The Cherry Robbers

Erudite and Chilling, the perfect summer read. This is a thriller gothic historical that commences of approximately the 1950's, amongst six sisters in the south. What I undeniably fancied right away was how posthastedly I could relate to Iris Chase a.k.a Sylvia Wren. I too have had formerly thoughts of being able to restablished living a normal life by simply changing my name. Along with being able to relate to Sylvia. I soon found that I could sympathizable with Sylvia and her sisters for how horrendously relatable I found the family dynamic to be. I felt such an eerie relatablness to that of my own patriarchal based familyhood life. With which it was as if the author had lifted the folds of the patriarchal dirtiness that I'd try to keep in the dark for how frightened I was to see it in the light for how it was truly, ugly and damaging. If my relatabiltiy to these few things didn't shock you the ending definitely will. Also, I love the cover of the book. The eye-catching flowers.

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker is a blend of Southern Gothic and historical fantasy that will appeal to fans of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson or The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab. The story revolves around Sylvia, a reclusive artist with a mysterious past. She has become relatively well-known in art circles, but nobody knows who she was before she became an artist. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1 when Sylvia receives a disturbing letter from a journalist: :"I'm wondering if any of this sounds familiar to you? I laughed audibly, more like a scoff of confusion, alarm. Why would it be familiar to me? I'm Sylvia Wren, an artist who lives in Abiquiu, New Mexico. I was born and raised in Illinois and now I'm a New Mexican. I know nothing of New England. Or at least that's what I tell people. But I kept reading the letter because Bellflower Village, the Popplewells, and the house in robin's-egg blue are not actually unknown to me - or rather to the person I used to be. I don't mean to be coy, Ms. Wren, so let me get to the point: Mrs. Levasseur had a bit too much champagne at lunch and let slip that she knows a secret about you." Soon after she receives the letter, Sylvia panics. Then, we are given a flashback to the 1950's when Sylvia and her sister, the Chapel sisters lived in a gorgeous house with their overbearing mother and father. The sisters long to get married so that they can leave the house. When the eldest Aster gets engaged, their mother has a horrible premonition that something will happen as a result of the wedding. The rest of the family ignore her, but something terrible does indeed happen. Is the family cursed? Are sinister forces are play, or is the real threat much closer to home? Overall, The Cherry Robbers is a delightful, spooky Gothic novel. I couldn't put this book down. I ended up finishing it in a day. One highlight of this book is the pairing of beautiful descriptions of items of consumption with the creepy ghosts that haunt the family's mansion. It reminded me slightly of the horror of Crimson Peak, which is one of my favorite films, and the quirkiness of the film Penelope or the TV show Pushing Daisies. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of Gothic novels like the works of Shirley Jackson, then I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in May!

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this book, as the description makes it sound like it transcends genre (which it does), but I absolutely loved it and am so glad I got the chance to get an early copy! Thanks to @bookishfirst and @harpercollins for the early copy! * Synopsis: In the 1950s, Iris is the second youngest of 6 daughters of the Chapel family. Her mother predicts that something terrible is going to happen when her oldest sister Aster gets married - her prediction comes true, and Aster dies shortly after her wedding day. The same thing then happens to her next oldest sister Rosalind. Each of the sisters has to figure what this means for their own futures. Told as a flashback from Sylvia Wren, an artist in 2017, as a journalist has figured out the secret history of the Chapel sisters. * This is a little bit The Virgin Suicides, a little bit The Immortalists, a little bit Gothic horror, a little bit social commentary on the lives of women in the 1950s, a little bit commentary on mental health. There's so much to unpack with the story and I found it absolutely fascinating to dive into the life of Iris and her sisters, and the different choices each of them made. * The story was honestly a little bit slow to get started, but the writing was so beautiful I never cared. It ended up being a story I never wanted to put down, and didn't want to end!