Cherish Farrah

My first book by Ms Morrow, even though I intended to read Mem. I'm definitely going to read that now.

Cherish Farrah is about the (basically toxic) friendship between Farrah (our titular narrator, who is also probably clinically psychopathic) and her bestie Cherish (the other titular character, who is White Girl Spoiled by her white parents, though she is Black). Their relationship is incredibly intense, so intense that it comes off as a bit queer, though both girls are either crushing on or involved with boys; they also don't have sexual tension, so much as romantic.

Farrah's parents are upper middle class and end up losing their house. Farrah ends up staying with Cherish, as the former's parents move into a smaller place that she want nothing to do with. So, mind full of machinations, overthinking, paranoia, and obsession over Cherish, Farrah plots ways to stay with Cherish and her family.

A very mild spoiler

Farrah has mother issues and is convinced her mother is just like her. She's obsessive when it comes to Cherish and only really loves Cherish. You might think this will be about a girl trying to supplant another girl in the affections of rich parents, but it isn't. By the time one character was giving another character a very specific gift, I knew things were going very badly indeed.

I found this book interesting not just for the social horror aspect, but because of our heroine. She's not likeable. She's sinister and functions on a completely different level than Cherish. Farrah is incredibly intelligent. She lacks empathy for most people. She's downright awful sometimes. She's obsessed with Cherish; the feelings are apparently mutual, even though Farrah often hurts Cherish's feelings. Farrah is dangerous but functional and uses Cherish to learn how to gauge people. She's endlessly fascinating.

In all, I plowed through this book. I enjoyed it immensely, flaws and all. And Farrah is one of the more fascinating anti-heroes I've read in a while. I didn't like her, but I loved her.