The Cherished

Patricia Ward

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780063235113
• eBook ISBN: 9780063235137

For fans of White Smoke, The Hazel Wood, and Wilder Girls comes an original, hypnotizing horror thriller in the vein of Midsommar, as one girl inherits a mysterious house from her estranged grandmother—and a letter with sinister instructions.

Jo never expected to be placed in her absent grandmother’s will—let alone be left her house, her land, and a letter with mysterious demands.

Upon arriving at the inherited property, things are even more strange.

The tenants mentioned in the letter are odd, just slightly…off. Jo feels something dark and decrepit in the old shack behind the house. And the things that her father used to talk about, his delusions… Why is Jo starting to believe they might be real?

But what Jo fears most is the letter from her grandmother. Because if it’s true, then Jo belongs here, in this strange place. And she has no choice but to stay.

• An Inherited Legacy: Jo isn’t just the new owner of a remote Vermont farmhouse; she’s the new guardian, bound by a chilling letter and a duty she can’t escape.
• Small Town Horror: Experience a story steeped in the claustrophobic dread of a small town where local traditions hide a terrifying reality and the woods are not safe.
• Psychological Suspense: Jo must confront her family’s history of “madness” as her father’s terrifying warnings about child-stealing fairies prove to be horrifyingly real.
• Twisted Family Secrets: Uncover the truth behind her grandmother’s strange demands, the odd tenants who watch her every move, and the real reason her father fled this place years ago.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight
• Nine
• Ten
• Eleven
• Twelve
• Thirteen
• Fourteen
• Fifteen
• Sixteen
• Seventeen
• Eighteen
• Nineteen
• Twenty
• Twenty-One
• Twenty-Two
• Twenty-Three
• Twenty-Four
• About the Author
• Books by Patricia Ward
• Back Ad
• Copyright
• About the Publisher