Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
‘Get it out of me.’
That was the last text Holly ever received from her brother, Dane. She was out with friends, dancing, drinking, living it up. Her brother was ending his life.
Holly is overwhelmed with grief and guilt in the days following the discovery of Dane’s mutilated body. She knew he was struggling with his mental health. She feels guilty for not being more available to him.
Running through events in her mind, Dane’s tumultuous last months, Holly begins to suspect that his suicide isn’t as straight-forward as everyone believes. Seeing her brother’s mysterious and beautiful girlfriend, Maura, at his funeral does nothing to quell those fears either.
In fact, it only makes her suspicions grow.
Determined to figure out the truth behind Dane’s tragic death, Holly sets out to learn more about Maura and her relationship with Dane.
Holly befriends the younger woman and before long, circumstances allow them to spend a lot more time together. That’s when things begin to get weird; really weird.
Maura is a very successful florist in the Savannah area. She owns a gorgeous home, she’s so put together, but she’s also creepy as heck.
At first, Holly is drawn to her, attracted to her, but she’s also scared of her and she can’t quite pinpoint why. As their relationship grows, Holly begins to fear that she could turn out just like Dane if she’s not careful.
Compelling, addicting, eerie and creepy are just a few of the adjectives I would use to describe Such Pretty Flowers.
Anddddd while it wasn’t perfect, it definitely got my anxiety up and kept me glued to the pages!
I went into this under the mistaken idea that this was a YA-story, but it’s definitely not. It’s got more of a New Adult vibe. It gets pretty dark and graphic, even including some body horror, which I always enjoy. I was here for it.
It was also super suspenseful. You can tell that there is something going on with Maura. It was so interesting trying to figure out what. It also gets pretty stressful and intense, like in a Single White Female kind of way.
It’s like one of those intense feelings where you just want to shake the protagonist. Like, why are you making these crazy decisions, just get out of there!!
Holly was determined though. She tried so hard not to let silly fears overwhelm her, even when they didn’t seem quite so silly. Maura was just a girl, younger than her even, she had no reason to be intimidated by her…right?
Overall, I found this to be a clever and compelling work of Dark Fiction. There were a few areas that could have been explored a bit more, in my opinion, but I feel like this is still a solid, engaging story.
Thank you to the publisher, Bantam, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I had a lot of fun with it and look forward to reading more from this author.