It's a no for me because the writing is not engaging. It shifts between short, stilted sentences and long, run-on sentences that take up half a page. There were short excerpts of letters between the chapters that had no explanation and added nothing to the narrative. This book was mostly exposition, and much of it was unnecessary. There were large chunks that were Jo’s repetitive complaining that added nothing to the story other than making me dislike her even more as a protagonist. The author also heavily relied on telling rather than showing, which greatly detracted from the possible immersion in the book. There were also many instances of plot induced stupidity and plot holes that made this work frustrating to read. I’m not going to go in depth into the characters, but there were no likeable/engaging/relatable characters and they all lacked in depth and development.

I think this book was marketed very incorrectly.

I was (and still am) OBSESSED with the cover art, I think it is absolutely stunning! Like, if you remove the text I would hang that art in my apartment. It's gorgeous!

HOWEVER, I don't think the actual story fits the eerie, unsettling, slightly crazed vibes of the cover. It isn't immediately obvious that there are fairies on the cover, they just look like moths, and I think that's a solid reflection of the actual book and the way it is marketed. Nothing in the plot synopsis suggests fairies, or any of the fantasy elements of the story. I don't think I was the right audience for this, as I was expecting/excited for a horror story and not prepared for fantasy.

Honestly, even if I had been interested in reading a fantasy, I would have still had some problems with this particular book.
- The pacing felt a bit weird. It took forever to get to the actual conflict of the story, and it felt like the fairies were almost an afterthought with the way it was squeezed into the last quarter of the book.
- There were SO MANY comments throughout the book that felt outdated and just outright problematic. There were weird racial stereotypes, mental health jokes, and fatphobic jokes and comments. It's 2023, I shouldn't still be reading stuff like that!

Overall, I think this book was horribly mismarketed, and as a result is reaching the wrong readers.

This book gave me so many complicated feelings. I love a good creepy vibes book. The cover is so unique. I felt like this book was so slow. I struggled to finish it. The writing wasn't the best either. I also had problems with how the author describes mental illness, race, and abusive relationships. Just not for me.
Thank you NetGalley for an arc in exchange for a review.

2.5/5⭐
I was drawn in by the beautiful cover and was intrigued by the synopsis but was left feeling extremely disappointed to say the least.
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The writing itself was mediocre at best and they ending felt convenient and rushed. The characters were undesirable. The mother is a narcissist and the MC is immature and shows no real growth by the end. The only two characters I enjoyed were put down and shown extreme ableism and negativity for being "weird" or "strange".
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On that subject, none of the more sensitive topics were handled very well. Mental health was depicted in much the same way as my statement concerning ableism. The mother, who is pregnant, is referred to as fat, more specifically a "whale", by herself and her daughter on multiple occasions which just felt so unnecessary and odd.
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The single redeeming quality, if it can even be considered that, is that the story matter is interesting. I just honestly wish it has been written by a different author.
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Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

What if fairies were real and you were tasked with keeping them from stealing children? How far would you go to keep the biggest secret you've ever been told?

Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately, the AI narration is so hard to listen to that I feel like it ruined my experience with this book.

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of The Cherished. I really really do not like the AI narrators I absolutely think it should not be a thing. The story lost so much because of the AI reader. I absolutely struggled. I feel like it has potential to be good but I will have to check it out as an actual book.

Jo wants her freedom away from a suffocating mother and her expectations. She also didn't ask for her grandmother to leave her estate to her. Now she's in a town that looks at her as an outsider and expects her to continue a tradition she does not understand. The Cherished had a premise that could have truly been horrifying and an added level of suspense. The lack of folklore/history of the town tradition and how the faires came to be is disappointing and takes from the lore of the plot. Jo her self is an enigma because not much is know about her or her father, even after everything is revealed.

Honestly, I’m very surprised this doesn’t have higher reviews. This seems like the kind of book that would get rave reviews. For some reason it seems like certain readers targeted it for whatever reason and others followed suit.
I personally really liked how I was questioning what could be going on at first. I like the feeling of not knowing and trusting the journey. The main character was likable and I enjoyed hanging out with her. Once we got to the juicy part I was pleasantly surprised! I loved the folklore and the dark turn it all took. Would definitely read more from this author!

