"So Maura wants to play this weird ass game with me and I figured I'd let you know in case anything happened"

Shortly after that text from her brother Dane, Holly receives another one that reads: "get it out of me" . And that's the last time she ever hears from him.

Dane was really struggling with his mental health so no one cared about those last texts he sent before he killed himself. Except Holly. She puts herself in situations to get closer to Dane's girlfriend, Maura, to find out if she had anything to do with it. Maura is suspicious, but also incredibly compelling to Holly.

This was definitely an original story. I really appreciated the originality, but it fell flat for me in a few ways. For one, Holly was such a one note character to follow. She puts herself in these situations like she has a plan, but it feels like she doesn't know what she's doing or why half the time. There's no rhyme or reason to her decision making. For a large middle section the plot felt aimless to nonexistent, and then finally got back on track towards the ending.

"Southern gothic" were the two words that drew me to read this book, but it doesn't serve those vibes at all. It's constantly mentioned that this is set in Savannah (especially in the beginning, like it's not necessary to remind everyone what city were in every other page). It really lacked in atmosphere for me.

Anyways this leans more towards the Wilder Girls style of horror than gothic ghosty horror. I'm still intrigued to see what this author comes out with next and I hope it's just as unique as this one.

ᔕᑌᑕᕼ ᑭᖇetty ᖴᒪoᗯeᖇᔕ
ᴷ ᴸ ᶜᴱᴿᴿᴬ

ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 / 5


Review:
I received this ARC to review through NetGalley. I devoured it in a day. It kept me engaged and needing to know what happened next. I thought Cerra did a great job and depicting the emotional and mental imbalance that comes from losing a loved one and how our feelings and actions don’t always seem or feel rational and tend to be a bit impulsive. The story was a bit dark and twisted but in a beautiful and elegant way, it wasn’t gore filled or violent.
A very interesting take on what it means to help someone and care for someone who is sick or hurting. Make sure to check trigger warnings as is does discuss mental illnesses.

The premise of this story was quite complex. When Holly receives a strange text from her brother, she does not get to respond. When she learns of her brother’s suicide, she is determined to find out what happened. What she discovers can only be described as horrifying. I will not spoil the book for others reading this. Suffice it to say that this is one messed up book. You will think twice before trusting people ever again.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for sending me a digital ARC!

I knew immediately when I came across this book that I was going to be such a fan of the vibes. One of the author blurbs in the summary calls this a Southern Gothic, but I don't think I would categorize it as one... it feels less gothic and more like what I refer to in my head as "dark botany/earthcore." The atmosphere and aesthetics and just general weirdness of this book (which just gets weirder and weirder as we learn what's going on) were definitely my favorite part. It was so intriguing to see how things unfolded, and while there were definitely points in the middle where I was like "why tf is this happening right now," the ending was ultimately pretty satisfying.

The main issue that I think diminished my enjoyment of the story was the characters. It feels like it's supposed to be very character-driven, like we're seeing deep into these peoples' pain and darkness, but the writing didn't feel strong enough to make that really come through. And because the characters felt flat, their relationships- particularly the central relationship between the main character, Holly, and her dead brother's girlfriend, Maura- didn't impact me the way they were meant to. Which was disappointing, because I usually LOVE reading about toxic and obsessive sapphics (more books about those types of relationships please I'm begging), but here it was just okay.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced read of this book. This was an interesting read. "Get it out of me", was the last message Holly got from her brother, Dane. He was found in his fiancee's townhouse cleaved open. Holly can't believe how it happened, so she sets out to find the truth.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.
This book was good but very anticlimactic. For that reason I DNF at 45%

What is it about Maura and what is she hiding in her greenhouse? Holly's brother Dane - gruesome death- was involved with Maura, who is beguiling to be sure. Even Holly who is normally sensible, finds herself falling for Maura after she moves in with her. But Maura's more than creepy and the Southern gothic thing looms large in this novel set in Savannah, that most atmospheric of cities. I liked this for the different vibe in the Maura-Holly relationship and the storytelling is nicely done. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Enthralling story that sucks you in to a dark and sinister reality. I read this book in hours, I could not put it down. While Holly annoyed me at times, I was just as curious as her to figure out details of her brothers death. I think fans of Grady Hendrix would appreciate this Southern gothic read!

Dark, creative, and gruesome, Such Pretty Flowers was unexpected and hooked me from the beginning, but I struggled with the characters. Holly just lacked personality and it kind of ruined the book for me.

"So Maura wants to play this weird ass game with me and I figured I'd let you know in case anything happened"

Such Pretty Flowers had me hooked from the very first sentence. It was dark, intriguing, and included so many little details about all kinds of plants.

This novel was so creative and gruesome and included a plot I have never quite experienced. I felt as though I understood the indecisive nature of the FMC as she navigated dangerous experiences to learn about what has happened to her brother while also whispering "no, don't do it" to my kindle several times.

Now for the slightly less positive part of my review. This book was solid for the first 80% and then fell pretty instantly flat with cartoonish villains and decisions not being properly explained. I personally don't mind a character without too much growth throughout a story, but there were just a few moments where Holly and Maura both stopped being interesting to me.

I think this book could have been something very different if the author had leaned more into the horror elements set up throughout the novel. It wasn't cozy horror, but also didn't lean far enough in the other direction to stand out.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me an early copy of this novel for an honest review

I received a digital advance reader’s copy of Such Pretty Flowers by K. L. Cerra via NetGalley. Such Pretty Flowers is scheduled for release on February 7, 2023.

