The Unmaking of June Farrow

• Author: Adrienne Young
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: October 17, 2023
• Publisher: Delacorte Press

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: death of a loved one, parental abandonment, grief, on-page panic attack, violence, blood, murder

A woman risks everything to end her family’s centuries-old curse, solve her mother’s disappearance, and find love in this mesmerizing novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Spells for Forgetting.

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.

I was thrilled to buddy read this with Julie @ One Book More not just because our chats are endlessly entertaining, but because I always get so much more out of a book when I buddy read it with her (or my other buddy read partners). We were both looking forward to it, and I’m honestly so glad that I had her to read this with, or I probably would have thrown my Kindle multiple times.

To start with, readers are plunked into a teensy town. This book doesn’t give small-town vibes. It gives claustrophobic, one-light town vibes. And Young’s writing is beautiful and atmospheric, making us really feel like we’re right there with June. She’s spent her whole life living in this dying farming town, nurturing a family flower farm that has been there for generations. But she’s got a family curse hanging over her head, and the clock is ticking for her.

This is one of those genre-crossing books, which involves a mystery, a family saga, and a romance. And each of the aspects of the genres are superbly handled. There’s a lot of foreshadowing in the beginning of the story, and at the start, all we know is that the women in the Farrow family start to hallucinate and seem to experience some time of severe mental illness at some point in their lives. It happened early in June’s mother’s life, and as a result, she abandoned June as a newborn to be raised by her grandmother. 

But the questions just seem to pile up, and when June starts experiencing her own hallucinations, the story really takes off. We had a lot more questions as things start to pick up, and it drove me bonkers. The romance builds throughout the story even as everything else was getting confusing, and at least I had that to hang onto as a kind of anchor. I was completely rooting for the romance, even as I was dying to figure out the mystery as well as figuring out what the heck was actually going on.

Overall, this turned out to be the fantastic and intriguing story that I was expecting from Young. My high standards are maintained once again! Julie and I spent so much of the book confused yet hopeful, and it wasn’t until the last quarter of the story that we weren’t confused anymore. But it was so worth the wait! I was a bit concerned about how mental illness would be treated in the story, since it’s often used as a plot point and portrayed negatively, but it was handled well. This is the kind of book that you can’t put down, and if you have to, you’ll be thinking about it when you do. Don’t miss out on this gem.