Loved this title. I will be adding this author to my watchlist in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This story delves deep into the early days of motherhood, and the gruelling transition mothers experience adjusting to life with a newborn. Flora is exhausted and missing her husband who is deployed, so she reaches out to her mother. The help she receives from her mother is sinister. I enjoyed the psychological aspect of this story that had me guessing what might be real, what might be exhaustion, and what might be a trick of the mind.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

I really enjoyed this book. More than I thought I would. I liked the characters! Great writing style and I liked the storyline. This book kept me guessing. I finished it in one sitting.

Dearest by Jacquie Walters is every mother's nightmare.
It follows Flora, a new mother who's having to tackle parenting alone the first few weeks of Iris's life due to her husband being deployed. While Flora loves Iris with all he heart, she can't help be feel overwhelmed. She isn't sleeping.
She's getting forgetful. And she's starting to see and hear things that aren't there.

Feeling like she has no where else to turn, she contacts her estranged mother. A day later her mother knocks at the door offering her help. Everything starts out okay, but some weird things begin happening. Was the person she really let through the door her mother, or something more sinister?

This book was a breeze to read. While it deals with some heavy subjects, it's written so well that I just couldn't help but keep reading. I was addicted to the unreliable narrative and twisty plot. This book is a fantastic debut and I can't wait to see what the author puts out next!

Read this if you're looking for :
• Creepy bugs twisty books
• unreliable narrator
• hardships of parenting
•motherhood horrors

Special thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Dearest by Jacquie Walters, Flora is a new mom and her husband is deployed but he will be home in just a couple of weeks but it seems like forever to poor Flora. When it comes to being a mom she thinks she’s doing everything wrong and even wishes her estranged mother Jody could be there to help. All Flora’s life she’s wanted a good relationship with Jody but for reasons she doesn’t understand that wasn’t the case. Even her sweet loving husband Connor doesn’t like her self-absorbed mother soon Flora there’s no time to think about her mom Jody because strange things are happening from a line of beetles that want nothing more than to climb in three week old irises mouth to finding strange things in the woods and even her childhood imaginary friend Zephie shows up. From being overwhelmed with having to feed little iris with her infected breast every three hours to everything else she is relieved when Jody knocks on the door but had Flora knew what was going to happen next she would’ve slammed it in her face and just did the best she could. There is so much I don’t want to give away about this book and trust me it’s a lot. it is one of the strangest books I have read as an adult and despite finding Flora to be almost pathologically annoying I still could not put the book down. I didn’t know where it was going and then when I did get there I was just flabbergasted because even when you think it’s over it’s not over and those are my favorite type of books. This is definitely what you would call a well done story.#NetGalley,#MulhollandBooks, #JacquieWalters, #Dearest,

This was a very fun read! Tons of twists and turns that I definitely didn't see coming. I wouldn't categorize it as "fast-paced" because it does take a while to figure out what's going on, but there is always something happening that really keeps you turning the pages. Walters is an exceptional writer and it truly shows as her characters seem to jump from the page. I will be eagerly awaiting the next release by this author!

I was so excited to read Jacquie’s upcoming release! There were so many layers and I loved peeling them all back! This dealt with some real life issues along with all the creepy vibes and some paranormal mixed it. It was such a different read from my norm but in all the best ways!

DEAREST releases tomorrow, 9/17, juuuuust in time for spooky season!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Mulholland Books for this ARC copy in exchange for my honest review ❤️

Thank you to NetGalley and MulhollandBooks for this advanced readers’ copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ok so this was a weird one, but I loved it!

The synopsis is one thing but my goodness this hits every type of horror you can think of: psychological, paranormal, realistic trauma, and a tad bit of squeamish horror (some of the imagery made me go 🤢). None of this deterred me at all though. Having the perfect mix of all these scares were blended just right.

The mother-daughter struggle was tireless but tender because there’s a lot of give and take and you never really know if they even like each other. Flora and her mother, Jodi, are the ultimate quarrel in this book with quite a few surprises along the way. I didn’t see a lot of them coming and overall added to how much I enjoyed this book. The quick succession of chapters and phrasing added to the intense nature of the book and the flow of the storytelling.

