Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Such Pretty Flowers

“…I lifted a rose out of the canister, gritting my teeth against the pain. Its stem was coated in a slick, red-black substance. Droplets converged on the end and dripped into the depths of the container. Shaking, I placed a fingertip against a coated leaf near the base of the plant. The syrupy warmth that came away on my skin was familiar in a way I wished it wasn’t. Blood.”

TITLE—Such Pretty Flowers

AUTHOR—KL Cerra

PUBLISHED—2023

PUBLISHER—Bantam Books (Penguin Random House imprint)

GENRE—horror

SETTING—Savannah, GA! (my hometown 😁)

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—death & grief (also fear of grief & pain), set in downtown (historic) Savannah, aimless post-undergrad MC, bisexual rep, sibling relationship, suicide, art, florists & herbalists, sinister flowers (including hellebore!), some kind of weird discussions re: mental illness…, abusive relationships (manipulation & gaslighting), classism, trypophobia

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—It was SO. FUN. reading a book set in my hometown.*

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Especially when I was intoxicated, historic Savannah had a strange way of unfurling in the night. I had yet to find anything that made me feel so gloriously untethered.”

My thoughts:

This was a fast-paced and very dark gothic mystery horror story set in my hometown of Savannah, GA. I’m not one hundred percent sold by the way the story went… I think it was well-plotted, but it didn’t really have that satisfying sense of the themes clicking into place at the end the same way the action sort of did… Also I still feel like the treatment of mental illness, suicidality, and ableism in the book was maybe a little problematic or just not as well-managed as I would have liked to have seen. Although I understand and appreciate the author’s exploration of the way people deal with and make sense of grief and the kinds of choices they will make out of fear. I definitely enjoyed the story overall and the vibes were excellent.

*(There were a few instances of worldbuilding dissonance where the characters said and did things that no Savannah native would ever do or say—or where a particular specific detail definitely should have been inserted but wasn’t 👀—but that’s probably unavoidable, minor things that most readers wouldn’t track. I’m still always happy to read a book set in my hometown!)

“‘Those liminal spaces are just easier to access when we’re children,’ Maura continued. ‘We tend to lose the ability once we grow up. Maybe it’s because we grow self-conscious.’
‘Or maybe we just become afraid.’
Maura’s eyes flicked at me like a pair of cast dice. ‘That too.’”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

CW // suicide, body horror, heavy drinking, very graphic toxic & abusive relationship: manipulation & gaslighting (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

MEXICAN GOTHIC, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
SHE IS A HAUNTING, by Trang Thanh Tran

Content Warnings

amberghinii's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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beanodie75's review

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Content Warnings

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

The story is compelling as it begins with main character, Holly, joining her parents in Savannah as they lay to rest her brother, Dane, who apparently died by suicide. While Dane did struggle with mental issues, Holly has a hard time accepting that as the sole cause of his distress and decision to end his life.

With family and friends gathering in remembrance of Dane, Holly comes into contact with his fiancée, Maura, the woman who was able to earn Dane’s devotion and consume his attention in what many saw as a relatively short courtship. Holly finds herself equal parts drawn to Maura and suspicious of her knowing more about Dane’s mental decline than she’s telling the family. An opportunity comes along for Holly to become Maura’s roommate and while this seems like an ideal chance to find out more about Dane and Maura’s involvement, the train begins heading off the tracks right away and Holly’s life starts taking unexpected and tragic turns as she pursues an explanation for her family’s loss.

The story was unique and interesting, and the author, K.L. Cerra, brought a genuinely authentic and foreboding atmosphere with their descriptions of Savannah, Maura’s townhouse, and other Georgia locales in the story. I liked Holly at least halfway through the book and then started getting frustrated with her stupid decisions to not see clues and dangers right in front of her face, or to take even the simplest and most logical precautions to protect herself from the person she feared. While the conclusion seemed to be trying to explain Maura’s world, all I got was a readily offered explanation from the villain, but insufficient genesis of how it could be. Or maybe it just flew right over my head and I missed it. Either way, the ending was a little meh for me, and the Epilogue only served to confuse me more with the reminiscence at the end.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator, Brittany Pressley, did a great job voicing Holly as a woman stressed and feeling her life unravel. The other characters sounded good too, but I felt there needed to be more of a hard edge to Maura’s vocal inflections at certain points in the story.

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cee_ceon's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this book. I stayed up far too late finishing reading it. It had loads of things I look for in a book. Alluring villain types. Secret society. Supernatural realism. Sapphics. Phycological horror. Tension. Mental health. Gore. Deffs one of my top reads of 2023

Content Warnings

kimberlykesq's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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oracle_of_madness's review

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4.0

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!!

This was one of those weird, creepy thrillers, and I loved every second! Give me the weird and strange with a Savannah setting and goth goth gothic style, and I am happy!!

Holly recently lost her brother to suicide and she has been picking apart the possibilities, the reasons why, nonstop. When she begins thinking of Dane's girlfriend that he moved in with right before the tragedy, she feels not only suspicion but an attachment to this girl, Maura.

Holly soon finds herself interacting with Maura, trying to parcel together clues for her brothers sudden decline. However, when she decides to move in with her to further along her chances of figuring this out, everything seems to start slipping sideways. Maura seems to all at once to be in and out of control while Holly realizes she has stumbled into something beyond her understanding. Something so strange and unthinkable that she may follow the same path as her brother.

This was so fun! The author didn't hide that Maura was a suspect, so I really felt like I was being led into the finale very purposely. But, the finale itself!!! I am so glad I got to dip into this author's creative and creepy mind! And, I'm looking forward to their next book!

Out February 7, 2023!

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