This is an incredibly creative and intricately woven story that had me totally hooked from the first sentence. We follow June as she tries to piece together the mystery of the unravelling that has affected all of the Farrow women, of which June is now the last. She watched her grandmother deteriorate, her mother disappeared and now June faces a similar future unless she can find out what’s happening and if there’s a way to stop it. At times this is an emotional story, and June is incredibly brave to follow the path that she does and embrace what is an incredibly confusing situation. She’s strong, and determined, and understandably lonely with her inevitable demise staring her in the face but she has a great support system in Jasper with her long time best friend Mason and her grandmother’s friend, Birdie. This book is amazing but it also made me very anxious as June is pulled in two different directions due to the turn the plot takes but I won’t say more as then we’re definitely entering spoiler territory and you’ll want to discover this one for yourself!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

HOW, how could Adrienne Young write a book like this & expect us to be able to review it without talking about *spoiler* and *spoiler*! It's impossible I tell you, so bare with me guys cause this is gonna be hard. June Farrow is determined to be the last Farrow woman, determined to be the last woman to have to deal with the madness that runs through her family. The madness that saw her mother leave her as a seven month old baby, and the madness that has just taken her grandmother. But when she comes home from the funeral she finds a letter and inside a picture, a picture she can't explain. As she delves into her family history, June starts unraveling the mystery that surrounds the Farrow women, and the more she looks into her past the more her mind starts to unravel. When a door appears, June knows she has to go through it, wherever it leads, but when she steps through she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but entangle her fate and her heart in a star-crossed love.

Ok so, characters, I can talk about those... some of them anyway. June especially was a character I had no issue empathizing with. Her decision to be the last Farrow woman, to tie herself off from any romantic relationships knowing her inevitable future was a hard one, and you can't help but sympathize with her decision. She does her best to keep people at arms length but between her Grandmother and Birdie, the women who raised her and Mason her best friend, she starts relying on people more heavily, especially when her Grandmother gets sick and June herself starts getting visions. But once she steps through that door everything she thought she knew changes, not just about her family, their history, but about herself and June has to decide which side of her she is willing to fight for. Shes headstrong and determined, but on the other side of the door she finds a June she hasn't met before, one she can't seem to fit into, and the journey, both emotional and physical that she goes on in this book is amazing.

June's really the only character I can go into detail about without getting into spoiler territory, but suffice to say that Young graces us with a cast of well built side characters who are all out to break your heart in some way. The emotional roller coaster that this book took me on was wild, and that was largely down to the characters.

Plot twists galore, there is one big one that I absolutely did not see coming at all & completely blind sided me whilst reading... in the best was possible, but I was also a little bit wary when it happened, wondering whether the rest of the story would keep my interest after what seemed to be the main plot point happening within the first quarter or so of the book... I needn't have worried. Young throws in twist after twist, some predictable, some not, but even the predictable ones still hit, there's one in particular that took my breath away and even though I knew where it was going, I still sobbed like a baby when it came to light. It's filled with emotions, some good and some bad, but it's one you can't help but get invested in.

It's a story about motherhood, about being women and the choices that come with it. And despite the overwhelming sadness that runs through this book, it's also a story about hope, even in the direst of times. The romance was something I especially loved and something that might not have worked, but Young works her magic and makes you absolutely fall in love with these two characters from their first meeting. Everything in this story is hard, the familial relationships, the decisions June and other characters have to make, and the romance is no different. It was a unique, almost second chance romance and I loved seeing the trust get built back up and these two characters fall back in love with one another.

And that's all I can really talk about without saying hey you wanna hear about *spoiler*, so I'm gonna stop here. If you're looking for a unique fantasy with characters that will burrow their way into your hear, a romance for the ages and a book that will have you a sobbing mess by the end, look no further. This is my first of Young's adult fantasies, but it will not be my last.

If you aren't afraid of any content warnings and are willing to go in fairly blind then I recommend doing so as this book is especially delightful when you experience it without any expectations. If you want to know more - which you probably do if you are reading reviews - then let's step through the red door.

June Farrow comes from a line of women who are cursed. A curse that leads to madness and when her grandmother dies her world begins to unravel just as those of the women before her. Then when she crosses the threshold of the mysterious red door everything begins to fall into place.