The idea of this story was really interesting, and I really wanted to like it. However, every part of this fell flat for me. None of the characters stood out to me and the story didn't feel as fleshed out as it could have been. It didn't help that the narrator felt very monotoned the whole time. The writing at times would be so off that it would pull me completely out of the story. I'm not sure if I would actually recommend this to someone.

3.5 stars. This book was compared to Wilder Girls and The Hazel Wood. I didn't like Wilder Girls, but The Hazel Wood is a favorite of mine. This book hits somewhere right in the middle. There is no portal traveling, no other world visited, but the other world is present. I'm not sure how the book would have been had the other world actually been utilized, like with The Hazel Wood. Instead, it was a side character that caused mayhem. The way the book was sounding made it seem like it would have a sequel. It had a clean enough ending, but maybe a sequel or a spin-off could be in its future?

I felt like not much happened in this book. It was mainly just exploring and exploiting family drama/problems, Jo's mom being uppity and Jo being... whimpy. After things started to unfold, it made sense as to why Jo and her mom were the way they were, but I think both ended up having some real character development.


Overall, this was just a sad story about family, grief, mental health, and fairies, evil child-stealing fairies. Not exactly horror per se, definitely horror adjacent if you let your mind wander around the fairy topic and missing children, but still a dark and dreary book, so I approve.

Audiobook: The digital voice for this was impossible for me to understand and focus on so I had to wait until the real audiobook came out. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed the actual narrator, so me saying yes to the narrator portion means the actual human being, not the computer/digital one.

I also gushed about this book in a few of my Facebook groups which are sadly private so I can't share links. One of the groups is a huge horror community called Books of Horror.

I listened to the voicegalley audiobook created with a synthetic voice, and I quite enjoyed listening to it. The synthetic voice was fine I enjoyed the listening experience with it.

While the beginning of this story is a bit slower as we're getting to know Jo and her family dynamics, once Jo figures out what's going on things do begin to pick up quite a bit. Once Jo and her mom arrive at the house you could really feel the weirdness and creepiness of the land.

While this is supposed to be a horror, I get more of a dark fantasy vibe, there are some creepy/ weird things that happen and are discovered about Jo's family, but it never really strayed into horror for me. However, with the way it ended, there is room for a sequel and if Jo were a bit older, we could dive into some horror with Jo exploring the other side of the door, especially with the way it was calling to her at the end.

Jo did seem a bit immature and was hard for me to connect to, at least until the end when everything went down she really showed some growth, and it made me like her more. However, I really got how she was feeling in the beginning where she felt kind of steamed rolled over with her mother, and stepfather and feeling like she doesn't fit into her own life.

I really loved the premise of this story and will definitely be checking out other books by this author.

I did not finish this book. It was an automated audio book from NetGalley, and I just could not listen to it. It sounded awkward and robotic. I’ll definitely have to check it out when it is improved audio.

The Cherished by Patricia Ward is a young adult horror novel about a young girl named Jo who inherits her grandmothers property. Once there, she realizes things are not what she expected and her father's old delusions might actually be reality. I've been on a gothic horror kick lately, so this sounded like something I would enjoy. The cover also really called my attention. Unfortunately, the cover was the best part of this book.

I rarely say anything quite so direct in my reviews as I really hate to leave blatantly negative feedback, but the writing in this book was bad. Like bad enough that I wanted to DNF it. In fact, had I not been participating in a readathon where points were given for each book completed, I would have DNF'd it. I'm not going to write a long review tearing this to shreds, but suffice it to say the characters were not likeable or compelling, the plot was dull, and the pacing was slow as molasses.

My biggest issue with this book is the problematic portrayals of mental health, race, and body size. I'm not going to list everything out as it's already been done in other reviews. Frankly, it's 2023. Do better.

Usually, I would close this review by saying "If you like x,y, and z, you may enjoy this book", but I honestly can't think of anyone that would enjoy this book and I refuse to recommend a book with problematic representation (at least one that doesn't seem to be making a critique or at all self aware of said issues).

Additionally, I received an Audio-ARC of this book and was extremely frustrated when I found out it was literally a robot reading me the book. This Audiobook is unfinished and is impossible to review without a proper narrator. So imagine a choppy robotic voice reading a choppy, all over the place book with problematic representation. Yeah, it was not a good time. In the future, if I open audio-ARCs and they are narrated by a robot, it will be an automatic DNF for me.