With that being said, the ending was a little bit too over the top for me. The imagery was WILD but it almost seemed just a smidge too overdone and took away from the rest of the realistic struggle because it was so wildly out there. Definitely not a bad ending by any means, but I honestly could’ve done without the epilogue I think.

I definitely enjoyed the writing style. It was told from a narrator’s point of view but the author cleverly inserts italicized phrases in the middle of narration that are of the main character’s thoughts. Very well done, and I feel like I connected with Flora on an even deeper level rather than it being told in the first person.

Overall, I ended up liking this book more than I expected and it’s opened my eyes to the horror genre a bit.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(Check the trigger warnings for this book before you give it a go.)

I got Covid but I did read this book and I loved it! I will be doing a full review when I feel better! Thank you net galley for allowing me to review this book early in the exchange for an honest review! 4 stars

I LOVE THIS BOOK! It has everything I want in a horror novel: body horror, family trauma, unpredictable twists. There’s a claustrophobic madness in this story that really gets under your skin and stays. I have not had a baby and this made me… not want one even more (lol.) I could say so much more but I will not as it’s one you should (you must!) read and without any idea of where it’s going.

4.25 stars

I have always said that there is nothing more horrifying than being a mother, and this powerful debut proves that point. Incredibly difficult to read, it brought me back to those dark and lonely days of early motherhood, where everything hurts and oozes, you are sleep deprived, and overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety and dread of all the things that could potentially harm your baby. Touching on themes of postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis, you're never quite sure what is real and what is not.

Flora is a new mother, who is solo parenting for the first few weeks of her daughter's life while her husband is deployed overseas. She has difficulty breastfeeding, is running on no sleep, and is slipping in and out of consciousness where she can't remember what she has done. Being a mother herself now makes her reevaluate her relationship with her own mother, with whom she's been estranged from for years. She reaches out to her, and is shocked when she shows up on her doorstep, ready to help with the baby. From there, Flora only descends deeper into madness, and is convinced her mother actually means her and the baby harm. Her childhood imaginary friend Zephie also makes a return, further blurring the lines between reality and hallucinations, and starts to act as the devil on Flora's shoulder, telling her what she must do to save her baby. The main twist in this book completely took me by surprise, but the consequent reveals were more predictable, given what we discovered earlier. The full circle ending was scary and powerful, and shows what women are willing to put themselves through in order to be mothers.

Thank you Netgalley & Mulholland Books Publisher for an eARC ♥️

As a horror enthusiast, I was thoroughly captivated by this book! Jacquie Walters masterfully weaves together a tale that's both deeply unsettling and eerily relatable, especially for a new mom like myself. Flora's struggles to care for her newborn, Iris, while facing the dark forces closing in around her, resonated deeply with me.

When Flora's desperation leads her to reach out to her estranged mom, Jodi, the story takes a dark and unexpected turn. Memories from Flora's childhood come flooding back, and the lines between reality and fantasy blur. The reappearance of her childhood imaginary friend, Zephie, and the strange occurrences that follow, had me on edge.

As Flora's grip on sanity begins to slip, I found myself fearing for her safety and questioning what's real and what's just her exhausted mind playing tricks on her. The truth, when it finally surfaces, is more shocking than I ever imagined. A long-buried secret threatens to destroy everything Flora thought she knew about herself and her family.

This book is a gripping and unsettling ride that I couldn't put down. As a horror fan and a new mom, I was thoroughly enthralled by the author's masterful storytelling and the eerie parallels to my own experiences.♥️

Dearest by Jacquie Walters is a chilling horror novel that delves into the complexities of motherhood and generational trauma. The story revolves around Flora, a new mother who is struggling with postpartum depression while caring for her baby girl, Iris. With her husband deployed, Flora is left to navigate the challenges of new motherhood alone. Desperate for help, she reluctantly invites her long-estranged mother back into her life. What starts as a plea for assistance quickly spirals into a nightmare as Flora begins to suspect that something far more sinister has entered her home.

Dearest by Jacquie Walters is a haunting exploration of the darker sides of motherhood and family secrets. With its compelling characters and a chilling plot, the book is a must-read for fans of psychological horror. Walters' debut novel is a testament to her skill as a writer and her ability to evoke genuine fear and suspense.

