Something Kindred at its heart is a complex family drama with gothic elements mixed in. Butch weaves in the town history and lore with generational trauma making this an emotional read. Those parts were meaningful to the development of Jericka. Overall, a good coming of age novel with a supernatural twist.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

SOMETHING KINDRED is a quiet coming-of-age novel that packs a powerful emotional punch. It's a bit of a love story, a bit of a ghost story, and a bit of a small-town story all rolled into a tale about three generations of strong women who tend to leave their families behind. They feel stuck in their hometown life--and the echoes of their past--and struggle to feel free and independent after choosing the road more traveled. A lot of modern authors like telling their stories with multiple POVs, but I'm glad SOMETHING KINDRED shunned that trend. As much as I'd have loved to read the story from the main character, Jericka's, mom and grandma's perspective in addition to Jericka's, keeping the novel in single POV made it a far more powerful bildungsroman novel. Go, Jericka, go!

SOMETHING KINDRED joins the ranks of great summer YA books like THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, THE ATLAS OF US, and ARISTOTLE AND DANTE that turn those lazy, sweaty days into memories and events of a lifetime. I highly recommend it for the teen in your life who is more into real-life drama and issues than dragons or magic.

Something Kindred kept pulling me back in again and again even though there was something very eerie about reading this book. The imagery in these pages is done so well that the feeling of being on edge stays with you as you read. Jericka, our main character, dragged back to her mom’s hometown in Maryland, is forced to confront ghosts of the past that don’t belong to her— but also they do. The sins of the mothers are definitely reaped by the children. I appreciated the representation of Jericka’s anxiety, specifically the way her racing thoughts and things she wanted to say were choked up in the face of the adults she needed to speak with. That felt very authentic and resonated with a teenage me.

This is a story about coming home & creating a home. It’s beautifully done.

I read this twice to give a proper response, I feel that it was not quiet for me. It was an interesting book with lots of promise but I don't typically like small town books, it feels over done. The few things that would set it apart like the characters themselves did make it a 3 star though.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan for the advanced copy!!
(3.5)
This was a great coming of age book! We really got to follow Jericka discover more about herself and this small town she never got to experience. I love a small town setting. Coldwater was no exception, it felt like a character in the story.
There is a paranormal/ghost element to the book. I was expecting the ghosts/echos to be more included but the scenes they were in were very interesting.
At its core this books explores self-discovery at the pivotal age of 17/18 when you’re not sure what is next or where you will go. Ciera Burch displayed that so well through all the characters and their different journeys.
I loved the small town moments and coming age aspect and definitely recommend this one!

Thanks again to Netgalley and Macmillan for the advanced copy!

The characters were all complex in their own ways, they were all unique. Nothing really felt like a trope even when it was -- I feel like I was fully enveloped by Coldwater, like I've stopped there before on a road trip or something. It has that perfect Southern Gothic vibe to it. Especially in the middle section of the book, there's a great push and pull between characters with authority -- we (and Jericka) don't know if her Dad is lying about not keeping in touch with her, or her mom abandoned her, or if her grandma abandoned her mom and Uncle Miles -- everyone has a believable and relatable story, all of which are at odds with the other. It brings up a great moral dilemma for the reader, whether we think that Jericka should still trust and/or love them anymore. There are complex relationships galore in this book -- I don't think there's a single conventionally-related character in the main cast (or the whole book for that matter). That alone makes this book a complete standout -- its approach to unconventional family dynamics is something that we really don't see too much, and it was dealt with in a very compassionate way.

If the book were just a complicated family drama with a little bit of romance, I think it would have been a Hard Yes for me. However, there is a supernatural element to it -- "the echoes," which are the ghosts of a group of women who were burnt alive in Coldwater a long time ago. I understand the thought behind correlating the echoes with the complicated relationships that Jericka has (and ultimately her realization about them at the end), but I feel like it wasn't fleshed out enough. The scary sequences were rushed, and I feel like I forgot about them altogether throughout the book. If there were more direct scenes with the echoes sprinkled throughout, it would feel more weird and otherworldly, but it didn't really feel like it made much sense. 

P.S.
Also it really irks me that the camera that the person on the cover is using is not the camera that Jericka uses in the book. She specifically used a Nikon SLR that she got from her Gram, and the person on the cover has a Super 8 camera...

I went into this book not knowing what to expect, just because I requested the galley so long ago and had forgotten what it was about, which made everything a delightful surprise! It's queer, it's spooky, it's honest and frank, and it's so satisfyingly put together. A compelling read!

One of the highlights for me was how real and deep each character felt, even the ones who didn't actually have much time on the page--and at the same time, Jericka's limited POV was so precisely written that I shared her sense of outsider-ness. The tension between her present, moving back to a tiny town she doesn't remember, and her past there that she's just discovering, was perfectly balanced for me. And what a great combo of deeply reality-based interpersonal problems within Jericka's family, and sad and creepy emotionally-based supernatural happenings introduced by her new friend/crush Kat! I was so delighted when both of these elements started to connect, pulling together throughlines of home versus freedom, and processing trauma and grief through art.

Also?? It's very hard to write honest and difficult conversations between people who have deeply hurt each other. I often find them too perfect and astute, or too trite and stereotypical. Burch has found the sweet spot, for me anyway, where each difficult conversation feels real and emotionally charged but also doesn't drag on. Characters are honest about their complicated feelings, and nothing is solved perfectly, but it gets better.

I was expecting this book to be creepy and scary, but it wasn't and I loved that. It was more of a coming-of-age story, confronting the past, grief, and leaning into the unknown.