*Thank you to Netgalley, Particia Ward, and Harper for the Audio-ARC of this book. Reception of an ARC in no way affects the objectivity of my review.

this is a 2.5 but not a two because I had a decent (quick cause I listened at 3x speed) time. this certainly leans more (darkish) fantasy (horror) and not in a fantasy horror in my personally favorite genre way. I think this has an audience with fantasy readers who may want to get into horror since it’s not what typically horror readers would want/expect. It’s not scary but a little eerie, more so in a way literary can be scary if that makes any sense. I never felt compelled to feel much of any emotion. the characters didn’t annoy me too much since it’s ya and kids can be dumb, I liked the towns people a lot though. my main problem is that it wasn’t atmospheric enough for me nor had enough creepy imagery I typically look for in horror. (the ending was unsatisfying and I’m questioning if it’s sequel bait???)

‘The Cherished’ is a classic example of a great premise that just didn’t deliver. What should have been a heartwarming and taught story of family, responsibility, legacy, and finding one’s own way completely failed to be emotionally engaging or moving thanks to the shallowness of the narrative voice. And what should have been a spine-tingling American gothic setting of a mysterious small town and spooky dilapidated house ended up coming across as no more than a drab backdrop to a dull story. Nothing remotely close plot-forward happens until about 40% in, and even the action sequences and scenes that have a vague feeling of suspenseful intent deliver little, if any, sense of urgency.

I wanted to love ‘The Cherished’ so badly because the premise had the potential to be very ‘Coraline’ meets ‘Darkness Falls’ (2003). Unfortunately, it ended up being more like cringey, teen-written ‘Folk of the Air’ au fanfic with a semblance of haunted house flavour whose biggest sin is just being plain boring.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Harper Audio, and Patricia Ward for an advanced voicegalley of ‘The Cherished’ in exchange for an honest review.

(Spoiler-free review)
The Cherished by Patricia Ward
(⭐️⭐️💫/5)

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Teen for my first-ever ARC!

I really wanted to like this more than I did. The description and cover drew me in, but unfortunately, the writing just didn't do it for me overall. I love the premise and once things got going a little bit it got better, and there were a few bits I thoroughly enjoyed! Unfortunately, those bits didn't come until about halfway into the book and even then were few and far between.

The opinions and wording of observations are often jarring, and occasionally offensive (in descriptions of mental health, some ableist comments, as well as characters of color). I wasn't sure if this came down to the author’s personal views or the pov of a teenager, but either way, it often brought me out of the story when it happened. The writing itself is also very choppy and difficult for me to really find a flow in reading.

The lore, however, was a lot of fun! Once the story picked up and we met our main source of conflict in the narrative it’s easy to fall into that small town ‘we look out for our own’ trope of ‘something isn’t right but no one will talk’ - no one, of course, except for young Hattie.

Honestly, I did enjoy the second half of the story, even if the ending felt a little ‘too easy’ after the buildup. I enjoyed the farm with it’s secrets, and the small town setting with a history of mysterious disappearances! It just took a bit too long to get there for my liking.

I am glad I stuck it out long enough to see if it got better, because it did! I guess my rating boils down to 2.5 stars for the second half of the book, more or less.

(I received an ARC of this work through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.)

Thank you again to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

Unfortunately I gave this book a 2 star rating.
It started off well and geared you up for some potential dark horror but I felt that the book would better be described as dark fantasy.
The pacing of the story was somewhat fractured and hard to follow at times, even for an audiobook.

I have been trying to read this book for months. I keep starting, finding I just cannot connect to it on any level, and then putting it down. Now the pub date is upon us and I have given it one last try. And I just can’t. The writing is not good or engaging, the story is disjointed and by the end of chapter 6 I am finding this book to be a chore.

The characters are uninteresting and I truly have no idea what’s even happening here. I have also attempted the audio but I have been given the voice galley and, because I’m struggling to follow along with the story anyway, I find it just impossible.

Thank you anyway, though, to Netaglley, HaperCollins Children’s Books, Harper Audio, and the author for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I really did not like this book. I felt like the author had no idea what they were writing for 3/4ths of the book. The book was just slow and was nothing but dialog that never seemed to go anywhere. Nothing happened and then all of the sudden we had "Spidder Wick" style faries that again never really did all that much. Then everything ended so easily. It was so anticlimactic! Everything was boring and I just really didn't like this at all. This book is definitely a skip.