Adrienne Young weaves the magical elements throughout the real world North Carolina setting in a way that had me challenging my own skepticism as I related to June. The small town vibes with big emotional stakes are Young's forte and I felt completely swept away in this beautiful story, So much so that despite having the privilege of receiving a digital advanced reading copy I plan to purchase the special edition of this special book as I enjoyed it so much.

'We were cursed— the Farrow women.'

Wow, wow, wow x 100. I don't even know if I'm capable of actual speech right now!This book is actual genius so sorry if I ramble here (or am a bit incoherent) because I am just sat here in amazement!

We meet June, who lives in a small town in North Carolina on a flower farm, and she is starting to experience her families curse, what she believes is a mental health condition that has affected every woman in her family for generations. Then she sees the red door.

I'm not saying anymore about the plot but this is the story of June's life, there's family, an historic small town atmosphere, secrets, time travel, mystery, romance and sacrifices. Omg the sacrifices!

The story was so unique and the revelations will make your jaw actually drop! I feel like I actually say that quite a bit regarding books but this jaw dropper is a million times real!

If I know one thing, that is this book needs to be in everyone's hands and I know it will be on my mind for a long time!

How does Adrienne Young do this to me every time? … This book was beautifully written whilst simultaneously being so wildly unique. Another masterpiece of Young’s imagination and a product of her tireless effort to create stories that we can’t help falling head over heels for. I ACHED whilst reading. So profoundly heartbreaking, brilliant and mysterious that I was hooked from beginning to end.

This novel has a really nice pace to it, you are never left feeling bored or wanting (unless of course you count wanting answers because - you will be wanting answers). I also really enjoyed the multiple perspectives woven throughout the story whilst remaining a single perspective narrative (you’ll find out when reading but trust me, it’s worth it!)

I will definitely be purchasing all the special editions of this because it’s a book I’ll be returning to throughout my days reading. Fair warning, it’s not something you can read just once! And you will be left with a considerable book hangover afterwards.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to Quercus and Netgalley for this amazing arc!

“Wow” was literally the only thing I could think when I finished this and had to drag myself back to the real world.

I loved Spells for Forgetting, but Adrienne absolutely took it up a notch with her second foray into adult fiction. It was atmospheric, mysterious, intriguing and unputdownable (that’s a word, right?). I read about 90% of it in one sitting and finished it at 1:15am after not being able to put it down, because I just *needed* to know what was going to happen. I went into it having only skim read the summary (but expecting I’d love it based on Adrienne’s other books), and I’m so glad I just dove straight in without knowing too much.

The Farrows are a matriarchal family, where daughters always have daughters, those daughters take the surname “Farrow” no matter the name of their fathers (if they even know their fathers), and they are doomed to eventually go mad at some point in their lives.

June is 34 years old when the book opens on her burying her Gran, leaving her as the last Farrow alive (her mother having abandoned her when she was 7 months old). Unbeknownst to those closest to her, she has been having hallucinations and hearing voices for the past year, and fears her time to go mad has come. When she shares this with family friend Birdie, Birdie sends her down a path she never expected as she explores the mystery of what happens to Farrow women.

Without spoiling anything, the twists in this book kept me guessing the whole way through and I got completely immersed in June’s journey, and completely invested in the various characters. I’m honestly still processing the story 12 hours later, but I would definitely say this is one of my top reads this year and I’ll be thinking about this story for a long time to come.

There’s a couple of vaguely spoiler-y comparisons below for those who haven’t read it yet!

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This gave me the same vibes as the Netflix shows Dark and 1899, which I absolutely adored (I’m still upset that 1899 was cancelled). The time travel was really well written and although it did make my head hurt at times, it did so in a good way and the various reveals were done so well.

Adrienne Young is the master of weaving deeply atmospheric books that are packed with emotion. The Unmaking of June Farrow is a wonderful fantasy book full of suspense, mystery and love. I've never been overly fond of time travel in books or movies, however, the author managed to win me over with the ambience and the incredibly descriptive and beautiful prose.

I absolutely loved June and thought she was a fantastic main character. She was so brilliantly crafted and I loved that the story was told in first-person since I felt it added to my empathy for her, which in turn made the book even more emotional. My romance loving heart was hoping there would be a bit more of a love story, however, this book was perfect regardless.

