Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband still deployed, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur.

Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up: Flora’s own mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora’s mother isn’t telling her about the events that led to their estrangement?

As stranger and scarier events unfold, Flora begins to suspect the house is not as empty as she once thought. She must determine: is her hold on reality slipping dangerously away? Or is she, in fact, the only thing standing between a terrifying visitor and her baby?

This book contains scenes that depict suicide and the death of a child.

“Maybe that is the burden of motherhood: to give all that you can and know that it will never be enough.”

Bringing life into the world and then trying to protect it from all the dangers lurking around us is scary business. In her debut novel, Dearest, Jacquie Walters renders early motherhood a horror as riveting and harrowing as any creature feature or zombie apocalypse.

Flora is a new mother solo parenting while her husband is deployed. The day to day grind has left her lonely, guilt ridden, and maddeningly bored. She hungers for company and some guidance as to how to navigate these motherhood travails. But her ordinary, though quite painful, desires begin to quickly morph into something stranger, scarier—visitations from a childhood imaginary friend, indecipherable dreams, and voices coming out of Iris’s baby monitor. Soon Flora is in a full-blown panic that her child may be in danger, so she seeks help from her own estranged mother. Unfortunately, this does not stave off the horrors and demons from the past that begin to mingle with those of the present, leaving Flora in doubt of her own sanity…

Don’t let the strollers or suburban homes fool you—this is a truly haunting novel. Dearest burrows deep into a parent’s greatest fears and animates them to thrilling effect. I had literal goosebumps. If you are looking for a unique spooky season read unafraid to get a little weird, pick this one up!