The Unmaking of June Farrow

The Unmaking of June Farrow is Adrienne Young's second adult stand-alone novel. With it, Ms. Young becomes an author whose books I will automatically buy and read. Her young adult books are great, but her adult books are truly spectacular.

The Unmaking of June Farrow follows June Farrow as she buries her grandmother and deals with the family curse. The sense of loss June feels at the death of her last-known family member is palpable. As are her feelings of fear at her impending madness due to the curse. Ms. Young excels at making you feel the same emotions as her characters, and The Unmaking of June Farrow is her masterpiece in that regard.

The heart of The Unmaking of June Farrow is the exploration of the depths to which we are willing show more to go to save our loved ones. Set in a time-bending story that could easily be mind-bending and difficult to understand, Ms. Young makes it easy. Her explanations are logical. They make June's decisions easy to understand and poignant. While there is a bit of a "choose your own adventure" element within the story, as there are two potential timelines, June's choices have a lasting impact on her family and her.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is a lovely story where family and belonging are the most important things in the world. But it is not without its sadness, too, at the things you give up to achieve that belonging or to obtain a family. June's loneliness is an ache that permeates the story, as is her love. It's a powerful story about love and loss and one of Ms. Young's best novels yet. show less

My head hurts. To fully appreciate this book you need to concentrate, focus and pay attention to each timeline and even then I got confused. This is a brilliant lesson in the possible consequences of crossed timelines. The writing is beautifully descriptive of a Blue Ridge mountain community in Western North Carolina. Young captures the multigenerational demise of the Farrow women into not quite dementia but a fading away. But there is an alternate explanation and that is where things get very interesting, posing so many “what ifs”.

Love, loss, strong familial ties, insanity and curses, insular communities that breed antagonism and worse, a precarious line of what may be revealed and what has to stay hidden, so many things going on, show more all woven like a piece of twine which is finally unraveling. Amazing thought processes and writing and worth every minute.

Thanks to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a copy. show less

The Farrow women have always lived in two places at once. That's because of their curse and why, more often than not, they succumb to the madness that permeates their line.

June Farrow has grown up her entire life vowing that the curse will end with her. For a year now she's already been plagued with the visions that are the first sign of the illness to come. It's something she's kept hidden from her family since she's also been busy taking care of her grandmother.

But after her grandmother passes, June is left putting the pieces of her own dwindling mortality together, reckoning with her mother's long-ago disappearance, and realizing it might be more closely linked than she thought.

I'll be honest, I went into this book solely because show more it's written by Adrienne Young and she is an author I can read sight unseen. The only thing I really knew about this book was that it was going to be another adult entry instead of YA.

Honestly, I felt like going in with little to no knowledge about this book is the best way to go in because it's a very slow-build but I think what kept me interested was the not knowing. It kind of mirrors June's own journey in the way that she is piecing together and discovering as she goes.

Likewise, I love that we don't know why there's a "curse" we don't get any history or explanations, it just is what it is. It's something that the Farrow women have been dealing with for centuries. No idea how it landed upon them. Sometimes, I think it's ok to not give explanation for everything. Yes, that means suspending disbelief and moving past reality a little bit, but me, personally, I'm fine doing that in my reading from time to time. I think, in this case, it's because June's story on its own is so captivating that we don't need all the extraneous background at this moment. With that being said, however, if Adrienne Young were to revisit some of the other Farrow women and highlight their stories, I would definitely be down for it.

I loved the idea of family that permeates the story. I mean if you are dealing with something outside of the normal, then you're going to have a limited number of people who truly understand you, or who want to understand. So all the people who are in on the secret, who the Farrows have allowed into their lives are there because they are, essentially, family. If not blood then found.

Without wanting to spoil anything, I'll just say that the story is almost split in two parts and I almost wish we had more time in the first part despite the second part being more essential to June's overarching storyline. Looking back, I missed a lot of the setup that takes place in the first part and I think this kind of made the concepts and ideas presented a little difficult to follow along with and understand. The big thing with this issue is that I feel like there were a lot of characters in the beginning of the book that were almost cast aside in the latter part and I wanted more time with them. More, I wanted to explore them in relation to who June becomes as her understanding broadens.