If you’re looking for a book that will grab and hold your attention (even when you think you don’t have time to read)…

If you are a new mother, an aspiring mother or curious about how motherhood might feel from the inside…

If you have ever had dark thoughts about your mother…

If you have ever felt like you are turning into your mother…

If you would like to put your unresolved childhood trauma into perspective…

If you like the horror genre or think you might like it, or even if you don’t think you will but have never tried…

If you like to support debut novelists…

Then you might like to pre-order “Dearest” by my writing friend Jacquie Walters, coming this September!

4.5 stars - Honestly, this shook me to my core lmao. I feel like this is really a story that readers will either love or hate but if you enjoy reading about postpartum experiences tied in with horror than I really think this is one you should be picking up. Walters really toes the line on body horror in this one, so some scenes were so disgusting to read as a pregnant person but I fear it's what made me enjoy it more. I found one of the twists in the novel to be pretty predictable but it didn't bother me too much especially once we got more to the end of the novel and developed on it a bit. The horror is sufficiently creepy that I think Walters can get away with a more predictable first twist. Otherwise I highly recommend this one, I think it was perfectly spooky for the fall season.

First of all, I did not realize DEAREST was a debut! You can officially count this as the third time my jaw has dropped since picking up this book. The cover is what first caught my eye, the Ashley Audrain and Grady Hendrix comparisons drew me in, and the fast-paced disturbing storyline is what made me stay.

New mother, Flora, has to navigate the newborn stage alone as she struggles with motherhood while her husband is deployed. As things get worse for Flora, she desperately decides to reach out to her estranged mother. When her mother surprisingly shows up, Flora begins to suspect she's invited in something even more terrifying.

This was chilling and creepy... then goes completely WTH bonkers at the end. There were a couple of surprises that genuinely threw me off guard and I really felt for Flora as she spiraled out of control. The classic pull between is-she-going-crazy versus something-f'd-up-is-going-on had me questioning everything. It explores post-partum depression, post-partum anxiety, grief and generational trauma. There are some gross scenes as well as heartbreaking ones that are seared into memory. And again, that ending gets WILD and I loved it. Regarding the comps previously mentioned, I feel like Dearest is not as campy as Hendrix and more disturbing than Audrain. @jwalterswrites debut is the perfect match of motherhood struggles 🤝🏻 horror. Mark this as one to pick up when it comes out this Tuesday 9/17!

Thank you to @netgalley and @mulhollandbooks for the free eArc.

Rating: I loved it ❤️

Postpartum depression? Psychosis? Or something more sinister?

Flora is losing her mind. And while reading DEAREST, I started to think I was losing mine, as well.

Initially, I could relate to Flora, a new mom, exhausted, struggling, totally in love with her newborn but also wanting just five minutes of peace. Then stuff started getting weirder. I was questioning everything. I had ideas, suspicions, but…

Nope, I did not see that twist coming!

And that’s all I’m saying.

If you’re looking for a unique read during spooky season, this book should keep you on edge!

Flora's husband is deployed, so she has to care for her newborn daughter alone. Feeling desperate, she reaches out to her mother who she hasn't seen or spoken to since her wedding.

Pick this up if you like:
- The Push by Ashley Audrain
- Horror
- Twists

I don't recommend this one if you are expecting or have a newborn 😆

Wow this one was wild! I don’t read much horror but every year around this time I try to read a few and then the description of this one just sounded really good to me and it totally was. I loved that it was a balance between really strange and bizarre happenings and the regular occurrences of being a new mother, it made it all the more frightening to me because it seemed like the crazy shit that was happening to Flora may actually be possible. This was very creepy and pretty gory, think descriptions of gross stuff and you definitely get that here, but it is horror so I expected to be grossed out and I was. The author captured some of those unique experiences that new mothers face but she did it with a supernatural twist and I have to say, it was clever. If you don’t mind dark and disturbing this was pretty good!

This was some of the most intense body-horror that I’ve EVER read, and most of it revolves around pregnancy and being a new mother. I’ve experienced neither of those things, so the fact that I was so skeeved out, and so totally enraptured, really is a testament to the writing and the story.

This takes all the fears of new motherhood and mixes it with supernatural suspense, resulting in one of my favourite reads of the year!