Plagued with guilt about avoiding her brother's last few text messages and horrified by the details of his grisly suicide, Holly goes looking for explanations. Was her brother's enigmatic girlfriend somehow involved or had Dane experienced a psychotic break? Holly scrolls endlessly through Dane's messages and considers every detail of their last encounters, trying to figure out what actually happened. Maura is welcoming and supportive and almost before Holly realizes what's happening, she's moved into the gorgeous woman's apartment. The horror is absolutely claustrophobic and the author has a way of making things that don't seem like they should be scary work. The protagonist suffers from trypophobia, an aversion to clusters of small holes. When she first explains it and uses strawberries as an example of a sight that makes her uncomfortable, it seems silly. By the end of the book, descriptions had me squirming.

cw: suicide

What a wild tale! I was hooked from the moment I opened the book! It was a dark, eerie, mysterious, intense, and thrilling tale. I had no idea at any point where this story was going or how it was going to end.

Holly is a great protagonist character. We follow her on a journey to try and figure out just why her brother, Dane, committed suicide. Holly has a lot of self doubt and blames herself for what happened to Dane.

Maura is quite a character. She reminded me of one of those secretly crazy woman you’d see in a Lifetime movie… and yeah she was just that and even crazier. I knew she definitely had something to do with Dane’s death, but I could not figure out exactly how.

When everything unravels and we get the truth, I was jaw dropped at exactly had been going on. The plot of the flowers and what Maura had been doing with them was crazy. I could not believe what she was up to.

🥀🥀🥀 / 5

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I will preface this rating/review by saying that you might have a different reading experience than I did, so I don’t discourage anyone from reading this.

This was a quick read for me, as I flew through it. I was hooked from the start and became invested in the story because I had no idea what to expect, so I definitely wanted to stick around to discover how it would all play out. The writing was great, and the set up for a dark and disturbing Southern gothic thriller was definitely present. While this one had so much potential, I felt there were some elements missing or only briefly touched on. I think that if the author had taken the ending in a different direction, included more likable and prominent side characters, and delved into and incorporated more of the haunting history of Savannah, GA, I would’ve thoroughly enjoyed this one. I will mention that I was initially captivated by the beautiful cover but skeptical because I’ve noticed the overuse of this design, which often confuses readers when it has nothing to do with the book. However, flowers play a major role in this one, so the cover makes total sense—and I’d recommend this one if you’ve been on the hunt for a thriller involving poisonous plants.

“Get it out of me.”

This is the last message Holly receives from her brother, Dane. But what does it mean? Savannah can be a spooky place. Kind of Gothic in areas. But who saw this crazy stuff happening there?

Dane’s apparent suicide has rocked their family. All of them suffer from the horror of it all. They all seem shell-shocked at the funeral, where Dane’s supposed girlfriend speaks and Holly has an awful feeling that she had something to do with Dane’s death.

Holly is going to find out or die trying. Literally.

Maura on the surface seems to be a wealthy woman with some weird ideas about plants and life. She is also very charismatic. She apparently talked Dane into some game that also ended his life. But Holly will need proof of that.

What should she do? Stalking Maura seemed the best way. But stalking her turns into an obsession with her. An attraction she doesn’t want. And in the end, it may be the last thing she does.


NetGalley/February 7, 2023 RHPG-Ballentine

Holly and her brother Dane were always close. Dane got a girlfriend and moved in with her when he became ill and drifted apart with Holly. Dane ended up passing away and Holly feels really guilty. She befriends his gf Maura and eventually moves in determined to find answers and peace for Dane. Holly realizes some things just aren’t right the longer she’s at Maura’s and is determined to find the answers.
I thought that this book was really well written, it kept my interest the entire time, and I couldn’t put it down until I knew what really happened. This isn’t a book I typically would have went for but I really enjoyed it. Thank you to the Netgalley and to the publisher for an arc for this book!

2.25/5 stars! The setup for this book was promising but the payoff was lacking. I was excited to read dark horror with LGBTQ+ representation and hopefully a stunning twist. What I ended up reading was a plotless story with no direction. It got a star back from me due to how beautiful the cover is.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Where to start with this? The premise sounded SUPER interesting, however it was such a slow burn.
It took some time to actually get to the climax and the ending was a little lackluster.
I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Maura and Holly, but Holly was a bit gullible to me. I also enjoyed the somewhat supernatural element but I wish there was more.. It was so much more the author could've written about Maura, her "craft", how she was "helping people" and what the flowers actually really did.
Overall it wasn't terrible but it wasn't the greatest either. It was an easy read that builds you up and just kind of deflates.