Speaking directly of June, I liked her ability to take what is happening to her and keep moving. It would be so easy for her to give in to the hallucinations and just give up, but she fights for her family and her future. She wants to put the pieces together and figure out the mystery.

I hope that Adrienne Young revisits the Farrows whether in another full-length novel or in short stories. I think they could all have an interesting perspective. Even though they have the same curse, they still have their own experiences. Like June, there are things that they know or understand that cannot be shared with anyone else and I would love to delve into those secrets. show less

This story stole my heart with its heartbreaking yet hopeful narrative about transcendent love. As the last Farrow woman cursed in a lineage plagued by madness, June's journey gripped me from the start. Adrienne Young's seamless blend of fantasy, mystery, and sci-fi whisked me into a world where time travel and family secrets collide. June's struggle to break the family curse, understand her mother's disappearance, and navigate unexpected love resonated deeply. Young's storytelling prowess shines as she weaves intricate plots and surprising twists, leaving me in awe. Themes of identity, sacrifice, and the power of familial bonds added depth to this emotionally charged tale. This book is an enchanting masterpiece, setting a new standard show more for the genre. show less

4.3 / 5

not only is this book well-written, but it’s exactly the kind of woo-woo magical realism that i enjoy. in some ways it’s a little mind bending (i don’t know that i wrapped my head around it tbh), but that totally works in its favor and it’s done really well.

i felt very connected to june, our unlucky time-hopping heroine. she’s trying to solve a mystery that she created in the future and has no memory of. this is absolutely a conceit that i couldn’t pull off, but YOUNG does a great job of releasing only bits of information right when they’re most impactful.

as a romance, this totally held up. i loved the slow burn with eamon, i loved the gradual trust built between june and annie. the earnest tenderness of their show more little family is so touching. and it helps that there’s a concurrent murder investigation happening to keep things interesting.

i don’t remember who recommended this to me, but to that person i say: thank you! this was a highly satisfying read, engrossing at times, and though i wished for a little more oomph, it paid off in major ways. show less

Growing up in the rural mountains of North Carolina, working on her family's flower farm, June Farrow comes from a line of "cursed" Farrow women. Her mother died tragically at a young age, and throughout the years, a sort of madness seems to envelop each generation. June knows that she is no different and when she starts hearing and seeing things, she knows she is doomed. Upon her grandmother's death, she receives a cryptic clue and when a mysterious red door appears, she passes through it in the hopes of discovering the secrets of her mother's death and the mysteries that have haunted her family for decades.

I devoured this one. It was right up my alley with the promise of family secrets, mystery, and time travel, and it checked all show more those boxes and more. I've not read a book this quickly in quite some time and now that I've finished, I am wishing it wasn't over. This made my brain hurt in some aspects, as time travel novels often do, as I tried to rationalize and make sense of the altering timelines, but at some point you've got to just go with it and enjoy the ride. So I did. This is likely not everyone's cup of tea, but it was probably my favorite read of the year thus far. show less

Big thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I received this book, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I'm very much not one to read any kind of fantasy or sci-fi type novels...and to be honest I'm not sure I would have ever picked it up if I hadn't received an ARC. That being said, WOW. I absolutely loved this book.

It is hard not to fall in love with the protagonist and narrator of the story June, as she investigates her memories and past. It was also hard not to like June's Gran, Birdie, Annie and Eamon. The characters were very well developed and I enjoyed all of their quirks and personalities.

What really nailed it for me though was how all of these little, minute things show more throughout the book all had a purpose, which was later revealed. So many threads and questions that were tied up and answered by the time you were at the last page.

This was a book that was so well written and I truly didn't want to end, even though I desperately wanted to find out what happened to June.

I would recommend this to any mystery, contemporary fiction, romance, and magical realism friends out there. The plot-line and theme of this novel is not something I've seen before either which was incredibly refreshing and interesting. This was a great read and spanned many genres. You should pick it up when it is released in October. show less