A review by kaitlynisliterate
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

2.0

This book had an interesting premise but failed to execute it and just ended up being boring.

This book was marketed and categorized as magical realism, mystery, and romance. However, it is actually a romance book with some half-baked magical realism and a rushed mystery. The mystery basically revolves around the fact that the MMC won’t tell her something and the mystery is solved when he tells her. It was a frustrating reading experience because you know that the whole thing could have been solved by 5 minutes of conversation.

Something that frustrated me was how the Farrow curse is literally never explained. In fact, none of the characters even speculate about how this curse came to be. This is especially frustrating because one of June’s main goals is to figure out a way to break the curse. Wouldn’t this naturally lead you to wonder about how the curse came to be in the first place? Except the story absolutely refuses to head in that direction. This self-imposed mental block totally hamstrings the plot because it limits what actions June can take to break the curse.

In fact, the story ends with June taking no active role in the breaking of the curse as the actual solution was already fully solved and implemented by Future June before POV June even understands what the curse is.

I did not enjoy how little agency June had throughout the entire book.

She is essentially beholden to (and not to mention being manipulated by) a future version of her herself. June falls in love (or arguably back in love) with the MMC entirely by viewing memories of Future June. It is explicitly stated that she is a passive observer in these memories and that she can not change the way that she behaves as the events occur. The entire plot just happens to June, she is just an observer as events unfold around her.