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Cover of On Sundays She Picked Flowers

On Sundays She Picked Flowers

by Yah-Yah Scholfield

🌶️🌶️🌶️moderate·spoiler

Why Read This?

A Black woman fleeing her abusive mother finds shelter in a haunted house deep in the Georgia woods — and falls into a sapphic entanglement with a beautiful, terrifying supernatural being. The prose is lush and devastating, the body horror is unflinching, and the exploration of generational trauma will wreck you. Not a cozy read, but an unforgettable one.

Synopsis

In this sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut, a woman escapes into the uncanny woods of southern Georgia and must contend with ghosts, haints, and most dangerous of all, the truth about herself. When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she’d severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. She didn’t have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own. Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer. But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the woman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline. Haunting and thought-provoking, On Sunday She Picked Flowers explores retribution, family trauma, and the power of building oneself back up after breaking down.

At a Glance

4.25 ★ Goodreads
Spice Level🌶️🌶️🌶️moderate
Endingspoiler
PairingF/F
Romance Pacingslow burn

Top Tropes

dark romancestranger in the woodshaunted house

Mood

gothichauntingatmosphericdarkly beautifulunsettling

Book Details

Goodreads Rating

4.25 ★

Page Count

240 pages

Published

2020

Primary Genre

Gothic Romance

Pairing

F/F

POV

Multi-POV

Romance Pacing

Slow Burn

Cliffhanger

spoiler

Audiobook

Available

Yes

Format

Unabridged

Narrator

Angel Pean | Patryce Williams | York Whitaker

Tropes

RomanceMagicActionAngstWorld
Theme Constellation

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Mood & Vibe

Mood

sign in to see writing style, pacing & more

Characters

FMC: the survivor sign in to unlock

Spice Details 🌶️

dark and visceral sign in to unlock

child abuse and parental abuseincestself-harmmurder and matricidegore and graphic violencereferences to slaveryanimal deathcannibalismracism and segregationbody horrorvomiting

World & Setting

Southern Gothic sign in to unlock

Reading Context

cathartic but bittersweet sign in to unlock

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