Our Take
The Unmaking of June Farrow works because Adrienne Young trusts atmosphere as much as plot. Set in the fictional town of Jasper, North Carolina, the novel follows June Farrow, whose family has long been whispered about for a strange inheritance: the women in her line disappear, and no one quite explains why. When June starts experiencing gaps in her memory and glimpses of a door that shouldn't exist, she's pulled toward answers that stretch back generations. Readers who loved the family-curse intimacy of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman or the generational mystery of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern will recognize the texture here, small-town secrets, inherited magic, a protagonist piecing together fragments of her own history. Young, known for YA fantasy, brings a more grounded, adult sensibility to this one, leaning into Southern Gothic mood rather than sweeping worldbuilding. The time-slip mechanics are handled with restraint; this isn't a puzzle-box thriller so much as a slow unspooling of inheritance, choice, and what we owe the women who came before us. It's a book for readers who want their fantasy quiet and emotionally textured rather than action-driven, think cottagecore mystery with real stakes underneath the softness. Fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo's multi-generational pull, translated into something stranger, will find a lot to love. Best read on a slow weekend, preferably near something blooming.
