Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Dearest

Dearest by Jacquie Walters, 304 pages

Flora just had a baby and while her dad and stepmom stayed for a few weeks, she's now on her own for a few more weeks until her husband returns from his overseas deployment. But now that she's on her own, the sleep deprivation, nursing challenges, and general feeling that she's woefully unprepared for motherhood have Flora second-guessing everything, including her sanity. In a weak moment, she emails her estranged mother for help, and she's shocked to find her mom on the doorstep offering assistance. But not all is quite as it seems...

The first part of this book — where Flora's sleep deprived and hasn't showered in days and is having trouble getting the hang of the nursing thing and keeps getting surprised by noisy toys — is so horrifyingly real. Then it takes a turn into a different kind of horror, before a final turn to a perplexing conclusion. Somewhere in there, it goes from being scary and sympathetic toward new moms and those with postpartum depression to almost vilifying them, which is uncomfortable in the worst possible way. It icked me out, and not in a way that's horror-novel appropriate. So read at your own risk.

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