Pitted: An EverWhen Story

by E.M. Cleary

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

20 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2026

Reviews

[Dee (in the desert) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for this weird little story about a teenager who eats a peach pit

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful short story about mothers and daughters as they navigate their own lives and relationship. At only 20 pages, I was surprised by how charming this was. Give it a read, and call your mom.

[A Dreaming Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for providing me with an eARC.

This was a nice short story with unusual happenings. I thought this would have some intense botanical horror but I was wrong. This is really a manifestation of everyone's childhood fear of swallowing a plant and then having a plant grow inside you. For me, it was with apple seeds. It was nice how Alice and her mother's relationship got sorted out at the end. The scenes felt too abrupt at times because of the length of the book. I think this would have been even better as a full fledged novella rather than a 20 page short story. I liked the tone of the book overall and would read other books by the author. I would recommend this to anyone looking for short stories with strange happenings.

[Alexa (reading slump) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

What I liked: 
- Alice is very amusing with her way of acting. She seems very smart for her age and likes to take charge, but in reality her naivety shines through the more she speaks. 
- The conversations are short, but they come off pretty natural.

What I disliked:
- Didn't care for the opening sentence.
- The story is very rushed, and you don't get to fully sink into the story.
- I wanted more conflict with Alice and her mother.

Overall, I think this was a decent novella to go through in one sitting.

[Susana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of advance copy received from NetGalley

Pitted is a coming of age short story with a bit of magical realism. Alice is a 13-year-old girl who keeps a list of her mother’s criticisms. The story explores the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, reminding me a bit of the movie Lady Bird.

Alice experiences some changes after swallowing a peach pit, which seemed to be an allegory for puberty and the changes young girls must face. Alice’s mother serves as an example of ways mothers help guide their daughters through that transition while dealing with stresses of everyday life. I’ve personally experienced both sides of this relationship and I felt the author found a way to capture the essence of mothers and daughters in 20 short pages.

Thank you to E.M. Cleary for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Skirmantė · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pitted is such a strange little story. I'm still not sure how I feel about it and maybe that was the whole point.

The mother daughter relationship is clearly meant to be the heart of the story, and I could see the potential, Alice keeping a mental list of everything her mom does wrong, the pressure of being the responsible one at 13. But at only 20 pages, I never got enough time with them to really feel it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[✩｡°⋆ Lala ⋆｡°✩ · Rating 3 out of 5]

🖋️ Author: E.M. Cleary
📖 Title: Pitted
📅 Pub Day: Out Now
💌 Publisher: E.M. Cleary
📚 Format: Digital
🏷️ ISBN: 9798258505293
⏱️ Length: 20 pages
📌 Genre(s): Literary fiction, Novellas & Short Stories
⭐ Star Rating: 3

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──  

Pitted is one of those reads where I finished it and immediately thought "wait.. what?" which is both a compliment and a complaint depending on how you look at it.

Alice starts growing what seems to be a peach tree inside her body and her mother is somehow completely unbothered by this, and the story just kind of... sits with that. I genuinely could not tell you by the end whether any of it was real or imagined and I'm still not sure if that ambiguity was the whole point or if the meaning just went over my head entirely. Maybe both.

The biggest issue is that we never really got enough time with Alice or her mother, and the mother daughter dynamic feels like it should be the emotional core of the whole thing. When you've only got this many pages, every scene has to count, and I'm not sure this one fully got there for me.

That said it's so short that it costs you almost nothing to give it a shot. It just left me with more questions than feelings, and I'm not sure that was entirely the intention. Probably lands better for readers who enjoy abstract literary horror and don't mind walking away without answers. I just couldn't quite get there with this one.

