Your rating:
A woman investigating her brother’s apparent suicide finds herself falling for her prime suspect—his darkly mysterious girlfriend—in this “creepy, compelling, and utterly original” (Karen Dionne) thriller. “Get it out of me.” It was the last message Holly received from her brother, Dane, before he was found cleaved open in the lavish Savannah townhouse of his girlfriend, Maura. Police ruled his death a suicide sparked by psychosis, but Holly can’t shake the idea that something else must have happened—something involving another message he sent earlier that night about a “game” Maura wanted to play. Determined to discover the truth, Holly begins to stalk Maura, a magnetic, black-eyed florist with a penchant for carnivorous plants. But what begins as an investigation quickly veers into a fixation that lures Holly into the depths of Maura’s world: Savannah high society, eerie black roses, and a whisper of something more sinister. Soon Holly is feeling a dark attraction to the one woman she shouldn’t trust. As Holly falls deeper for Maura and her secrets, she’s left with only one choice: find out what happened to Dane or meet the same fate.
Publication Year: 2023
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
0Oh, good lord.
An e-ARC was given to me through Net-Galley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity!
I... I actually really liked this one. I started it a few days ago and it was something I was waiting to get back to reading. Such Pretty Flowers is a horror novel, mildly horrifying and I think I'm going to wake up with cold sweat for the next few days because Maura and her plants are... nightmare-inducing, if anything.
It was certainly well-written, but Holly's characterisation was slightly irritating because everything about her felt like a "oh, maybe I should give her a job. And a best friend." Maura was done really well, though. She seemed so fascinating, I was vaguely concerned that I'd find her the most interesting character in the story.
And of course, how could I not talk about the gothic-haunted-house aspect? Novels like Mexican Gothic (which I loved) and Rebecca (which I loved on the third read) do something similar and give the house such a strong character that I immediately connected Maura's place to the haunted houses in these other novels.
I'd recommend this book in general! It felt like something was missing, though, and that was probably Holly as a character-- and the main character. I really do struggle with first-person POV books.
True rating: 3.5
0**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**
KL Cerra's debut, Such Pretty Flowers, is features gothic suspense with an insidious horror that quickly takes root. Readers follow Holly whose brother Dane has recently died by a suspected suicide. Holly is determined there is more to Dane's death and her investigation leads her to believe that Dane's girlfriend, Maura, knows more than what she's saying. When Holly moves in with Maura, Holly soon realizes that more than Dane's life could be lost.
While I didn't necessarily feel attached to the characters, I was immediately interested in the investigation of the mystery surrounding Dane's death. I felt the pacing was very successful given that it was a gradual build of dread as Holly gained information.
I very much enjoyed Cerra's take on gothic horror. I particularly liked the influence of floriography given Maura's work as a florist. Most of all, I was grateful to Cerra for giving us a true resolution to the story. Often I have found that horror as a genre tends toward open endings. Cerra provided closure in a satisfying way with few key questions left unanswered.
I have already recommended this book to friends, and look forward to following Cerra's career growth and future works.
0
© 2024 Pagebound