When Holly receives a text from her brother, Dane, about a weird game his fiancée, Maura, wants to play, she doesn’t pay it a lot of mind. She doesn’t see his next text until morning: Get it out of me. By then, Dane is already dead, cleaved open in what’s ruled a suicide, but Holly isn’t convinced. Dane had been struggling with mental illness, but he’d never been suicidal. Holly decides to get closer to Maura in her search for answers. She’s a lovely, enigmatic florist with high society connections and money to burn, and soon Holly finds herself irresistibly attracted to the one person she shouldn’t trust. Can Holly find out what happened to Dane before the same thing happens to her? I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Bantam. Trigger warnings: character death, child/sibling death, animal death, suicide, abusive relationships, body horror, gore, captivity, poisoning, fire, violence, severe illness, paralysis, seizures, mental illness/depression, vomiting, manipulation/gaslighting, guilt, grief.

This is a short, atmospheric little book, and I blew through it in about a day because I was dying to know what had happened to Dane. Cerra sets up such a gruesome mystery right in the first chapters, and I enjoyed riding along with Holly while she uncovered each piece of the mystery. While there’s plenty there to keep readers guessing, it isn’t terribly plot-heavy. The novel is more about character and atmosphere, and it does both fairly well. In the center of her grief over her brother, Holly is a little messy and self-pitying, and the novel wouldn’t work if she wasn’t constantly making bad choices. Maura is suitably alluring and mysterious, always with an edge of danger, and I enjoyed their weird, dysfunctional relationship. The book is full of lush descriptions of plants, food, and décor, and I often felt like I was lounging on a settee in Maura’s townhouse while I was reading.

Unfortunately, the ending is a little weaker than the beginning, with most of the horror edging out of the potentially supernatural and into Misery territory. It’s fine and it does it well enough, but I was hoping for more out of the reveal. If you give your villain a monologue speech to explain everything, the explanation should be really good, and I don’t think Cerra went as hard as she could have on it. The problem with mysteries is that they’re usually more interesting than answers, and I just didn’t find the answers all that compelling. The end also handwaves a rather important issue in the interest of wrapping things up neatly. Still, it’s fun and unusual, and it will appeal to readers looking for something a bit different in their horror.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

The pitch for this story hooked me immediately: a twisted, sapphic, Southern gothic mystery. Unfortunately, the execution didn't work as well for me, I'll give the author credit, she wrote one of the most original stories I've ever read: it was gruesome, creative, and included a plot line I've never seen anywhere else. While the MCs poor (and sometimes incredibly frustrating) decisions were somewhat understandable, I wanted a bit more characterization. I don't need a full character arc, but there were times when the characters felt very one-note and it was a challenge to continue caring about them or their journey. I also wish the author had leaned into the Southern Gothic atmosphere beyond the occasional mention of the story taking place in Savannah. And -- this is a personal preference only -- I wish she had leaned a bit more into the horror aspect so that it stood out instead of feeling like something simmering in the background.

Overall it was a good book. I think people who are new to thrillers or horror that will take you on a wild ride will enjoy this one a lot!

Thanks to Bantam Publishing and NetGalley for the arc!

I was excited to read this one because the synopsis hooked me pretty easily. Unfortunately I think this book is going to be one of those you either love or really dislike, with not a lot of in between. I didn't care for the book once I got about 30% into it and I was so disappointed.

The two main characters were so very unlikeable that I struggled. It just seemed like they needed better development because they felt very flat. Holly was like a lamb to slaughter, moving in carelessly with someone she did not know and who she got weird vibes from and Maura was not someone I would ever have trusted - she was creepy from the get go.

If you like dark, very dark, twisted stories, you will definitely want to read this. Please do not let my opinion dissuade you because I know there are lots of people who will love this book. It just was not for me. Not at all.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an ARC at my request. My thoughts are my own and sadly, this just wasn't my cup of tea.

