This has got to be one of the most atmospheric, beautifully detailed stories I've ever read. I could see it. I could hear it and I could feel it. I was so excited when I got this ARC because I've loved everything I've read that Adrienne Young has written and I knew this would be the same.

In the small, one stop light town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow tries to not become like all of the other whispered about Farrow women, her family. Her Gran who raised her recently passed, succumbing to the visions that all her ancestors have before moving on. Now, June must face the reality that all that she thinks she knows about the Farrow curse might be completely wrong. These visions she's been having may not be the beginning of the end of her story, but they may be the beginning of something bigger. Maybe it's not so much a curse on the Farrow women, but a gift of time.

I fear that anything more I say about this will give away too much about the story and I wouldn't want anyone to go in having any preconceived notions. I will say that I loved this story and that maternal love that was constantly present really resonated with me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was amazing. The writing was superb, it was atmospheric and whimsical. The cast of characters were so lovable and rich. I truly loved this book

June Farrow, like the other women in her family, is cursed to go mad, and she's determined to manage it as best she can. As her beloved grandmother passes away, her hallucinations begin in earnest and her reality starts to blur. That's how The Unmaking of June Farrow begins, but I couldn't have guessed where it would go from there. Adrienne Young weaves a few mysteries - the curse, the fate of her long-lost mother, the death of a local minister many decades before - together with a story of family and finding oneself with a dash of romance. The North Carolina small town is a great setting, rich in atmosphere and parallels between 1951 and 2022, and the Farrow women are a tight-knit, interesting group. While the romance isn't the leading thread of the story, Eamon really creeps into both June's heart and the reader's as he starts to connect with her and reconcile what has happened previously.

The mystery of the curse and how Young would resolve it keep you guessing even as some of the mystery is predictable, but I still wondered how we would get there and, ultimately, the story would end for June. It's a twisty type of time travel and timelines that made my brain hurt a bit, but Young makes it clear enough and not too absurd to follow as these stories can feel., and I hardly cared by the end how to justify the curse's existence. It's rooted in family, legacy, and survival and goes beyond the basic idea of time travel. I really love these adult standalones by Adrienne Young, with her balance of light fantasy, cryptic mystery, and strong atmosphere.

June comes from a line of Farrow women who are all fated to experience hallucinations and madness as they age - and June has been seeing a man on her doorstep and a red door in the fields for the past year. Beyond that I believe it’s best to go into this story blind.

I first fell in love with Young’s atmospheric settings and strong women characters with Spells for Forgetting. In The Unmaking of June Farrow she doubles down on the murder mystery and continues to have a strong plot line of magical realism. This story has quite a few twists and turns that I enjoyed, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around how some of it worked.

This was an incredibly fast, most easy read for me (the prose is great, the content tripped me up a little bit). It’s really enjoyable for what it is. Even though it’s not quite the fall, spooky season read that Spells for Forgetting is, it’s lovely for a year-round read.

4⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the ARC; I’m leaving this review voluntarily. I will be posting my review to Goodreads now and to Instagram on 16 October 2023.

Honestly going into the book I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when reading about June and her small boring town and her life in a flower farm. But Adrienne Young never seems to disappoint with her writings. She’s quickly becoming one of my instant buy authors. I absolutely loved this entire story through and through.

June Farrow just lost her Gran and is feeling more lost then ever because she knows the curse that hazings the Farrow women is coming for her. It took her mom and her grandmother along with all the other women who had come before her. She starts hallucinating not sure if what she is seeing is real or just her mind slowly falling away from her. Then one night while following a feeling she sees the red door. & once through it, her life is forever changed.

I would absolutely recommend this book to any romantic fantasy lovers. It was such a good and easy read. I can’t wait to order a copy for my shelf.

This is a book that will sink its claws into you and make it impossible to put down or forget about when it’s over. Adrienne Young is a master storyteller and this book is no different, as she weaves together decades of Farrow women, focusing on June and the disappearance of her mother. The way that it all unravels had me on the edge and was left with my jaw dropped trying to put all these pieces together. And when they do I gasped the biggest gasp and was also like what?! (In the best way) The mystery in this was phenomenal and I loved the small fantasy/magical realism incorporated into it. It just elevated the story to the next level!

Overall, this is an amazing book and I highly recommend you read it when it’s released!

Read if you like…
•magical realism
•decades old mystery
•strong and complex family relationships
•small town setting

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC.
This will easily be in my top books of the year. Young has created such an intricate world here, and I loved how deeply we are put into it almost right away. The mysteries happening and how they built on one another were so intricate and fascinating. I didn't find this hard to follow at all. And the characters. Oh, June. I loved getting to know her and her resolve, even when life felt like her life was falling apart. She was easy to root for. I also loved the generational story of these different women and what happened to them. Young has created such a unique premise that is cohesive and yet so unique for each woman. I don't want to say too much because I think this is a book best enjoyed without prior knowledge but know its full of heart and frustration and love and confusion and it all came together so beautifully.

June Farrow grew up knowing all the Farrow women are cursed to lose their minds. It's not a matter of if, but when. When she begins to hear voices and see things that can't be explained, a red door appears. The door appears at random until June finally steps through. On the other side, she finds herself in the past where a life she doesn't remember exists filled with people who know and remember her. As memories begin coming back, June has to decide will the past become her future or will she take the door home.

This book had me hooked immediately which took me by surprise as the synopsis didn't strike me as anything special. I was completely wrong. The Unmaking of June Farrow is easily one of my top five reads of 2023. It has elements for everyone: time travel, romance, murder mystery, vengeance.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I highly recommend it to everyone, it had heartbreaking elements and heartwarming elements. If you have forgotten what is important or gotten caught up in the faces paced nature of life, read this.

