32. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

listened on Libby

320 pgs. (10:08)

Beautifully narrated by Brittany Pressley

2023
Adult Fantasy 
Finished 7/11/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 5
Setting: Jasper, North Carolina (an author-created town in the mountains of West NC) in 2022 and 1950.

My comments: This was such a compelling book!  A beautifully written story that could have been incredibly complicated, but it was woven so well that it wasn't at all. (This sort of story usually has me confused, but not this one!)  June Farrow's life....and plight....and mysteries swallowed me up completely. I look forward to seeing if there are other books by Adrienne Young that I've missed out on.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.  

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.

PICTURE BOOK - Town is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz

Illustrated by Sydney Smith

2017, Groundwood Books, Toronto

$19.95 HC

52 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.2

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers CharCOAL gray (dark)

Illustrations Black, brown & white with slight hints of color here and there.

1^st line/s:  "From my house, I can see the sea."

My comments:  This is both a simple story and one that takes a lot to digest.  That might sound like an oxymoron, but It's exactly what this book is.  It's about living in a coal mining town in the 1950s, where all the men work in the mine, all their fathers worked in the mine, and now their sons will work in the mine.  The illustrations are simple...and wonderful.  The sea sparkles.  But it is black under the sea, where the miners work all day....  So much to think about and talk about!  4.5 (I have to lower my personal rating a half point for the depression factor.)

Goodreads:  A young boy wakes up to the sound of the sea, visits his grandfather’s grave after lunch and comes home to a simple family dinner with his family, but all the while his mind strays to his father digging for coal deep down under the sea. Stunning illustrations by Sydney Smith, the award-winning illustrator of Sidewalk Flowers, show the striking contrast between a sparkling seaside day and the darkness underground where the miners dig.
          With curriculum connections to communities and the history of mining, this beautifully understated and haunting story brings a piece of Canadian history to life. The ever-present ocean and inevitable pattern of life in a Cape Breton mining town will enthrall children and move adult readers.