A good horror book has early action and a wonderfully crafted atmosphere, and Dearest has both.

The horrors start quickly in this novel and continue throughout the book. The thing that I really love is that while the horrors start quickly, it’s not anything supernatural at first. The book creates an exhausting, isolating, and frustrating picture of new motherhood and the early days of child rearing. The book relies on the horrific moments of being sleep-deprived, alone, and mired in doubt to lay a pathway for the supernatural horrors to jump off from.

I felt like the earlier parts of the book were the stronger chapters. The establishing atmospheric chapters and early creepy moments were just so much stronger compared to the ending. The ending isn’t bad per se, just weaker than the starting chapters.

I think part 2 is by far the best section of the story. It’s also got, in my opinion, the most stomach churning moment with a lot of impact.

Where I think this book could be a little stronger is with the characterization of the protagonist. We know a lot about Jodi, about Connor, and even about her father, but she’s not exactly well rounded herself. She really seems like a scaffold for the action to happen around, but we’re not given any particular characterization or identity. We’re reminded frequently that this postpartum version of herself isn’t what she’s regularly like, but we aren’t given a comparison of what that actually looked like. Everything we know about Flora is in relation to other people.

Overall, a good spooky female-focused horror pic for October. 4/5




(Spoiler: also extra kudos for female centric horror that doesn’t rely on sexual violence as a plot point.)