Reviews with content warning for Blood - Cherish Farrah

I have mixed feelings about this and was generally confused throughout the majority of it. I liked the vibes and social commentary, but a lot of it was confusing to me. Like I get what happened and yet I don't? I was left with more questions than answers and that isn't satisfying for me as a reader. I do appreciate Farrah being unhinged (I love an unhinged female character) and it very much was fitting for a teenager.

at the end, I'm not sure why they killed the mom but were okay with the dad (like was it just because they needed a white man to get them off the hook?)? Were they planning on doing something to him too or was it enough that the threat that Farrah and Cherish COULD do something enough? What about Farrah's parents as well? Did they know Cherish's family was that sinister or was it just an intuitive thing by Farrah's mom? Are they still moving out of state?

Content Warnings

jojo_'s review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

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doreyghc's review

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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zarap's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I have lot of conflicted feelings about this book - while it's not long by any means, I think it would've been greatly improved by making the first half about half as long. I spent what felt like a very long time being pretty sure I knew what was coming (and I did) and just slogging along with the uncomfortableness of it all while the plot twiddled its thumbs. And yet Morrow does social commentary SO well, and once things picked up around the 65% mark I had a much better time (despite having to skip through one scene because it was too descriptively gory even for me). I was also pretty pleased with how the ending turned out - not perfect, but definitely more satisfying than I'd feared. I nearly dnf'd this several times and I'm glad I didn't.

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kstericker's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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amyspag's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Incredible book that broke my reading slump

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bookswhitme's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

CW: mentions of physical violence and on page physical violence, vomit, targeted violence, manipulation, discussions and demonstrations of racism (including systemic racism), white savior discussions/trope, visualized violence (violence thought about being inflicted on someone else, but not carried out), self-harm, intentional harm inflicted on another person

4.5! Listen...I can't relate to the people who didn't enjoy this. One, this book is written in a way that is supposed to keep you off kilter and uncomfortable. There are a lot of undercurrents in play here and so those uncomfortable feelings don't just come from one particular place. This put me into a similar mindset as When No One Was Watching towards the end of the story (which isn't a spoiler, but definitely a clue). I will say this, if you're not a Black reader and this book makes you feel some type of way, this may be a great time to do some soul searching and reflection on WHY you couldn't sit in that uncomfortable feeling and what caused them.

The focus of this story is Farrah, a young Black girl currently going through having her life being upended because of her parents financial troubles. She's been staying with her best friend Cherish, another young Black girl, though she was adopted by white parents. Farrah sees everything as a mental game. Nothing is every as it seems and everyone always has ulterior motives. Everyone except White Girl Spoiled, naïve Cherish. Farrah's determined to have a say in her future. Control. That's the key. She's in control of her life and everything around her and she won't accept anything less. Except, maybe Farrah isn't as in control as she'd like to think. And maybe, just maybe, someone knows how to play this game better than she does.

I've seen a few reviews that said that none of these characters were likable. That's absolutely true. I'm of the mindset though that I don't have to like the characters to like a book: another thing that makes me put this book in the same category of When No One Was Watching. Each character has their own flaws. None are better than they other, just different in the how and why. Farrah and Cherish are certainly at the center of this story, though maybe not for the reasons that you think.

Every new layer and element that was revealed only served to draw me in more until I was on the edge of my seat. Maybe I had such a great reaction to this because I listened to the audio, but I don't have a single regret.

Content Warnings

mysterymom40's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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