The Cherished / Patricia Ward / Book Review

Jo never expects anything from her father's family. Especially not being included in her estranged grandmother's will. So when a letter arrives telling Jo that she's not just been included but inherited her grandmother's whole estate, nobody is as shocked as her. 

The house and the land isn't all that Jo has inherited. There are tenants as well, and her grandmother has left her quite a few mysteriously cryptic instructions. Jo's mom wants to sell off the whole thing and forget about it, but Jo... Jo wants to at least see the property first.

Arriving at the old farmhouse only makes everything weirder. The tenants are strange--strangely creepy. The house feels unsafe, full of twisted iron and stale food. And the locked homestead out back feels... wrong. And if the letter Jo received is true, Jo has no choice but to stay. 

Thoughts

This book took me a while to get into, for good reason. While I really did love the second half once I got there, it wasn't enough to erase my unfortunate first impression. My feelings on this book are... complicated. 

Pros

• Air of Foreboding: The one thing I do love about the opening chapters of this book is the building tension and suspense. Something feels off. Something feels wrong, but it's hard to pinpoint what. And that sense of foreboding is a great thing to have. Something is coming, and while you can't be quite sure what that something is, you'll be at the edge of your seat, hackles raised, as you wait. 

• Mundane: Patricia Ward does an excellent job of mingling horror elements and uncanny bits of fantasy with perfectly mundane life. Lawyers and realtors exist alongside unsettling foundling children and eerie loners. It's always refreshing to read a fantasy set in the real world--horrifying and fantastical but also concrete and real. Being trapped in the mundane alongside these unsettling bits of the Uncanny only made the whole story that much more unsettling. 

• Classic Fae: Sarah J. Maas and her fae can move aside! These aren't handsome, ethereal, and strangely rugged faeries. These fae are much more traditional than that. They're gruesome and irritating little interdimensional beings. They'll kidnap your kids, spoil your milk, and eat all your candy. They'll definitely be laughing at you from their unseen realm, and they're not afraid to get their hands dirty (in a lot of senses). These are classic faeries, and Ward doesn't hold back on their antics--or their grisly (if necessary) end. 

Cons

• Family: Jo's family is... absolutely horrible. And not in a "I just don't like them" way. The snide comments and attitudes aren't just needling. They hold undercurrents of racism... that aren't always undercurrents. They're quite horrible to Jo, but beyond that, the attitude displayed toward mental health is really quite damaging. I don't think we're meant to like Jo's stepfamily necessarily, but I also don't think we're meant to dislike them. And when bigots don't get their comeuppance, I just... can't get on board. It was uncomfortable to read not because it was challenging backwards ways of thinking but because this book wasn't challenging those bygone stances. 

• Dull Writing: Something happens. And then something else happens. And then something happens after that. The writing here is particularly flat and unvaried. Though the foreboding is real, the excitement for what's to come really isn't. It's hard to get invested in a book that reads so... one-dimensional. 

• Unfortunate Verbiage: This builds off my first critique, though that one was relegated to Jo's relatives. This one relates to Jo herself. Such casual usage of words like "Nazi" and "schizo" feel off for this character, this age. Not only are they not really relevant to any situation where Jo applies them (and therefore uncomfortable to read), but they don't really fit her character. Her character is young, and this book is supposedly set in our own age. Gen Z is nothing if not zealous in their endeavor to respect others and keep language inoffensive... so it doesn't feel like Jo would so casually use these words in any except the most accurate contexts. It just feels wrong. 

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐

4/10

Fans of Liselle Sambury's Delicious Monsters will enjoy this new unsettling inherited home. Those who loved Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale will enjoy the goosebump-inducing fae of this story. 

Details

Publisher: HarperTeen
Date: April 18, 2923
Series: N/A

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Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.