This book was unreal! Adrienne Young wrote a beautiful, unpredictable, intricate story involving time travel, second chance romance, and a little murder mystery (it was giving Black Mirror). The plot of this book is so unique. I didn't know where we were going to end up, but I was just happy to be on the journey with the characters!

I can tell I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time!! Definitely worth the read.

I'm excited to read Spells for Forgetting by this author since I liked this one so much.

P.S. This book gave me all the folklore vibes, especially Mad Woman

this book is a masterpiece and one of the best i've read this year. adrienne young outdid herself with this one, i'm speechless.

Thank you to NetGalley, Delacorte Press, and of courses Adrienne Young for this amazing ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ok, to start what a rollar coaster of emotions! This book has all my favorite things, we have time travel, we have small town vibes, we have mystery, we have MF bad ass and of course we have love. I'm still processing my emotions, because I literally ended this like 5 minutes ago but the awe of, what did I just read?, feeling is so strong.

We have 34 year old June Farrow, who comes from a line of unsual women, at least that's what the people of Jasper, North Carolina say. Farrow women are cursed, best not get tangled with them. After June's Gran dies, she's left with crytic clues and embarks on a journey that not only can change the past but the future as well. This is a story you'll never forget.

5 stars!

It's been days since I finished this book and honestly I still don't know where to begin to describe it. It's a lyrically beautiful story of love, time travel, and impossible choices. The Farrow's are a family line of women with the ability (or curse) to travel through time. But there are limits and choices and repercussions to their travels that affect all generations of the family. Young did a brilliant job weaving the time travel narrative. At times, it made my brain hurt trying to figure out the connections! I can't recommend this book enough.

This book was absolutely amazing. Adrienne Young is one of my favorite authors and everything she writes is pure magic to me. The Unmaking of June Farrow was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it also became my favorite book read in 2023. I will think about this book daily, I’m sure of it. Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This 👏 Book 👏

I went into this one fairly blind and I was blown away!

The Farrow women live a cursed and mysterious life. For as far back as they can remember, madness and death have followed them.

When June's mother disappeared everyone wrote it off as a crazy woman taking her own life. No one suspected foul play and everyone expected the same madness to come for June.

Now years later, June has started hearing voices and seeing things that aren't really there. She's determined to figure out what is happening to her and to break the curse that has plagued them for centuries.
_

When I started reading this book I wasn't really sure what to expect. Within the first couple chapters I was highly invested and very creeped out (in the best way).

It's almost hard to categorize the story. It's magical realism but with enough to suspense and mystery to keep you guessing and keep you on edge. And that's what really hooked me from the very beginning.

I loved so many of the characters and loved to hate the rest. The Farrow women, the towns people. Everyone we meet in this story played a significant role in the outcome and I just love that.

The setting was beautifully written. The farm added a realistic (and hardship) aspect to the story that I appreciated.

Everything came together in such an important and intentional way. It is a wonderfully written story and one that I will definitely read over and over again!

Read if you like:
🚪 Magical Realism
🚪 Suspense
🚪 Mystery
🚪 Curses
🚪 Dual Timelines
🚪 Second Chance Romance with a Twist
🚪 Small Town

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

Review posted on Goodreads and Instagram @factualfairytalereads

June Farrow lives in Jasper, North Carolina. Her family is known by their thriving flower farm. June has lived with her grandmother since her mother dropped her off in an alley when she was small. The whole town remembers her mom’s disappearance and know there’s something just a little different about the Farrow women. Now June has started have visual and auditory hallucinations. She doesn’t know all the details of the curse that plagues the women in her family. But when she finds a photo of her mother years before her mother was actually born, she’s determined to figure it out and make the curse end with her.

This felt very much like Fall. While I am traditionally not a fan of books with time travel, I feel like there was enough of a story otherwise to keep my attention. I did have to really focus to understand the logic (?) of the time travel aspect, so I wouldn’t consider it a quick read.

The Unmaking of June Farrow was good. It was a story that had many pieces and it unwound backwards. What was happening to these women??
Brilliantly written it threw me into a reading frenzy until I finished. It was mysterious and heartfelt. An atmospheric telling with many touching moments that I’ll probably never forget. I definitely recommend.
4.5⭐️
Thanks Random House Publishing and Delacorte Press via NetGalley.

This was another fantastic read from Adrienne Young. The magic element throughout a seemingly average life always captivates me. June faces an unthinkable choice that impacts the past, present and future. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes. I was very thrilled at how the book ended. 100% recommend

This is up there for best reads of the year for me. This is a fantastic combination of fantasy, mystery/thriller, and romance. This is a story about a line of women who can time travel but in doing so, they are cursed to inevitably lose their minds. And while time travel stories are usually not something I am interested in, this was so well done. Adrienne Young's writing style is dreamy and atmospheric. This book is perfect for late-summer/fall and foggy mornings on the porch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Delacorte Press for providing an eARC of this book!

Wow! I’m still captivated by this read days after completing it. What fantastic story telling with romance, mystery, and a hint of sci-fi/fantasy.

June Farrow, and all the Farrow women before her, are outsiders due to the madness cursing their bloodline. Junes mother goes missing one day while June is an infant, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother. When her grandmother dies, June chases a series of clues that have her questioning if hallucinations she has had for a year are leading her to her end or somewhere else entirely.

I loved this book because it just never felt like things were what they seemed to be. I loved the theme of family and the women who made decisions to protect their family. Im still thinking about all the details and the characters, especially June, have really stuck with me. I’m not normally one for slow build books, but this was a slow but necessary and worth it build. I’m really not sure I have ever read anything like this one.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for gifting me an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!