Cherish Farrah

A Novel

By: Bethany C. Morrow

Narrated by: Angel Pean

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by PopSugar, Ms. magazine, Medium, Book Riot, BookPage, CrimeReads, Tor Nightfire, Bookshop, Book Talk, BiblioLifestyle, and more!

AN APRIL 2022 BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK

“Morrow uses her heroine’s warped perspective to examine painful truths about race and class in America, but this isn’t a book intended to teach anyone a lesson, except maybe: Be careful. You never know who’s really in control.”—Los Angeles Times

From bestselling author Bethany C. Morrow comes a new adult social horror novel in the vein of Get Out meets My Sister, the Serial Killer, about Farrah, a calculating young Black girl who manipulates her way into the lives of her Black best friend’s wealthy white adoptive family but soon suspects she may not be the only one with ulterior motives. . . .

Seventeen-year-old Farrah Turner is one of two Black girls in her country club community, and the only one with Black parents. Her best friend, Cherish Whitman, adopted by a white, wealthy family, is something Farrah likes to call WGS—White Girl Spoiled. With Brianne and Jerry Whitman as parents, Cherish is given the kind of adoration and coddling that even upper-class Black parents can’t seem to afford—and it creates a dissonance in her best friend that Farrah can exploit. When her own family is unexpectedly confronted with foreclosure, the calculating Farrah is determined to reassert the control she’s convinced she’s always had over her life by staying with Cherish, the only person she loves—even when she hates her.

As troubled Farrah manipulates her way further into the Whitman family, the longer she stays, the more her own parents suggest that something is wrong in the Whitman house. She might trust them—if they didn’t think something was wrong with Farrah, too. When strange things start happening at the Whitman household—debilitating illnesses, upsetting fever dreams, an inexplicable tension with Cherish’s hotheaded boyfriend, and a mysterious journal that seems to keep track of what is happening to Farrah—it’s nothing she can’t handle. But soon everything begins to unravel when the Whitmans invite Farrah closer, and it’s anyone’s guess who is really in control.

Told in Farrah’s chilling, unforgettable voice and weaving in searing commentary on race and class, this slow-burn social horror will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last word.

©2022 Bethany C. Morrow (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Cherish Farrah got me shivering in all kinds of good ways. Intelligent, insightful, and absolutely creepy, too. The novel builds mystery and intensity with such powerful intent. Bethany C. Morrow knows how to make a reader squirm, and thank goodness for that.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling and The Ballad of Black Tom

“[Cherish Farrah] spirals into the dysphoric and surreal, ultimately turning into the kind of unnerving social horror Jordan Peele popularized in the 2017 film Get Out. . . . It’s shot through with its narrator’s destabilizing visions and occasional hallucinations, which make its world feel queasily, feverishly strange. . . . [It’s] not a book for the faint of heart. . . . At once restrained and ferocious; like Farrah, it maintains control until it can’t anymore, and then it erupts. Morrow uses her heroine’s warped perspective to examine painful truths about race and class in America, but this isn’t a book intended to teach anyone a lesson, except maybe: Be careful. You never know who’s really in control.” —Los Angeles Times

"I don’t believe the word “mind-blowing” is an adequate description of Bethany C. Morrow’s Cherish Farrah, but it’s the closest that language has to offer. Although I’ve always been drawn to horror in both literature and film, Morrow’s book is a different breed: It grips the senses and left me wanting more and feeling desperate for an abrupt end to its viciousness, all at the same time. . .Bodies of work focusing on social horror, like Morrow’s, shows how complicated existence is for Blacks while stripping away the privilege of illusion for white people. There’s nowhere to hide. No way to deflect. All of us are left facing down the naked truth. Ensnared by the light of a horror that society can’t turn off." —The Rumpus

Disappointing

The prose borders on poetic, in the best way. Reminds me of Koontz. And Morrow has a strong voice. In Mem she used both to tell a riveting story. However, l wanted to stop two chapters into this novel and now wish I had. I wanted it to succeed. Unhappily, story-wise this was just a mess from beginning to end. I didn't buy the set-up, the twists and reveals were about as deft as a Lifetime movie, and the ending was absurd.

Read Mem instead.

Very disturbing

This book has left me with all kinds of emotions, of course that's a sign of good writing but this one was rough for me. There are parts of the concept that are really cool that would've been interesting but a lot of it didn't make sense. It did keep me listening though! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ✨

Interesting social horror

This book is a very dark social horror in the vein of Get Out. It starts out a bit slow but has a heck of a payoff in the end. I liked the narration except for how slowly she reads. Had to speed it up to 1.1 to tolerate it. Overall this one gets 4 stars from this avid reader.

Very slow moving...1,2,3,4,5 it's over!

By the time there were four hours left in this audiobook I was speeding up the narration just to get to the end faster...this book moved slow which isn't a problem if the characters are interesting and something is happening in the plot but all that happened was a bunch of talking and repetition of the characters' problems and then the characters analyzing the dialogue and actions of each other...nothing really happens until the last two hours of the book. The clues and hints about the horror being revealed in the end were way too vague and secretive to the point that I could not understand what was happening...I don't mind a book that has twists and revelations that seem unbelievable but when a reader can't understand what is happening I think there is a problem. Race and class are definitely explored in this book but so explicitly there is nothing for the reader to ponder and think about for themselves.

Don’t waste your money!

One of the most tedious books I have ever listened to. How many times can an author use the word “control” before I felt like I was going to lose control if I heard it one more time?
The only reason why I finished it, is because it was paid for. If you’re looking for a monotonous story that drones on….you found a winner!

Wait for the twist! Once the story got going I couldn’t stop listening

This was an excellent book - definitely worth the read. You think it’s one thing but it is not that thing and the moment where you start to feel you know more than the narrator is when it gets super exciting. The ending is also very satisfying!

Don't Waste Your Time

This book had some good intentions but was poorly executed. The narrator also sounded like she was reading slam poetry.