. I feel this book takes a long hard look at what it is to be human. The ambiance is too notch with a healthy respect for wild places. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up. You won’t regret it.
Thank you to NetGally for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a lot. So many emotions, tragedies. I do believe I finished this in less than two days. The story is good, really pulls you in. Some aspects of the main characters love life didn’t add up. I would recommend this to anyone who is ready for the emotional roller coaster.

A brutal beginning that fizzled out so quickly. None of the synopsis was really delivered on in terms of atmosphere or even plot really. You don't really get to know much of anything about the house or the haints, there are so many time skips, and the romance was too insta-lovey for my tastes. Not poorly written but just kind of boring to me, a little.

I think this was an interesting and ambitious debut detailing generational trauma and abuse and the ways in which that violence rests in the bones of the survivors. I think the writing held a very poetic bent and I'd be interested to see how it'd read on audiobook because the voice is very strong (in a good way).

That said, I do think the pacing of this didn't work for me. Plus, I felt as though the middle portion of the book (i.e. the part where the book gets its title and where I think the bulk of the plot summary comes from) was the least fleshed out compared to the beginning and end. It almost felt like two different stories spliced together. I just don't think there was enough tying them together in a way that kept the flow going. Particularly where it concerned the romance. I could maybe understand if it was simply a vehicle to showcase the repression of queerness through abuse and trauma. But there was supposed to be a connection and attraction there and I just didn't get that. Nemoira just wasn't much of a character, so everything that happened there with her and Judith just didn't connect in the way that it could have. There wasn't really a romance there to me.
I think the family stuff was more interesting (even though, by god look up the trigger warnings, because that was brutal). I just wish it all tied in together in way that felt cohesive.

There were a few moments, too, where the prose got a little too out there and I couldn't quite be sure what, exactly, the author was trying to do. Plus, I think the horror elements could've been played with a little more. Judith ends up living in a haunted house and I wish that concept were explored more deeply. Particularly given how important the house ends up being to Judith. It all felt a little too rushed.

Overall, very interesting and brutal. I just don't know if it fully hit the mark for me.

On Sundays She Picked Flowers is a portrait of black grief, black love, generational trauma, female rage, pain rent inwards and outwards, beasts and humans and the line in between—in so many words, a masterclass on southern gothic horror. With captivating idiosyncrasy of language and lush, gorgeous prose, Yah-Yah Scholfield chronicles Judith’s escape from her mother’s abuse into the thickets of Georgia woodlands.

Therein she settles into a dilapidated cottage—a haunting, a character all its own—which she begins to call home. Some years later, surrounded by the smell of camphor, the wet of moss and peat, the whirr of insects, she meets Nemoira. The two women form a hesitant, burgeoning bond. Their dynamic is heady and delicious, in equal measure heartening and tragic; an unflinching depiction of love and how it tears us apart and puts us back together again.

The horror elements of this narrative are sensational. Slick, bloody, and gory on one hand, devastatingly real and true to life on the other. Scholfield reminds us that sometimes the scariest things are rooted in reality. Readers unaccustomed to the genre should take heed of trigger warnings.

Lastly, I must add, it is so, so refreshing to follow an older character. Judith is forty-one—a child, an adult, a heartbreaking blend of both—at the beginning of the narrative and readers are witness to her development, the way she falls into herself over the years. It is a beautiful thing to see.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an exquisite portrayal of anguish, of being and becoming, of love and revival. It is a resounding read, sure to reverberate through you even after the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the opportunity to read this book.

This book feels like heavy, humid summer days, the murmur of a creek overflowing to a flood, the gentle, mournful croon of the blues on an old record, the smell of fresh-cut flowers, and beneath it all the iron stench of blood.

This is as moody, intense, and raw as I want my Southern Gothic. On Sundays She Picked Flowers follows Jude Rice, a 41-year old woman who recognizes the life she’s living with her abusive mother won’t change and decides she needs to run away. This decision alters the trajectory of her life and sends her fleeing to a cabin in the isolated Georgian countryside where she encounters freedom twisted with horrors like she never imagined.

Every time I picked up this book I felt so pulled in, each scene playing out with painfully vivid detail. Scholfield’s prose throughout is visceral, luscious, and unflinching even when depicting great brutality. But there’s also so many playful, inventive descriptions of the natural world that provide a respite from the cruelty Jude faces. The writing of this book was definitely a highlight for me and kept me engaged even in slower scenes.

While I would caution readers that this book deals heavily with generational trauma and cycles of abuse and to review content warnings, for horror lovers this is such an easy recommendation. There’s so much heart and depth to this story and I think it handles its characters with sensitivity even at its most horrific.

And trust me, this story goes places. If you are in the mood for a haunting, intense read I highly recommend On Sundays She Picked Flowers.

Thank you to Saga Press for my ARC provided through Netgalley.