I absolutely fell in love with this beautifully intricate story and it's twists and turns. Fans of Adrienne Young's previous works will absolutely adore The Unmaking of June Farrow.

What a brilliant read.

This is like Back to the Future but with a red door instead of a flux capacitor.

As soon as June found herself in 1951 and meeting Eamon for the (not really) first time, I wanted them to be endgame. I hoped and hoped that she would choose to stay with him and Annie because, let's be real, who wouldn't? I know I wouldn't leave.

There's also mystery in the book surrounding Nathaniel Rutherford, a man who died in 1951 and who has connections to June in a way that shouldn't be possible.

June Farrow is cursed.

All the Farrow women have had the same curse, sickness, fraying of time but June doesn’t understand it yet. Her grandmother has just passed away and her friends Mason and Birdie are trying to get her through the grief but June can’t think straight. Her hallucinations, or are they delusions, are becoming more frequent as she tries to make sense of them.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is a wonderful, twisted, emotionally charged tale of love, family and mystery. So well written by Adrienne Young, I was totally absorbed by June’s story and couldn’t put the book down until I’d finished.

This is the sort of book I will go back to again and notice different things each time.

Rating = 3.75.
I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to read this as an ARC. The unmaking of June Farrow is the first book I've read by Adrienne Young, and it was a lovely introduction. While reading, I got the same vibes as when I read Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. It is a real character study of the main character June. She has expectations of her life as a Farrow woman, which has influenced the decisions she's made. Slowly, we are taken along with June as she tries to understand her mother's history and how their lives are more intertwined than she could ever believe.

Despite times of feeling lost and alone, this story does have hope as a thread throughout. I very much enjoyed the narrative style and language as it gave for strong imagery. I could clearly envisage the landscape and buildings, which are the foundation of June's life.

I also appreciated having a main character closer to my own age. With June being in her mid thirties, I had sympathy with her point of view and pressures that come from that stage of life.

This story is a slow pace, which adds to build suspense to the gradual revelations that underpin the Farrow family history.

Quite different to my usual read, I enjoyed this. Recommend.

I have enjoyed reading Adrienne Young’s books, and enjoyed too this her latest fictional story. A book that to me intentionally makes you feel uneasy from the beginning. June Farrow has an interesting future and past. Will she survive the twisted unravelling of her life? Read this haunting fairytale feel story and find out. Thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Such a hauntingly beautiful and emotional story, I was hooked from the start and read the book in one sitting. The setting was described beautifully and in detail, i could clearly picture it. The twists and turns in this story were excellent and it had the perfect ending.

Simply fantastic, I can see this book breaking into all the best-selling lists. Being taught about in literature classes in the future when they study the age of bookstagram and booktok, when in the overflowing of stories some were bright stars. This one is definitely a bright star.

It is such a beautiful story. So full of feelings, I wasn't sure my heart was going to be able to cope with it. For a few hours while reading, I was sure it wouldn't. So much was the pain of not knowing and loneliness. But I made it, and it was so worth it. I cried a lot with this one, and my heart was overflowing with love. The ending was perfect. The mystery, the murder, the suspense, the “what the hell is happening” everything is balanced to perfection. 

It blew my mind in the way every well-written story about time travel does. It is a theme I am very picky about, and I obsess over unhealthily

I really loved Young’s writing and storytelling, the prose captivated me and kept me hooked in to the story, invested to see where June goes and why she made the decisions that she did.

Young is brilliant at describing a setting. I could so clearly picture the houses, the fields, the town, the time period. No detail was spared, yet I never felt fogged down under them. Young managed to balance giving the reader enough information while letting the reader do the rest with their imagination well.

The only ‘issues’ I’d say is have with this book is that I wish we knew more, and that’s probably because I’ve never really liked open endings. I wish we got to know more about the door and the time travel, and why the Farrows were cursed with this to begin with. I really felt the absence of that answer within the story, and it left part of it feeling incomplete. Then again, to argue with myself, I suppose this does place the reader in the shows of the Farrow’s and the why wasn’t necessarily as important as exploring the consequences. However, it seemed strange that the Farrows weren’t more concerned with this. If it were me I’d be wanting to get to the bottom of why this happened to my family and myself, and to my knowledge no one else!

The twists and turns this book took was excellent. I teared up at several points when reveals were made and loudly went “oooo that makes sense”. I love how everything came together and you could see all the various plot points placed throughout time and the course of the novel come together.

