Jennifer highlights how young adults make mistakes and learn lessons as they try to navigate what feels like "home" for the first time. Please Fear Me is a powerful meditation on the shame others gift us and the shame we gift ourselves.

This is a novel that focuses more on character journeys and development than plot, and I am all about that. I enjoyed how fleshed out the main characters were, and the diversity that was included. I also loved the flashbacks, and didn’t find the jumps from present to past jarring or confusing.

I would, perhaps, have liked some aspects of the plot to have been explored more, but the focus on the main character’s journey made the lack of some points being fleshed out make sense.

Although, I enjoyed the story, and I found the writing style really rather beautiful at times, I did find the ending a little unsatisfying. I feel this will be down to personal preference, and many may love the ending much more than I did.

Overall, I rate this 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Jennifer Love’s “Please Fear Me” is a raw and unflinching exploration of survival, identity, and the haunting shadows of the past. This novel takes readers on a harrowing journey through the underbelly of America, where the lines between safety and danger blur, and the quest for belonging comes at a steep price.

The story follows sixteen-year-old Smidge, a runaway burdened with a shameful secret. Alongside Violet, a performance artist with her own troubled past, Smidge navigates a world of misfits and drifters. Their journey leads them to a traveling circus, where they hope to find refuge. As Smidge confronts her past and the manipulative forces around her, she must decide whether to face her flawed mother or continue running.

Love excels in crafting deeply flawed yet relatable characters. Smidge’s internal struggle and resilience make her a compelling protagonist. Her relationship with Violet is both tender and tumultuous, reflecting the complexities of trust and dependency. The ringleader, with his charismatic yet menacing presence, adds a layer of tension that keeps readers on edge.

The prose is brazen yet tender, capturing the raw emotions of the characters. Love’s descriptive writing immerses readers in the gritty settings, from the desolate streets to the eerie circus tents. The narrative is punctuated with moments of introspection, allowing readers to delve into Smidge’s psyche and understand her motivations.

 “Please Fear Me” tackles themes of addiction, family ties, and the search for identity. Love explores how past traumas shape our present and the lengths we go to escape them. The novel also delves into the concept of belonging and the sacrifices one makes to feel accepted.

“Please Fear Me” is a gripping and emotionally charged novel that stays with you long after the final page. Jennifer Love’s ability to weave a story that is unsettling and poignant makes this book a standout in contemporary fiction. It’s a must-read for those who appreciate complex characters and narratives that challenge the boundaries of conventional storytelling.

thank you netgalley & fairlight books for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review!!
now, this story follows smidge, a teenage runaway, as we follow her friendship with violet, a fellow runaway, and their new residence at a local circus. we learn about why smidge is on the run, her past, as well as the secrets of the circus they’ve joined.
this book had such incredibly unique prose i fell in love. the way this book was written kept drawing me back in to smidge. speaking of smidge, she’s the real draw to this book. i’ll say it right off the bat - if you can’t bond to smidge, this book isn’t for you. this book hinges on your interest into smidge, as there is kind of not really a plot? so if you can’t love books where the draw is the main character, this isn’t for you. but smidge was so well written, i fell in love with her. she’s so witty, and by <10% into this book i fell in love with her. violet was characterised strongly as well, but like i said, smidge is the focus, and jennifer love pulls smidge’s characterisation off so flawlessly.
the world building is also established incredibly early on and immersed me well. obviously compared to fantasy books not as much was needed seeing as this is a contemporary novel, but establishing smidge’s life on the run prior to violet and THEIR world was done so fast i was hooked by the second chapter.
the structure of the book was also a standout, as its nonlinear structure kept the story going with flashbacks, even when it was slow at points.
finally, i adored the rep in this book. like hello???? nonbinary and trans characters????? sapphic character?????? SIGN ME UP!!!!!
now i’ll admit i did have some small issues with this book, but honestly they’re just an issue of personal preference, not the actual novel’s fault. like i said earlier, this book kind of doesn’t have a plot. it does loosely, but the book more so follows smidge and her character development as well as her inner thoughts. if you’re someone who needs a strong plot, this book isn’t for you. as much as i loved smidge, i do need something grounding me, and although the circus kind of fulfils that role, it doesn’t feel like it. it’s hard to explain unless you’ve read this how the plot actually works — this book is unlike anything i’ve ever read.
speaking of the circus, it felt like missed potential and almost kind of pointless? the whole cult aspect was barely touched, making me feel like it’s role in the story wasn’t edited or written well. it very much felt like something smidge was passing through (which is the case) but then everything going with the circus felt like a waste of time as a reader. and that point can kind of apply to the ending as well (iykyk).
in the end, this was a great story about abuse, exploitation, and guilt. if you love stories where the characters are the main focus, and love stories with nonlinear structures, this book will meet all your needs 🫶