I liked following Jericka on her path of self-discovery and learning about a town and its people she didn't know. Even though this book was less about the ghosts in the town and more about the cycle of generational trauma and Jericka figuring out who she is and what home feels like to her.

The pacing was a bit off in some parts, but the way this book made me feel and how it made me look at my own life and relationships, overshadowed that. I will being reading more of Burch's work in the future.

{3.5 stars}

Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

Read this one if you enjoyed We Deserve Monuments but wish it had ghosts. But not a lot of ghosts, just a few mentions of them and only two scenes with them. It’s a good story about forgiveness, grief and finding your truth. Not as spooky or historically impactful as I was hoping for though.

This is a spellbinding family drama mixed with a bit of romance. I felt like this was less southern gothic and more magical realism.

This story includes all the feels. There is grief, love, and even betrayal. While this coming of age story was well done and beautifully written, I still felt a little disappointed that it wasn't more like it's advertised. Less ghosts, a lot more family drama...

I still really enjoyed this one, though.

Out April 2, 2024!

Thanks, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

SOMETHING KINDRED is, first and foremost, a story of a girl and her family. Jericka and her mother move to Coldwater, Maryland to take care of her dying grandmother--the one who abandoned Jericka's mother thirty years ago. Thus ensues a strained relationship between the three women as more family secrets are revealed in the town of Jericka's birth. I really enjoyed seeing Jericka navigate this new experience, and it's lightened a bit by her romance with Kat, as well. The book is advertised as "Southern Gothic" and while there is a bit of a ghost story, I wish we'd seen a bit more of it. Like I said, this was mostly a family drama, but in the cover and the synopsis, I was expecting a bit more of the "gothic" element, especially because it is deeply rooted in the town's history. Overall, this was a solid read and I'd recommend it if you're looking for a quick but powerful coming-of-age story with a touch of a ghost story.

This book was unexpected. But in the best way, the writing and the pacing were the great. The set up and the commentary really drew me in and left me with much that I’ll continue to think about regularly. It wasn’t overly creepy or dark, but it was a nice balance of everything. I think there could be something here for everyone.

I was expecting this story to be spooky and creepy, but that was so not the case. This book dealt with family traumas, coming of age and the spirits played a minor part in the story. As far as the writing goes I did enjoy it and found the pacing to be good as well.

CW: death, cancer

This book provides a scathing commentary that I have not been able to stop thinking about. I think the supernatural Southern Gothic is a great way to describe it, but the supernatural elements are a bit more subdued and quiet if that makes sense. This book really made me think, and I will seek out Ciera Burch's work in the future!

This book was not what I was expecting and unfortunately not in a good way. I thought this story may be a haunted town with dark secrets pertaining to the main characters family but that wasn’t the case at all. The book really seemed to center around abandonment and grief with a little ghost(spirit) storyline. Though I found the writing to be very good and easy to follow along with, this book fell flat for me,

This book was a love letter to a place, a love letter to family and the complicated ties that come with family and history. It was also a love letter to grief, and a love letter to love itself.

"Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.

Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.

Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives - someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka's mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka's grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye.

As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she's never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets "ghost girl" Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town's hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family's past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead."

I mean, I'd choose a creepy town that doesn't want you to leave over the Jersey Shore any day.

“Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama." Jericka Walker‘s plans for the summer before her senior year definitely did not include leaving her home and friends in Jersey to care for an estranged and dying grandmother in a small town, seemingly stuck in its dark and haunted past. While the summer did not go as Jericka initially planned, it forever changed her for the better; she learned that goodbyes are not always bad or final and the love of family and home has the power to transcend death.

Something Kindred teaches its readers about small towns, sexuality, secrets, and spirits and is the perfect book to explore these themes among multiple generations.

Just like Jericka who wants people to feel the same way she does when she is taking a photo and looks at something and thinks, That's beautiful, I felt the exact same way about this book!

First off, thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for this e-arc!

This book, on the surface, is a contemporary, magical realism story, but it's also so much more than that. It held so much depth with the town's history, the intergenerational traumas and relationships, and the coming-of-age aspects of Jericka's story.
While this book technically includes a sapphic romance, it's definitely not the focus. Burch nailed each and every relationship written between Jericka and those in her life. She handled themes of family, forgiveness, and grief in such candid and beautiful ways.

There were times that the pacing and scene/chapter transitions felt choppy to me, but the emotional beats and prose were so strong otherwise. I'm also not usually a huge fan of endings that leave as many things "unresolved," but it truly works for this story. It feels like the right ending after everything.

Overall, this book had so many strengths that it's hard to put them all into words.

Jerika isn't thrilled about being dragged to a small town in Maryland for the summer to help with a dying grandmother she's never met, but she hopes to find some inspiration for her photography portfolio. The break from her boyfriend James is welcome, too. Amidst the family drama, Jerika discovers an attraction to a local girl, Kat, as well as mysterious "echoes" - ghostlike entities that haunt the town.

From the cover I had thought this would be a horror novel, but this was a lot less about the echoes and a lot more about familial relationships. Jerika's grandmother had left her mother and uncle when they were young, and then when Jerika's mother had her, she also left Jerika for a few years. The theme of being trapped in the town was reflected by the echoes and in Jerika's relationship with Kat - wanting to stay, but also feeling trapped. I liked the photography aspect and the setting was wonderfully rendered, the relationships all nuanced and realistic. This book wasn't quite what I was expecting, yet it was lovely and a quick read.