Staff Review: TENDERNESS

TENDERNESS by Rowan Beaird
9781250386694
7/21/26
Flatiron Books
Fiction / Psychological 

Wedding season is upon us! It is 1976, and guests are gathering for the wedding of Shay O’Connor and Andrew Pruitt on a remote Virginia island. While staff work to prepare the grounds and private meals are readied, whispers of unease fill the air. The bride has just left a sinister cult, and some guests swear they have seen people with shaved heads roaming the island.

Why would someone like Shay—an Ivy League graduate with a wealthy fiancé—join Synanon? And has she truly escaped their grasp? Though she claims to have simply walked away, no one is ever known to “just leave.” So many questions remain unanswered and Shay’s little brother, William, and her longtime friend, Joel, are searching for the truth. 

This slow-burn mystery unfolds through the interwoven perspectives of Shay, William, and Joel in a really unique way. William, once so close to his sister, is navigating his guilt of letting her get sucked into Synanon, while trying to protect her in the present and rekindle their bond. Meanwhile, Joel jumps through their complicated history—from their shared college years to his failed attempt to reach her after she joined the cult—as he confronts his own feelings towards the wedding.

I loved how these POVs had the reader piecing together a fractured identity through the eyes of those once closest to Shay. With her perspective firmly anchored in the past while the others struggle in the present, the author creates a haunting disconnect. It is deeply psychological, making Shay an enigma that keeps you guessing until the end.

If you are looking for a wedding novel with a twist and “culty” vibes, you have come to the right place. Read this if you want a book that reads as though Emma Cline wrote THE WEDDING PEOPLE.

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“Simmering . . . Beaird crafts a mesmerizing meditation on the corrosive power of self-deception that will have even experienced suspense readers holding their breath. It’s a satisfying slow burn.”—Publishers Weekly

“Sly, elegant and menacing, Rowan Beaird’s TENDERNESS is an intoxicating tale of love and danger, terror and deceit. You’ll find yourself turning page after page, utterly swept up in the heady spell it casts, and the emotional heft that rises to an astonishing crescendo.”—Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of THE TURNOUT