I honestly had no idea where this book was going to go but I loved every second of it. This is one of those books that keep you turning the page and trying to guess where it is going, only to be COMPLETELY wrong! For most of the book, i had a good idea where I thought it was going but the plot twist really caught me off guard. I quite literally had dreams about this book and continuously find myself thinking about it. The only thing that was kind of throwing me for a loop was the ages of the characters. I just found it hard to believe they were as old as they were and it kind of took me away from the story a bit. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I cannot wait for the world to experience it!! I am super excited for the audiobook, and I really hope it will be getting one.

horrible and bloody, but beautiful story! This immersive story swallows you whole and then leaves you to wander through the forest...beware of monsters! The author's prose is gorgeous, every sentence adds feeling and depth to the narrative. This read addresses a lot of sensitive topics, so readers need to be aware of their triggers. The overall flow and pace of the book was good, but some sections lack the depth I found in most of the storyline. The character work is visceral, every character was written with great detail. This is true southern gothic, cottage-core horror, at it's bloodiest!

Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC of this book. The opinion in this review is my own.

This was a unique gothic book. It was creepy and unsettling. It is more of a slow-burn which took me some getting into. Once I got invested I really enjoyed this book. It spans over decades and raises discussions about generational trauma and how it impacts those involved. The descriptions are lyrical, atmospheric, and there’s a considerable amount of gore. This is a perfect book to read if you’re in the mood for something spooky.

4.5 rounded up. received this ARC via netgalley and was so glad i did!! a bit slower than i expected, but a solid gothic horror read!! haunting and emotional and worth the read. i typically read more traditional horror because sometimes gothic horror is too slow for my taste, but this book has such lovable (but flawed) characters that i got through it fairly quickly.

This right here is a true southern gothic novel — filled to the brim with flawed characters, illicit themes, raw emotions, and a fair amount of gore.

Overall, it's a rough story that really focuses on dark ramifications of generational trauma. We follow the story of a woman named Jude, who runs away from her childhood home — and more importantly from her abusive mother. One thing that really hit me harder for this novel is that this wasn't a case of a young woman or teenager running away to try and start a new life. Jude is actually already 41 years old before she finally manages to escape from the house of suffering she's been stuck in for her entire life. The meat of this novel is really about how Jude grows and adapts to her new life in the abandoned, haunted home she's fled to deep in the Georgia woods. We watch as she learns some harsh truths about herself, and we also watch as she develops a deep, intimate relationship with a mysterious woman who suddenly appears at her door one day.

Written with lush and descriptive prose, you can really feel the anger, fear, lust, sorrow, and disgust absolutely dripping from the pages of this novel. But in between all the bad, there are moments of serenity that help make the story more palatable and really humanize (most of) the characters. It's also a pretty fast-paced story with frequent time skips, but the pacing feels very natural and there's an impressive amount of character development packed in along the way.

I don't want to give too many details on the plot as I went into this one mostly blind and I'm glad I did so, but here's a list of some keywords I jotted down during my reading for anybody who might want a little more of an idea of what to expect: visceral, haunting, incandescent, tranquil, frenzied, wanton, harrowing, hopeful.

If you're a reader that tends to be triggered by darker themes, you'll probably want to pay special attention to the content warning at the beginning of this book before fully committing to it. But for those who do not have any triggers, I would highly recommend this one. I'll also most definitely be keeping an eye out for future works from Yah Yah Scholfield!

I loved this book! It was so good. The story was so deep...it took place over the span of like a couple decades...we follow the main character, (Judith aka Jude) who I felt so dearly for. Without spoilers, she is seen as an outcast, not accepted or protected by her family, and one day, she snaps, has enough, gets into it with her mother, and flees the town...she finds a place to call home and wow....that is when the author (well, honestly the whole book), it put us into a whole world where we felt for the character from the beginning and even minor characters even matter and we get into their heads. I didn't even feel the minor characters were even minor characters, because she really gotten into their head and the history of the stories of these people and just the whole story, places, etc just feels so rich. As time goes on, the main character changes and so do the other characters. I also love and didn't know a dang house would have a whole personality and I would have feelings for this darn house that didn't even talk or anything. Jude does so much during the years this story takes place...she falls in love...and yeah, this story mixes real life with fantasy and gothic...along with a bit of supernatural elements. It really got my heart. 5 of 5 stars.

Hot, steamy, and all the characteristics of a beautifully done horror novel, mixed with one hell of a good dollop of sapphic romance (which, I absolutely approval of), the suspense, the heart-pounding moments, and the eerie silence of the environment as the story unfolds... Yah-Yah creates an atmospheric tension likening to great talents such as Stephen King, skillfully swiping away all that you knew and making you think again.

This is an absolutely refreshing take on blending lesser-appreciated elements with a love of all things spooky and will have you always wondering if perhaps something else has taken its unkindly eye to you...

So, sit, enjoy this spooky tale, and if you hear something creak in the dark... no you didn't.
Four stars, only because there are some odd grammatical errors, and the formatting is a bit weird... but I also found to be far more graphic than expected... which kind of made it hard for me to process at times. Otherwise, this is a PERFECT October read.

This book tore me apart. Brutal in truth and women's lives.
How much of our selves do we give those we care about?
Why do we deny ourselves joy and live after trauma and abuse? Why do we brutalize our self?
Jude brutally takes control of her life - using the brutality brought against her her entire life. Killing her mother sets her free - to journey to a house filled with haints. Together they heal each other - while a beast leaves offerings, worshipful and obsessive.
But when Jude returns to the world, her mother's home - the truth is laid bare, whispered about between the lines.
Jude - like so many, never had a chance in this world - not a chance to be a person, a self, experience joy and love.