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A review by sleepysadpoet
Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
I received this book for free via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This story has promise, but I genuinely struggled to stay interested at times. I really like the premise and there are some parts that are great, but others that are lacking. It's complicated in that way. I think it would make a decent horror film, but sometimes horror books struggle to keep people's interest. I had a difficult time trying to sympathize with Cherry. She was handed bad cards in life, and she put her whole heart into raising her kids, who have individual struggles. There's also a lot of ableism towards Jonah, who is special needs. It never directly says //what// he has, but the what part of the equation isn't an important part of the story.
The last 30ish percent of the book flows just fine, but the first half is pretty confusing. I kept thinking "okay is this a paranormal story? Or is cherry just severely traumatized? Or is it both?"
I also don't like that romance was squished into it. It kinda gives off the impression that cherry HAS to have a man to get through life, and that isn't true.
This isn't a bad book by any means, but I did struggle with it. The cover is cool though and ultimately why I requested to read it.
Thank you again to netgalley for the opportunity to read this.
This story has promise, but I genuinely struggled to stay interested at times. I really like the premise and there are some parts that are great, but others that are lacking. It's complicated in that way. I think it would make a decent horror film, but sometimes horror books struggle to keep people's interest. I had a difficult time trying to sympathize with Cherry. She was handed bad cards in life, and she put her whole heart into raising her kids, who have individual struggles. There's also a lot of ableism towards Jonah, who is special needs. It never directly says //what// he has, but the what part of the equation isn't an important part of the story.
The last 30ish percent of the book flows just fine, but the first half is pretty confusing. I kept thinking "okay is this a paranormal story? Or is cherry just severely traumatized? Or is it both?"
I also don't like that romance was squished into it. It kinda gives off the impression that cherry HAS to have a man to get through life, and that isn't true.
This isn't a bad book by any means, but I did struggle with it. The cover is cool though and ultimately why I requested to read it.
Thank you again to netgalley for the opportunity to read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Violence
Moderate: Child death and Death
Minor: Rape
I received this book for free via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This story has promise, but I genuinely struggled to stay interested at times. I really like the premise and there are some parts that are great, but others that are lacking. It's complicated in that way. I think it would make a decent horror film, but sometimes horror books struggle to keep people's interest. I had a difficult time trying to sympathize with Cherry. She was handed bad cards in life, and she put her whole heart into raising her kids, who have individual struggles. There's also a lot of ableism towards Jonah, who is special needs. It never directly says //what// he has, but the what part of the equation isn't an important part of the story.
The last 30ish percent of the book flows just fine, but the first half is pretty confusing. I kept thinking "okay is this a paranormal story? Or is cherry just severely traumatized? Or is it both?"
I also don't like that romance was squished into it. It kinda gives off the impression that cherry HAS to have a man to get through life, and that isn't true.
This isn't a bad book by any means, but I did struggle with it. The cover is cool though and ultimately why I requested to read it.
Thank you again to netgalley for the opportunity to read this.