Thank you to Fairlight Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

This book was both too short and too long. The writing was more abstract, with each chapter being a short vignette into Smidge’s past or her present. The imagery was evocative, and I appreciated the complicated relationships between Smidge and Violet as well as Smidge and her mom. This story was more internal rather than external, focusing on Smidge’s emotions and reflections rather than what was going on around her.

I think that’s where my frustration lies; the plot feels vague, which is a shame because on paper it sounds so interesting. On top of that, Smidge as a character doesn’t seem to have much agency, and somehow the stakes feel low. Smidge finds herself in a cult, and becomes the understudy of the leader, but also there is no real danger when she tries to leave. The only things she accomplishes throughout the book are because of other people who take her under their wing. When the book finally ends, my immediate reaction was “now what?” There was some catharsis, but it also felt like Smidge still remained uncared-for and untethered.

Maybe this was supposed to be more about the journey than the destination. The journey just felt underwhelming to me.

I really enjoyed reading Please Fear Me. I love a complicated teenage protagonist and I think it is difficult to write one. The author did a good job.
I wish the cult plot was introduced earlier or developed more. I felt like I read two separate books and I found the first part much stronger.

We follow a minor, Smidge, and her raw memories and the incidents after her running away from home, and meeting a performance artist, Violet.
Certain raw aspects of the book are unsettling. Literary tone derives from Smidge’s age - hence her sentences carry her immaturity, inexperience, silliness and her traumas, gut and sweetness.
It is a fresh book in its mood, setting and essence.
From one stand point, it is a quick read, though in terms of coherence, if we had a more fleshed out character (especially Smidge and then Violet) and more plot, and a solid ending, I would have easily loved this more. Though, I still think this was quite interesting and I kept reading it, wanting to hear more by Smidge.
3.5 stars.

This was a pretty solid read. I was attracted by the cover and the title but the story was pretty damn good.

ARC REVIEW
My Rating- 3.85 Stars
Publishing Date- 9/5/2024

Okay so the cover is what made me request this book in the first place. I mean look at it… the cover and the title alone is telling enough that this is going to be an interesting read.

Hey siri please play- Teenagers by My Chemical Romance

This was a very dark read. You follow Violet and Smidge living as underage street kids trying to get by and they end up in a traveling circus.

Content Warnings-
🕷️Sexual Acts Of A Minor
🕷️Self Harm
🕷️Addiction

The two main characters in this book reminded me of the girls in the movie thirteen, both thriving off of each others bad decisions. Both girls go through trauma and they bond from that. This was an uncomfortable read but I couldn’t put it down because I had to know how everything was going to play out. This story is full of heart, despair and chaos. It shows the relationship between addiction and the vulnerability in childhood.

The ending for me was a little abrupt, I wanted more. But I guess it correlates to how life is unpredictable and how not everyone in your life is meant to stay.

I recommend this book to anyone that is comfortable reading this dark story.

“It gets increasingly difficult the older you grow, the more you learn about the world outside your house. The more acutely you realize that there are other options beyond continuing the endurance trial of loving the addict unconditionally. It becomes so difficult that once those options come into focus, it feels impossible not to choose one- so in order to survive you escape.”


