I was very concerned when I kept reading reviews of My Dearest Darkest that reiterated how it’s legitimately scary, not just YA scary.

So any time I hear that something is scary or actually creepy, I assume that it will be too much for me. When I read Native Son as a senior in high school, I had to leave it on the sofa overnight because I couldn’t sleep with it in my room. Disney villains terrified me far beyond when it is socially acceptable to be terrified of Disney villains, and I had nightmares for months after watching not-that-scary movies like The Prestige and Angels and Demons. I’ve spent my whole life thinking that I’m a horror wimp. As the ghostly woman gets more demanding and dangerous, Finch and her new friends-including popular dancer Selena and cryptoid enthusiast Simon-must find out what and who she is and how to stop her before bloody history repeats itself. It could have gone either way because on one hand it is a LGBTQ+ fantasy novel, which is right in my wheelhouse, and on the other hand it’s a horror novel and historically I haven’t done well with horror.Īfter auditioning for a prestigious school, Finch and her parents are driven off the road by an eight-eyed deer and drowned… but Finch survives her death only to discover that a strange ghost is offering magical boons to schoolgirls in exchange for an increased connection to their world. For April, I read My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham. But as the cost of their wanting becomes more deadly, Finch and Selena must learn to work together to stop the horror they unleashed, before it consumes the entire island.Every month Barnes and Noble picks several books of the month, and I almost always try to read one of them. It promises to grant every desire the girls have kept locked away in their insecure hearts-beauty, power, adoration-in exchange for a price: human body parts. One night Finch, Selena, and her friends accidentally summon a carnivorous creature of immense power in the depths of the school. But despite Selena's suspicion, she feels drawn to Finch and has a sinking feeling that from now on the two will be inexplicably linked to one another. Clair sees right through Finch, and she knows something is seriously wrong with her. Finch doesn't know why she woke up after her heart stopped, but since dying she's felt a constant pull from the school and the surrounding town of Rainwater, like something on the island is calling to her. But something monstrous, and ancient, and terrifying, wouldn't let her drown. Months before school started, Finch and her parents got into an accident that should have left her dead at the bottom of the river. Wilder Girls meets The Craft in this Sapphic horror debut that asks: what price would you be willing to pay to achieve your deepest desires?įinch Chamberlin is the newest transfer student to the ultra-competitive Ulalume Academy. *Lambda Literary Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+

My dearest darkest book