Flora is a new mother, all alone since her husband is deployed. She is starting to feel like she’s losing her mind until her estranged mother shows to help. Can they mend their relationship and is there something in the past that Flora’s not aware of affecting it?

Give me mother/daughter relationships in a horror story, and I am there for it! I loved the escalation of creepiness in this one. It starts pretty mild, then there’s a twist, and then it spirals into straight horror. It ended a little quickly, but there was a lot of action and entertainment, especially at the end.

“Perhaps there is no way to break this cycle after all. Perhaps this is how it was always meant to be.”

Dearest comes out 9/17.

Typically this isn’t the type of book I would pick up- I’m not a mom and don’t really relate to any of that stuff, and usually don’t love books written in third person. BUT THIS BOOK!! I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. Thoroughly loved every second of it up until the last few chapters. For me, the ending could have been different, but it was a solid read for me.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book!

DEAREST by Jacquie Walter's is a very creepy story that plays on the postpartum insecurities of Flora. Coming out on September 17th by @mulhollandbooks & @hachetteaudio (thank you both for the @netgalley access!), this will be a perfect Autumn spooky read!

Flora had her baby girl a bit early while her husband is still deployed and is finding it a bit harder than she expected. When the sleep deprivation reaches new levels, Flora is surprised to see her estranged mother at her door, anxious to help. Unfortunately, Flora is not relieved when her mom begins to act strangely. It seems a darkness has settled that Flora cannot shake, but it can't be real, can it?

I am sure I cannot speak to the postpartum experience, so I am super curious how this will relate to those who have been there. To me, I felt this was a very unsettling story that probably has moments of truth, clearly dramatized in a magical realism/horror lens. I felt it was a good suspense that kept me going to find out what was real or not. A definite feeling of a fever dream!

I loved having my favorite combo of eyeballs and eardrums to get sucked into this story. I felt all the confusion and exhaustion come through.

I was definitely in the mood for this one and feel it will be a great read for other mood readers!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the eARC.

This was downright creepy and full of what I found to be really good, unpredictable twists throughout. I am still new to horror novels and found this to be really well done. As a new-ish mom myself I remember the brain fog so well. 4/5 easy.

I was impacted by this book on a deep level. I could completely relate to the sleep deprivation, sadness, unconditional love, and feeling like you’re going crazy after the birth of a child. And those intrusive thoughts about all the crazy things that could happen! Totally relatable. This book escalated extremely quickly was super creepy and downright scary at times. The ending left me wondering and hoping for a second installment! Being a new mother is such a terrifying experience on its own and when you throw in some extra horror you get a book that will stick with you for quite a while.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

With her husband still on deployment, Flora is dealing with the birth of her first child and the subsequent responsibilities alone. When her estranged mother shows up on her front porch with an offer to help her out, Flora jumps on the opportunity. But things are not always as they seem, and Flora has to decide if the things she is seeing are all in her head, or if she has an unwanted visitor in her house.

Dearest is one of those books where nothing seems right, but you don't really know why. Reading this book was like looking in a fun house mirror where the mirror only makes subtle changes. Flora's sleep deprivation and exhaustion from caring for her child by herself made her into such an unreliable narrator, which added to the creepiness. I loved that I was unsure if scenes were reality or a figment of her imagination, and the vivid descriptions of how things were just off unsettled me to my core.

One thing I didn't care for is the pacing of this book. It felt like not a lot happened, and then all of a sudden everything is happening all at once. The switch up was pretty jarring and it made me feel like I was reading two different books squished together.

Dearest gets 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for Goodreads. I think that Jacquie Walters did a fabulous crafting a creepy tale that is purposely confusing, but the pacing kind of killed it for me. This is definitely a great book if you like unreliable narrators and things that just ain't right.

Such a great debut! 

It has taken me forever to put my thoughts together for this review. While “Dearest” is absolutely a compelling and entertaining horror novel, it also explores the very complicated experience of motherhood, and I believe it could be easy to misrepresent the story's merits. 

Walters approaches postpartum depression, loneliness, body trauma, and the toll of navigating the emotional battlefield of revisiting one's relationship with one's mother -through the lenses of a horror story. 

