If you want raw emotions and for a book to make you feel things, this is the one. It explores the hard emotions of grief among others and was definitely something I felt in my bones, it's going to stay with me for a very very long time.

Quick very high level summary.
This story follows a woman (Sam) who has worked hard to remain sober when she returns to the family cabin in the woods where her mom disappeared. She returns to the dilapidated cabin with the hopes of restoring it for her dad. While there Sam begins to crack around the edges and fall apart just like the cabin. She begins drinking again, feels like she is being watched and starts hearing then eventually talking to a doe she has been feeding. She begins to question her sanity and relive her memories of her mother and grandmothers mental deterioration.

My Take.
he writing was so well done I could actually feel the emotions that the MC was going through. It has a dark and decaying feel to the writing with supernatural elements leaving an ambiguity surrounding events taking place. This ambiguity contributing to the mystery and the feeling of unease. There is so much ambiguity or uncertainty is going on in the environment around Sam as well as within Sam. Sam seems to struggle with her gender identity, sexuality and feelings of acceptance. Our MC Sam also struggle with secrets from her families past that play a crucial role in the story. Often blurring the lines between past and present.

This story explores themes like oppression, guilt, madness, and decay. All the beautifully macabre and darker aspects of human nature and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I was engaged from the idea of a butch Black Swan and this book didn't disappoint in that concept. I enjoyed getting into this world and what was happening with the Gothic elements to this book. Melissa Faliveno has a strong writing style and was able to weave characters that I cared about. It was everything that I wanted and was glad I was able to read this.

This is a lovely, bittersweet book about Sam--newly sober--who leaves boyfriend Stephen behind when she travels to her family's cabin in the woods that's been abandoned since her mom took off and was never found. She's determined to fix it up and sell it to give the money to her aging father. But it's lonely and the bars are calling; eventually she hears a doe "speaking" to her. But she continues on her quest to repair things and even at times when it's painful to read, we know Sam has a good heart and will hopefully find a way to live fully!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Utterly entrancing, Hemlock captures the insularity and expansiveness of the psyche in isolation, not unlike the teeming abundance of the forest kingdom. Here in the Northwoods, the trees close in sounding more and more like water; animals speak in words; what is human might become earthly—the earthly, supernatural. With stunning and gothic prose, in the vein of Carson McCullers, Melissa Faliveno’s debut novel reveals the world anew and, in doing so, summons within readers a revelatory sense of presence, myth, and haunting.

"Hemlock" is a compelling, character-driven narrative about a woman's desire to escape her past and make a future for herself. Sam, the protagonist, is memorable and entirely believable, and the plot element of her restoring her parents' weekend cabin is a metaphor for her restoration of self. The surrealist element of Sam maybe turning werewolf, or at least feral, might be hard for some readers to grasp, but it worked well for me as a reference to the more animal aspects of the self. I look forward to recommending this to book clubs.

This is the book I've been looking ffor ages, so thank you, Melissa Faliveno, for writing it.

Set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Sam returns to her family's cabin to fix it up before selling it. But the cabin isn't the only inheritance that makes itself known. Struggling with her sobriety, Sam must reckon with the person she is versus the person she wants to be, and discovers that no matter how far you go from home, it is always with you.

The descriptions in HEMLOCK were incredible; everything was sketched out so vividly. There were so many tiny details of how life works in northern Wisconsin that absolutely captured the essence of Up North, both the good and the bad.

Following Sam as she fights with herself, her past, and her future broke my heart over and over again, the mark of an excellent book. I'll be buying copies for our cabin once it's released!