This was one of the most twisty, incestuous, haunting thrillers I think I’ve ever read. When Holly‘s brother Dean dies due to “suicide”. The more Holly thinks about it the more she doesn’t believe it and thinks that his girlfriend Morrow May have had a hand in his death. So when she befriends her the last thing Holly expects is the fall for her brother‘s girlfriend but that’s exactly what she does. Morrow has a lavish townhouse and money and Holly gets swept up in the lifestyle but will she end up like her brother or will Holly and the strange girl have a happily ever after? This book was so freaking good! I thought this book was so different and so quirky and yes even haunting. When you’re reading a book and then all of a sudden you’re like… Oh right we don’t know if she’s a murderer or not? I just think that is the testament to the authors talent and I would definitely read more books and will by this author in the future. I highly recommend Such Pretty Flower's by KL Sarah I received this book from NetGalley and a publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

3/5 Stars

Main TW: Frequent mentions of descriptive s*icide.

Such Pretty Flowers is an eerie psychological thriller about a woman named Holly who becomes desperately obsessed with finding out what really caused her brother to take his own life—and his darkly mysterious girlfriend, whom he was living with when it happened. As Holly traces back his steps, she finds herself falling into a world of deadly and beautiful things; poisonous plants, and the ethereal, dark-eyed woman who grows them.

Touted to be a sapphic Southern Gothic thriller set in Savannah, GA (one of the most haunted cities in the US but the way), I was more than expecting a thick, haunting atmosphere, and glimpses into the rich history in every nook and cranny. Not to mention Maura, a walking string of belladonna in her own right, beautiful, wealthy, intelligent, and with a deadly green thumb. We had a delightful set up for something mind-bending and terrifying.

It's not a surprise that Holly falls into her trap, but it was a disappointment how easy it was to get her there.

First: I absolutely breezed through this book in like, six hours altogether. There were some absolutely beautiful lines in the prose and it was easy to pick up right where I left off. I couldn't help being immediately curious about Maura and her place in Dane's fate; and the strange webs of mystery that surrounded the entire affair. Dane's strange messages to Holly were engaging and set to move the story forward. I was completely down to watch Holly wiggle her way into solving this mystery.

Unfortunately, Holly's fatal flaw is that she is self-serving above all else. Instead of actively trying to figure out what was going on with her brother before he died, she spent most of the time half-heartedly snooping when she remembered to do so and the rest of the time being utterly obsessed and taken in by Maura, who, as interesting as she is, was so blatantly obvious about her machinations that it was infuriating to watch. Holly was supposedly suspicious of her from the beginning, and yet, had absolutely ZERO thought into any of the weird and unsettling things Maura did. Well, she did—after she'd get laid/kissed/generally fawned over by said potential murderer.

The one thread of this that actually came to any fruition at the end of the book was mentioned for maybe...three? pages dropped for the entire rest of the book, and then miraculously brought back up at the end to no real effect. Not to mention, the consequences of the whole situation created by an oddly well-meaning if completely deranged Maura, apparently had no...real...issues for Holly at the end. Which only served to make Dane's brutal and horrifying death feel like an ill-used tool more than anything else.

I came out of this really, really hating Holly. And I'm at least 80% sure that wasn't the intention. But she cared entirely more about her libido than she did about finding out what happened to Dane. And if it got her something she wanted, she was more than happy to throw her questions and concerns to the wayside at the moment. Just a bizarre protagonist type, especially when there wasn't really anyone else to root for.

It was a great idea that lacked follow-through to me. I heard poisonous plants, sapphic dark romance, and came running, but it felt like we were checking boxes more than we were really delving into the incredibly cool potential all of these plot points could have had.

3.5/5

I finished this book several days ago and have been sitting with my thoughts ever since. It was such a different read and when I finished I wasn’t sure if I liked it or hated it. Such a unique reading experience and definitely one that made me think long after I finished. I liked so many aspects, it was super creepy and unsettling and fairly fast paced. The southern gothic vibes were fantastic and it was so bizarre which I usually enjoy. I don’t think I picked up on it being gothic horror until after I started it and that’s not a genre I normally read. It’s just not usually my thing, but that’s sort of why I’m torn here. Things got really weird as the book went on and I think it was just a little too out there for me in the end. But the setting was awesome, the plot was pretty strong and the concept was original. If you like super strange and out there this could be for you.

This is a book I started and then "just one more chapter"-ed until I finished it at 2 am. So clearly, I loved it as I read it, but the more I think about it the more I appreciate the nuance and detail in the story. It's atmospheric and creepy on the surface, but the allegory for depression was just👌

The story takes place in Savannah, Georgia, and made me mad at myself for never visiting when I lived closer. The setting is peak Southern Gothic, full of haunted elements and eerily beautiful architecture, art, and plants. The plants! I'm a sucker for flower language and symbolism and that and the historical plant lore used here were really cool additions.