✨Thanks to NetGalley, The Author, & Fairlight Book Publishing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review✨

The blurb for this book together with that gorgeous cover sounded right-up my alley, so when I was approved for an ARC I was beyond excited.
I dove right in, but somehow, the structure and the story itself did not really do it for me.
There is a lot of back and forth, and we jump from the present to the past and back and that comes, sadly, off as rather chaotic.
Thus, I could not really connect with the characters, and since the plot was mostly character driven, it was a bit challenging to get to the end.

This book captivated me with its rich, emotional depth and compelling portrayal of misfits and outcasts. It goes beyond its circus setting to explore themes of addiction, love, and the search for belonging. Both Smidge and Violet’s journeys are heartfelt and poignant, highlighting their struggles with trauma and identity.

Though I wished for a bit more exploration in some areas and noticed a few plot holes, the novel is a fiercely tender debut that moved me deeply. It’s a solid 4-star read for its emotional impact and layered storytelling.

Thanks to Fairlight Books and #NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Please Fear Me is hauntingly ethereal, introspective, yet brutal at times. It has an addictive quality that kept me reading "one more chapter" and captivated by the mystery the main character brings.

Smidge is a young girl on the lam, who readers get to accompany as she glides directionless through life, chasing her whims and clinging to anyone and anything that can bring her a sense of self. It is heavily character-driven, and almost fits a coming of age novel, with a twist of thriller through it as she's begging to be feared and not taken advantage of and written off for being "small and white and pretty enough to play a doll" in her foray as an entertainer.

Personally, I love how Smidge uses her street smarts to not necessarily play others, but know what they want and expect of her and throw it back in their faces. She does what's expected when needed, but also understands the power of shock and awe, and wants to inspire wonder, and with these two dynamics at play, I was constantly unsure what move she'd make next.

Please Fear Me by Jennifer Love is a novel about obsession, love and hate, addiction, the fear of abandonment and belonging.

We follow a young girl called Smidge, she's not only the main character but also the entire essence of the book. Every moment, every single sentence is intertwined with her very being.

I loved her. Smidge has lived through everything and while she herself thinks that she has no place or plan, you can tell that she knows exactly what she wants in life. She wants to belong, to feel safe and loved and cradled.
Smidge is such a complicated character but the way that Love describes her so clear minded was just brilliant.

Violet is Smidge's performance-art-partner, her best friend, her soulmate, her light and everything else. I really enjoyed Violets character as well. She's clearly struggling with her past but puts on a brave face, never letting Smidge get too close even though they love each other.

I think their relationship was incredibly portrayed at the beginning (up until the Circus plot started up. More on that later!). The dynamic was obviously very imbalanced and I particularly enjoyed that. The lover and the loved, the worshipper and the worshipped, the sun and the moth is a concept that I love beyond description and Love has definitely hit the nail on the head. Smidge was obsessed, was so deeply bound to Violet that even the flaws or lies she spied didn't damage that bond.

The writing was absolutely beautiful in my opinion. I love very character driven books, something that just explores the mentality and disorder of a particular character. Love has created some of the most deep hitting sentences I have ever read, passages I relate to very deeply. Most of it seems very simple but I think that the beauty lies in exactly that.

Now onto the things I didn't really enjoy:

Firstly, I enjoyed basically the whole book but I do believe there are some flaws that could've been smoothed out.

The whole Circus Cult plot was very interesting. It was a fantastic choice to have Smidge resist that whole thing, that she stayed so clear headed through it all. I do believe it was rather underdeveloped, that something was missing to make it feel complete.

Not only the Circus but also the relationship with Violet was ended way too quickly. It was too clean and impersonal. Smidge and Violet were intertwined for so long, literally bound to each other by rope, and yet they split apart so easily. There was no real resistance from either party which just felt wrong. Violet is a very possessive person, often gets her way, but suddenly she lets Smidge just slip from her grasp? It just felt like a band-aid being ripped up and, while the band comes off, the sticky stuff stays behind and creates an uncomfortable feeling.

Anyways, that is my only complaint.
All in all I really loved this book and can't wait to own a physical copy myself! A brilliant debut novel, I can't wait for whatever Love has planned next. I will definitely be waiting!