I thought so many elements of the book were genuinely brilliant, particularly how Walters uses graphic descriptions of the aftermath of birth and the consequences of breastfeeding- no embellishment, just describing what can happen to a mother- as body horror. 

“Dearest” takes an entertaining horror story and makes it validating and weirdly therapeutic by twisting it to say, “Hey, motherhood can be beautiful AND absolutely brutal, and both truths can exist simultaneously. And, by the way, you aren't alone when “brutal” feels like it’s winning the battle.”

Thank you to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is one of the most unique books I’ve read lately; I was expecting something similar to “Nightbitch” or “Motherthing”, but this wasn’t as abstract as those were. Rarely do I call horror books “page turners”, because they rarely are, but I devoured this in one sitting!

Flora has just had a baby girl, Iris, but unfortunately, she’s all alone. Her husband Connor is deployed and won’t be home for a couple more weeks, she doesn’t have any friends, and she is estranged from her mother. In a moment of weakness and exhaustion, she unblocks her mom, Jodi, and sends her a message, asking if she’ll come help her figure out what she’s supposed to do with the baby.

To her surprise, her mom soon arrives at her house and at first, things seem normal. They’d had a falling out, but soon Flora was feeling closer to Jodi than she ever has. Then her childhood imaginary friend Zephie joins the party, toys are doing weird things, Flora starts having very intrusive thoughts, and a mysterious tusk is found. That’s about where my description has to end though, because the book has a huge twist that flips everything around!

The whole time I was reading this, I knew it was a 4.5 star book, but I had no idea if I was going to round up or down. This turns out to be the author’s debut, which is impressive, considering how good it was and how effortlessly the story seemed to be written. We are definitely rounding up to five stars for this one!

(Thank you to Mulholland Books, Jacquie Walters and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on September 17, 2024.)

WTF?!? This book was absolutely insane - in an amazing way. I got hooked on this story from the very beginning and basically read it in one sitting. Flora goes through some really messed up stuff but in the end she does it all to protect her daughter, the one person she loves most of this world. An absolutely wild ride that you won’t stop thinking about long after the final page.

4.5 rounded up - DEBUT horror novel that I think is about to be huge on booktok. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

With paranoia, creepiness, and drama riddled throughout, this book is so wild and endlessly entertaining.

This was unsettling, eerie, and intensely suspenseful, captivating me from the outset, with moments where I felt like I was losing my grip on reality alongside Flora amidst the bizarre occurrences.

DEAREST is divided into 4 parts. It starts off as a psychological thriller (flirting with horror) about a new mom, who is clearly going through postpartum depression, and who suddenly starts to see and speak to her childhood imaginary friend regularly. And in the second half of the book the story becomes more of a supernatural (and kind of fantasy, too) horror.
In my opinion, this a very suspenseful novel about the 'ugly' side of motherhood combined with mental illness and how women still are neglected by others (especially men) when it comes to their struggles (of any kinds) after becoming a mother. And readers who might be interested in this book should be clear about that.
I'd even say that to new moms out there, who are struggling somehow with being a mother, this book might be triggering.

The chapters are very short and the writing is very engaging, so the reading becomes more dynamic and easy to go through.
The horror elements (when not related to the main character's state of mind) are decent enough. However, I'd say the supernatural horror side of this story begins and ends very quickly. This is not a long book, and the supernatural scary stuff only happens in the final 30%, so I couldn't help but feeling a little disappointed by how fast it ended. On one hand, it was bizarre. And personally I am into bizarre horror elements.
On the other hand, because I'm not a fantasy reader, per se, I thought the final act was a little too much for my taste. So far (with a few reservations) the story was very realistic but then the more 'fantasy' horror side comes and, to me, kills the realistic vibes I was getting from the story. I'm sure horror readers who also like some fantasy will not mind that, though.
The ending was a little abrupt in my opinion, too. But that didn't ruin my reading experience as a whole.

All in all, I'd say this a quite interesting horror novel. Depending on the type of horror reader you are this book will be fun or scary, and if you are a mother of toddlers, or about to become one, this might even be scarier and speak more directly to you.