Holly, the main character, just lost her brother to a brutal su*cide, but the circumstances are suspicious, and she becomes fixated on uncovering the full story. Her brother's mysterious florist girlfriend, Maura, is at the top of her list. Problem is, Holly can't decide what kind of list that is. She's convinced Maura is hiding something about her brother's death, but she is also fascinated by her, and can't decide if she wants to be her or wants to be with her.

Both girls' grief and guilt tangle with desires to create a messy, toxic feedback loop. The intensity and blurred lines of female friendships and romances are very well-done here. As is Holly's retrospective relationship with her brother, and the complications of how family dynamics shift with age and the forming of new relationships. Also, I won't spoil it, but there was a very well-done twist on a fanfiction trope that I love and was excited to see in a traditionally published book.

Overall, the vibes of this book and Holly's situation are like when you know if you eat the decadent dessert it might make you sick later, but it's so indulgent that you can't resist doing it anyway. I mean that in the most complimentary way possible, and no, we don't need to examine what my lack of restraint when it comes to dessert means. Regardless, I will definitely be reading K.L. Cerra's future novels!

Thank you to #NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review of #SuchPrettyFlowers

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. The setting/atmosphere of this book was everything you’d want a Southern gothic novel to have, but the plot and character development were lacking. It strayed from southern gothic to a weird botanical version of Misery and that was a big miss for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy of this southern gothic tale rife with carnivorous plants and even deadlier humans. If I'm not mistaken, I believe this is K.L. Cerra's debut novel-- and it absolutely stuns. Not only is it written in an easily digested prose (I literally read it in a night), but it is completely original and edge-of-your-seat thriller. Even with the title, I was not expecting the amount of botany knowledge-- which after some digging makes complete sense: the author herself is a fan of our leafier species. I was enraptured by the detail of each petal, and that coupled with the immersion in historical Savannah, Georgia brought the book to blooming life.

Inside these pages, we meet Holly. She has just lost her brother Dane to suicide, but something just doesn't feel right. Holly gets an inkling that she should take a closer look at Dane's girlfriend of five months, Maura, who had become the focus of his life until his strange illness had taken complete hold of him. It caused him to exhibit mental issues as well as neurological symptoms, and no one could explain its origin. With these mysteries in mind, Holly moves in with Maura and is immediately in way over her head. Maura is intoxicating and despite Holly's best efforts-- she falls for her and lets her guard down just enough for Maura to get under her skin.

This novel takes a look at grief and how desperate it can make you-- and how misguided other's attempts to 'help' can be. I really related to Holly and how out of place she felt. Her brother was one of the only things tethering her to the world, and when he left it so unexpectedly and horribly, it left her unmoored and searching for answers. Even as she tries to find them, she is also looking for someone else to ground her. This flaw brings Holly from the frying pan and into the fire-- and yet she never loses sight of her goal. This tenacity is the only thing that can save her in the end, and is a message to never stop searching for the truth.

Im not sure where to start with this. I liked the beginning and loved the end, but the middle lost me a bit. Right from the beginning we can all feel right along with Holly that something is off with Maura. Holly doesn't trust her and thinks that Maura had something to do with her brother Danes's death, so when the opportunity to watch Maura extra close comes up Holly takes it.
This is where Holly kind of lost me, I fully support what she did, and her plans, but things start going wrong almost from the start. Everything she does just seem to lead her into a closer relationship, and she becomes more and more obsessed with her. (which to be fair is in the synopsis I just didn't love how it played out on the page)
Now, there's a certain part where everything turns around and I get completely sucked into what's going on and didn't want to put it down. Everything gets creepier and more sinister as we start getting real answers to what's going on, and it was something I didn't see coming at all!

This was an entertaining read but the characters felt a little too flat for me, too one-dimensional.

I haven't read much for gothic books but let me tell you if they are like this book, then please sign me up!! This was weird and creepy thriller in the best way. Once you start reading this book you won't want to put it down. I also have to compliment the person that did the book cover. This has to be one of my favorite covers I have seen. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read more books by K.L. Cerra.

Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine, Bantam for allowing me to read this ARC in advance.

This one was pretty wild.

Holly left in the aftermath of her brother Dane’s gruesome suicide begins a friendship with his girlfriend. Soon she’s moved into her gothic townhouse in Savannah and attempts to piece together the events leading up to his death.

I did finish this book in one sitting but I was left questioning a lot of things. The story felt a little too complex and I was rushing towards the end to get answers.

Overall it was interesting.