Thank you to Netgalley, Fairlight Books and Jennifer Love for a digital copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

2.5 stars if I'm being generous?

I found this quite engaging in the sense that I wanted to keep reading it in the hopes that something would happen to make me feel like it was worth my time. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The writing is very faux-deep - after the first few "insightful" paragraphs I found myself skipping over the rest (and there were a lot of them). I felt like Smidge's intensity and sudden lack of interest in things (like Violet) was a very accurate portrayal of how it feels when you're 16 so that was a positive.

I'm glad this worked for other people but it wasn't for me.

Please Fear Me
by: Jennifer Love
due: 9-5-24
Fairlight Book
4.5 stars

Smart, dark, real, and uncomfortable story of the exploitation of the human condition, with themes of suicide, self -identity, trauma, isolation and relationships. Reality and fantasy bind seamlesly, the back and forth of Smidge's fears throughout the book really bring this to life. Smidge tells of of her life and also her deepest lifelong fears she cannot escape.

Smidge is a young girl running away from an unstable home environment with her mother, who has an addiction problem. She meets Violet, who is different than Smidge, but they forge a friendship to survive, living in shelters or anywhere they can find. They cross the country, making money anyway they could-until they run into the Ringleader. He convinces them to join Holy Toledo in Miami. They believe the earth is hurtling towards imminent destruction. Holy Toledo have a secret program that will spare them, and they will be known as someone who saved the world.

Violet and Smidges relationship was well-developed and strong with a vivid emotional depth. Meeting the ringmaster turned the story in a darker mood with eerie elements. It added a unique mystique that forces both girls to face their fears, not allow their fears to be the biggest influencer in her life. It takes away her choice. It forces the reader to comtemplate: What navigates you?

I loved this. Its unique in its approach and I think it works well.

Thanks Netgalley for sending this e-book ARC for review.
#PleaseFearMe #NetGalley

2.5 An easy and enjoyable read. I found the relationship between Smidge and Violet really interesting and found all of their chapters together entertaining. I feel the same way about Smidge and her mother’s relationship except less entertaining and more thought provoking they gave me as a reader a more in depth perspective to Smidge both in terms of her psyche and the circumstances that lead to her running away. I think this book is lacking though. The parts with the travelling circus just fell short. I think the author might have been trying to do too much in a short amount of space, the cultish circus is a great idea but I don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been.

While this book had a ton of potential, it didn't quite hit the mark for me. I would have loved to learn more about the cult that she found herself in. I enjoyed the first part of the book more than the second. Overall a pretty good book that I rated 3.5/5 stars. Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

This is a devastating novel. The title alone embodies the aching desperation that pervades this story.

There isn’t much plot in this story, and the jacket copy covers pretty much all of it. But there is constant movement, never staying put long enough to set down roots, feel comfortable. This is a story that you sink into, maybe against your will. It is full of searching, of trying to create meaning, create family, but with a constant hum of menace that is never totally silent, even when our characters have moments of joy. There is constant and deep longing, exploring what it means to love someone so intrinsically, so violently, that you don’t have language to express it, not even to them. It looks at love and relationship as something somehow both intrinsic to the human experience and yet also alien, unexplainable. As is the performance art our characters create, it is about binding, and being bound, and yet realizing that there is an intoxicating sense of contentment that might come from those chains.

The writing is really strong, drawing you into this world and making you feel complicit, not letting you look away. The story is all told in the first person, and so our outlook is singular and unique, always observing but not judging. The prose effortless floats between the past and the present, giving us the backstory as we need to know it, showing the nature of trauma and suffering, cyclical, if not an actual feedback loop. There are moments of grace and poetry in the prose, but it never feels like it is trying to be something it isn’t. We are constantly in the heart of this child, aged far beyond her years, and the wonder and awe and terror of being there feels like it is conveyed with every word.

“Violet and I were the same in this way, something I understood even back then. We were always reaching for anything that would take us somewhere else and absolve us of all that had happened where we had already been, as if departing from ourselves could be perfectly physical. As if other places had anything that would make us different from what we were.”