Such Pretty Flowers begins with Holly receiving a text from her brother. She doesn’t respond immediately to his somewhat cryptic message, which she regrets when he is found dead that very night. Holly has a lot of questions about the presumed suicide, and begins to move into her brother’s world in search of answers. She finds herself sucked into the sphere of Maura, Dane’s recent fiance, and begins to fear for her own safety in Maura’s floral world.

Holly as a character is a bit adrift in this story. She has a job (not one that she is particularly invested in), a friend (who is absent for much of the story due to her own life), and parents (who are absent due to their grief over the loss of their son). For me, this made it a bit hard to see Holly as a detailed person, as her interactions with the world around her were almost exclusively related to her brother’s death and Maura. The relative absence of the people around her also made it difficult to see them as well-developed characters.

This novel is a gothic story, giving us a creepy house and potentially deadly plants. The house comes loaded with Maura’s band of semi-worshippers, a group of people who seem mildly sinister and loaded with secrets. Overall, there is the sense of mystery and danger, though the elements were relatively predictable, rather than surprising me with fresh takes or nuances on those elements.

I had the same feeling with the plot of the story. I was able to see what was coming next, with no surprises in the turns of the story. I also felt that some of the choices made by the characters in the last half of the novel were not based on the characters themselves, but were made to move the story in the direction the author wanted.

Overall, Such Pretty Flowers delivered on the gothic vibes it promised, but didn’t bring anything new or surprising to the story.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

KL Cerra's debut, Such Pretty Flowers, is features gothic suspense with an insidious horror that quickly takes root. Readers follow Holly whose brother Dane has recently died by a suspected suicide. Holly is determined there is more to Dane's death and her investigation leads her to believe that Dane's girlfriend, Maura, knows more than what she's saying. When Holly moves in with Maura, Holly soon realizes that more than Dane's life could be lost.

While I didn't necessarily feel attached to the characters, I was immediately interested in the investigation of the mystery surrounding Dane's death. I felt the pacing was very successful given that it was a gradual build of dread as Holly gained information.

I very much enjoyed Cerra's take on gothic horror. I particularly liked the influence of floriography given Maura's work as a florist. Most of all, I was grateful to Cerra for giving us a true resolution to the story. Often I have found that horror as a genre tends toward open endings. Cerra provided closure in a satisfying way with few key questions left unanswered.

I have already recommended this book to friends, and look forward to following Cerra's career growth and future works.

Really enjoyed this book. First time reading K L Cerra, and definitely wasn't disappointed. Enjoyed the characters, had great pacing, and a great plot/story. Will need to read more from K L Cerra. #SuchPrettyFlowers #NetGalley

"Such Pretty Flowers" by K.L. Cerra is one creepy story! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I loved the gothic elements and the feelings of darkness and dread created by the author's words. The plot is creative and unlike anything I've read before; I was completely drawn into the story and didn't want to put the book down. This is the kind of book that tempts the reader to forgo all adult responsibilities until that last page is read. With a setting like historical Savannah, a brutal suicide, a maybe haunted house with gargoyles, mysterious black roses, and peculiar characters, fans of Southern Gothic Horror will not be disappointed by this book. It's a slow build, but this only adds to the claustrophobic and foreboding atmosphere. Four shiny stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading ad advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such Pretty Flowers was a luke-warm horror.

Holly is battling grief in the wake of her brother, Dane's, suicide. The story twists and turns into Holly figuring out exactly what had taken place.

I feel like this book would have benefitted from being marketed more as a thriller than as a horror?? I just felt like there could have been, for a lack of a better term here, **more** but only in regard to the horror elements?

I believe my expectations were skewed, this felt more New Adult Thriller to me than it did Adult Horror?

Those things aside, I thought the story was great, the writing and imagery really stands out through the first person narration, and the representation I believe was well done.

This book was extremely unsettling at times. The author did a great job of painting every gory pictures. Lots of trigger warnings with this one but I really enjoyed it.

The premise of this book was so vastly intriguing to me--I haven't read a book with anything similar to it. Because I'm from Georgia, the setting appealed to me because I've spent so much time in Savannah, and often looking for the creepier / haunted aspects of it. I don't think this was executed as well as it could've been; it felt a bit rushed at the end. I did, however, love the suspense buildup and the feel of being lured into a spider's web. Very cool read.

3⭐️

“Get it out, oh god. Get it out of me.”

That was the last text Holly received from her brother Dane the night he committed suicide. In the months leading up to his death, Dane had begun to show signs of psychosis. But he had began to see a psychiatrist and moved in with his perfect girlfriend Maura. Which is why the graphic way Dane decided to kill himself was so shocking.

Following Dane’s funeral, Holly moves in with Holly to try to gain more information. Why is there nothing of Dane’s in the house? Why is Maura so protective of her greenhouse? What’s with the black roses? And why does it feel like something is growing inside Holly, too?

This had potential: a southern gothic horror story with a queer romance surrounded by potentially carnivorous plants? Great. But the execution wasn’t quite there.

Holly is so dismissive of her brother’s mental health issues that it’s off putting. She completely blew him off any chance she had to avoid his “delusions.” And her ability to completely disregard every red flag thrown at her is a red flag in and of itself.

I also don’t think I would consider this a ‘queer romance.’ It was more of a manipulative hookup then some gaslighting and Stockholm Syndrome.

Thank you Netgalley and Bantam for providing this ARC to me!

This was a wild ride from start to finish. It was a mixture of southern gothic mystery, forbidden sexual attraction, a deeper look at grief and and internalized feelings of how others view us and the need to be seen and felt, and a slight touch of horror. For me, one of the biggest stars of the novel were the plants. I was so intrigued by the botany/poison aspect that I really wanted to learn more about that.