Overall, I did really enjoy this! I loved the prose and the plot. I do wish we got to explore more in to the Farrow family lore, and I think this could’ve spent more time building relationships (just because we are told they are in love doesn’t mean we believe it) and the mourning of lost ones (the whole Mason thing felt brushed by way too quickly and easily).

This was a beautiful book. It wasn't exactly what I expected after Adrienne Young's "Fable" series, but I was certainly pleasantly surprised. "The Unmaking of June Farrow" was a rich, intricate story of time travel, love, and family, and I enjoyed every second of it.

"Was I becoming someone else, or was I just finally becoming myself? I couldn't tell."

One thing that this novel had in droves was powerful characters. They were so realistic and well-written, and June was a wonderful MC. For one, she was in her mid-30's, which was so refreshing (I'm not in my 30's but I am a little scared by how half the books I read nowadays have characters younger than me), and she also had beautiful growth. June's relationship with her family was beautifully written, and the fantasy aspects of the novel didn't take away from that in any way - if anything, they added to it, which I really appreciated.

"You may have ruined my life, June. But first, you gave me one."

The romance was perhaps... less prominent than I expected? To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect, but it was certainly different to the YA fantasy romance of "Fable" - however that certainly didn't make it lesser! I found it a beautiful tale of comfort and belonging, and Adrienne Young's writing for the relationship between both characters was truly phenomenal.

"But this aching love that was breaking ground inside of me didn't feel selfish. It felt brave."

I will admit that some of the fantasy aspects didn't make perfect sense to me, but I didn't even mind, because they weren't truly the central plot. I really enjoyed this gorgeous adult novel, full of so many twists and turns and fascinating characters, and I highly recommend it for those looking for their next read with aspects of mystery, fantasy, romance, and family.

Thank you so much to the author, publisher and netgalley for the ARC copy!

It's giving atmosphere. It's giving practical magic. It's giving Taylor Swift's 'Timeless'.

If you enjoyed 'Spells for forgetting', you'll enjoy this, though this has a more melancholy tone to it. It's a perfect autumn book, despite being set in june. I think this is probably AY's most accomplished work (I've read all of her full length novels.)

I enjoyed June as a main character, and I definitely felt her pain and confusion. I will say her relationship with Eamon, whilst I really like it, felt a little underdeveloped - But I can't say why without spoiling the book. Safe to say, it does make sense. But also I just wanted a bit more from it. Also the ending leaves something for me that needed to be explained a little bit more.

But despite that, this is definitely a great novel. I really feel that AY is growing into the adult genre and she will only continue to get better with each book. I'm excited to read more from her, as always.

The beautiful, atmospheric writing drew me into the small town life of Jasper, North Carolina. I could see the fields, the small church, the flower farm and feel the heat. June's emotions as she slipped towards what she thought was the family curse of madness were heart-breaking and all too believable. But then the story turns and the magical realism/sci-fi element comes in and this is when it kept me reading until the early hours of the morning. I can't say any more without giving things away but I can say that you absolutely must read this book. It's fantastic and I'll be searching out more books from Adrienne Young!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is Adrienne Youngs second adult novel.

June and the woman in her family are all cursed - doomed to travel back and forward in time. I won’t spoil the plot, but this is a darkly enchanting novel. Adrienne pulls you into their world quickly, and keeps you reading the whole way through.

An intriguing mystery. I read it in one go. Atmospheric, enchanting, heartbreaking, but also heartwarming. Can you change your fate? And if so… at what cost? Get comfy and follow June on her journey. Highly recommend!

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am unmade. My heart has unravelled with the rending beauty of this book.

I was already pretty convinced that I was always going to enjoy Adrienne Young’s writing, but this book has just cemented her as a permanent favourite author of mine.

The Farrow women have long been cursed, and June is determined not to carry on the illness that seems to seep through the generations. When her own mind begins to fray and she starts to see glimpses of a world that isn’t there, June does all she can to prevent it from getting worse until echoes she can’t ignore the call to her from another time.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is time-travel magical realism that you’ll find yourself drifting through, untethered and twisting. The mystery was intriguing, the heartache palpable. I might have been sobbing by the end of the book, but every tear was worth the joy I got from these pages.