(Note I read an ARC, so there is the potential for quotes to change).

Since there is very little plot to speak of, this story rests on the strength of the reality of the world and the characters, are they are both beautifully painted here. The world feels painfully really, with every sharp edge just waiting taste blood when we aren’t paying attention. There is an almost otherworldly quality to it, but that is because it is a world we don’t want to believe in, devoid of the safeties and comforts we pray for. In comparison the characters feel more like watercolors. They have depth to them, not just our protagonist but all of the secondary and tertiary characters that we find in her orbit, but there is still something fuzzy about them, a bleeding around the edges. This is deliberate, as the characters are nebulous and shifting, learning what it means to take up space, seeking out how to be solid.

If I were to criticize it, our try and explain why it didn’t receive perfect marks, it would have to be that I felt like there wasn’t a strong enough sense of journey with our main character. If we disregard all the flashbacks and memories, and only look at how she changes in the present-tense narrative, it feels like there could have been a different type of transformation, there. There is change and growth, especially in the very final chapters, but it feels like this journey has already started when we meet her, she tells us about it, and we just see its extension. Her decisions about her mother and her ideas of family and relationship, her ideas of survival and support, trust and love and betrayal, these are all things she has been thinking of when we meet her, we don’t see the moments of change. We see the world move around her, the environment magnifying or diminishing certain hopes or expectations or outlooks she may have, but never fundamentally changing her. This isn’t a story about dramatic or drastic revelations, it is about learning who you have always been, for better or worse, and then making decisions about what it means to be that way. In that regard the journey we do get makes sense, but it would have nice to have seen a little more of it happening, seeing Smidge’s understanding of herself shift and grow based on what was happening around her, instead of what was happening around her just reflect things she had already come to know about herself. Granted, we do see the character’s childhood and other experiences in flashback and hazy memory, and when we compare this to the present day we do get a sense of journey, of surviving battlefields only to be lost in trenches, the story isn’t stagnant, it just felt like our whole time with Smidge is us seeing her convince herself of decisions she has already made instead of actually making those decisions.

Still, the language is beautiful and evocative, a heart-wrenching portrait of what it means to be always grasping for something just beyond your reach. There is development and change, all against a really well-crafted backdrop of loneliness and isolation, a constant thrill of danger serving as the undercoat with occasional brilliant flashes of joy and connection, hope’s feeble gasps into an unforgiving night. I haven’t read the author’s previous short story works, but I can say confidently this is a phenomenal debut novel. It is tender and effective, gripping the reader with both hands and not letting us look away. The characters and the world building are really top notch, letting us recognize Smidge’s longing as our own.

I want to thank the author, the publisher Fairlight Books, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

'Please Fear Me' portrays a teen girl's struggles with self identity and survival while on the run from her abusive mother. It is a beautiful insight into female relationships and vulnerability that keeps the reader on their toes the entire time. This is an amazing debut novel from Jennifer Love, that feels both real and mystical at the same time, where we get to meet the main character and see her develop and mature while staying, at her core, just a scared teenage girl who was forced by the environment around her to grow up too quickly.

Thank you Fairlight Books for providing an arc for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars.

The thing that drew me to this book was the premise of young runaways joining a circus, but I got more than that. This was quite surprising, but it's not without its issues, IMO.

For one, it feels a bit meandering, but it's character-focused, so I think that can be forgiven in that context. It reads a bit chaotic too, with the way Smidge switches to talking about her past from one moment to the next, but I wouldn't say it's confusing. The structure is just a little strange, but I guess it suits the story.

Maybe the best way I can put it is that this is the kind of book where you're just along for the ride. It follows a young girl who ran away from her addict mom and how she survives in the world with her friend Viole. It explores addiction, belonging, identity, family bonds, and trauma.

I don't think it fully pays off in the end because I didn't *feel* it, you know? Maybe I just didn't get what the author was going for so it didn't make the impact I thought it would make based on the first half of the book. But overall, it was an interesting read.