Thank you, NetGalley & Mulholland Books, for providing me with a free eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

An incredibly horrifying debut by Walters that delivers chills when it grabs onto family secrets and new motherhood. This story begins spiraling towards a psychological thriller then is created into supernatural horror. Filled with dark humor and a high pace you'll devour this one in one sitting.

I'm sorry. This was so bizarre, completely outlandish and horrendously convoluted. The repititon in the first half, what with the engorged boobs, infected nipples, clogged ducts & Flora's internal dialogue about feeding the baby was so redundant, it was painful.

I'm going to stop there because I firmly believe that this was a case of the **wrong audience**. Audience being me as I'm sure many readers will devour this book.

Regardless and as always, I am so grateful for the opportunity to read the arc. So thank you Mulholland Books and NetGalley.

I feel like “ mother horror” is becoming a new sub genre, and this book fits it perfectly. I was completely captivated from page one. I genuinely had trouble putting the book down. It was both intoxicating and unnerving to be in Flora’s mind as it slowly unravels, and she begins to question her reality. Even if I did see some of the twists coming, they were executed in a way that was still completely mind blowing, and sometimes genuinely had me gasping out loud.

A twisted, dark mess of post-partum turmoil. I nearly filed this one under DNF until the second half sucked me in. This story rang true in many of the first time mom issued one can face. I could smell the scents, remember the pains, relive the exhaustion while reading this. Honestly, it was a struggle to experience again. Thankfully, the book took a bit of a supernatural turn and it reinvigorated my interest!

Thank you NetGalley, Mulholland Books, and author Jacquie Walters for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. “Dearest” is expected to be published September 17, 2024!

Flora is a new mom with her beautiful baby girl, Iris. It should all be bliss. She’s got her baby and everything should be okay. But she’s alone. She’s got intrusive thoughts and repeatedly seeing horrible ways her baby could get hurt. Her husband is deployed. Her dad and his wife just left. She can’t even breast feed right. Things are quickly going to shit. And then her mom comes. And it just gets worse. This book, to me, is a full on character study. What happens when a new mom with a traumatic past is left alone with her newborn baby and postpartum depression? Read and find out. Spoiler alert: it is not a fun and fresh time.

This was disturbing, creepy and super suspenseful. I really enjoyed it and thought found it to be captivating from the very beginning. At times I felt like I was losing my mind with Flora due to all the weird things that were going on. Being a mom of two toddlers I loved how this story gave real insight into the struggles women go through postpartum.

Thank you NetGalley & Mulholland Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Postpartum Psychosis is the vehicle for this horror book. Or, is there something more malevolent at work for new mom, Flora. When the baby comes early, Flora finds herself all alone as her husband is on deployment. Flora's dad and stepmother come for a short time to help out but then Flora is all alone with baby. And the expectations of being a mother. No sleep, breastfeeding failing, not eating, breast infection and then the delusion or visions or visitations begin.

Thus begins the descent of Flora both fighting for her daughter and her sanity. Motherhood and family trauma is explored within the context of a horror book. Bizarre and it works. Author Walters blurs the lines between psychosis and a supernatural situation well enough to keep the reader guessing for quite some time. It is also refreshing to have a commonplace occurrence (birth and motherhood) be the focus of the horror as opposed to someone running around with a chainsaw. Everyday life is enough of a horror show and Dearest is a great example of mining that resource.

Thank you to Novel Suspects for an electronic review copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I requested this based on the authors who blurbed it, even though mommy horror is very much not my thing, and I'm so glad I did. I had so much fun going on Jacquie Walters's wild ride. Yes, it's absurd and riddled with plot holes (including a big, giant, glaring one that is supposed to act as a twist about halfway through but really just makes nothing that happened previously make much sense at all), but this is horror; it doesn't need to be fully explained or completely rational. What matters in horror is whether it's creepy (it is), gross (yup), and/or atmospheric (three for three!) and if you buy into the world the creator has introduced, and Dearest hits on all of that.

Also? So nice to read a horror novel that isn't an enormous, sprawling tome. Dearest hits fast and furious, and it's stronger for it.