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If you like:

✔️ plant horror
✔️ surreal literary horror
✔️ mother daughter stories
✔️ ambiguous endings
✔️ bizarre novellas
✔️ strange little books

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Thank you to NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

[Kristine Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨ Thank you to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review ✨

I really enjoyed this novella and the writing overall. As a daughter with a rough relationship with her own mother, who is now a mother myself, I loved the relationship between the two characters. The little glimpse we see of the mother and her perspective was very relatable. It reminded me how my own children probably view me, even though they’re younger than the main character. My only complaint was that even for a novella, this was too short. I was left with more questions than answers. Even adding just 10-20 more pages would have helped a lot. However, this being a novella, maybe we aren’t meant to receive any of those answers.

3.50 rounded up to 4 stars.

[Opsitsthesun · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐ 2.75

This was a brief story about a 13 years old and the relationship with her mom. It is very short (20 pages) and it focuses on a peach which becomes a metaphor of her relationship with her mother. The growing of a peach tree inside of her was clearly a statement of how her mother ignores or simply cannot see her changes and needs, instead the brother get a little more of consideration. Honestly, I didn't perceive how the mother doesn't understand Alice or any negative action/words against her because their interaction seemed regular interaction between a mother and a daughter. Alice seems to go against her mother at every occasion, then looking for her help or just her presence, but the mother is a bit of a mystery with her answers or simply confused by her daughter's behavior. The main point is missing, the metaphor could have been structured better and the scenes seemed very disconnected from one another which didn't create a smooth narration. Because of this, every paragraph seems a glimpse into their life with a big unseen time jump between one and another. Maybe beacuse of it's briefty, this story doesn't really describe and show a troublesome or complicated relationship mother-daughter, it actually leaves the reader very lost and confused. However I see the potential, the initial idea coul work as a book by giving more context and depth to Alice's thoughts and her mother's attitude.

[Kuu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book was written pretty, and the author is definitely skilled at crafting prose. Several sentences made me go "oh I wish I could write like that", because they really just sounded pretty.

However, I don't personally think the writing style fit the story very well. Our main character is 13 years old, but does not speak like she is, so that was a bit... almost jarring at times. It might maybe have worked better in a longer novel, but I personally didn't think it worked all that well here, sadly. Both the writing style and the plot are great by themselves, they just don't mesh. Especially the first few pages made this quite clear, but it became a bit less jarring the more I read, and as the writing style is very beautiful, I was able to kind of ignore the mismatch. And as the story progressed, the writing style also fit the story better.

This story is very short, so I definitely recommend people to check it out, whether they think they might like it or not. The style alone made me glad I read this.

[Randi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for the eARC.

It’s funny, I read this short story right after getting off the phone with my mom, who is my actual best friend in the world.

The dynamic between Alice and her mother is something I’ve never experienced. Her mom expects too much out of Alice, since she is only 13. Alice seems far too grown up in my own opinion and I believe that’s because of the disconnection between her and her mom. The ending was beautiful, that’s all I will say, because I don’t want to spoil.

3 ⭐️ only because I wish it were longer. I would’ve loved to dive deeper into their story line.

[Jodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advanced copy received through Netgalley.

I enjoyed this short story. It's focused on Alice and the conflict within her relationship with her mother. It's clear that this feeling of disconnect is something that lots of people can relate to which makes this tale all the more appealing. As this is a short story, it feels like the conflict and the physical manifestation of it hasn't been explored to the degree that I would like. As a full length novel or even just a novela, this would thrive. I really enjoyed the concept but was surprised at the abrupt ending.

[♡ kitty *:･ﾟ✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was an incredibly unique and poetic short story about the relationship between a mother and daughter. it was only 20 pages but i still really enjoyed it!
Alice, the daughter, was an interesting and amusing character which made the story very enjoyable!
i would honestly love to see a full length novel with these characters as i really enjoy these sort of dynamics!

thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing of this short story. Alice is a practical and matter-of-fact girl who just wants her mother’s affection. By swallowing a peach pit that starts growing inside her, she gets her mother’s attention since she has to operate on her to save her life. I think this “blooming” medical anomaly could be an interesting novel with the right world building premise.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming vignettes about mothers and daughters and daughters and mothers. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that magical realism just does something to my brain.
What makes a "good" relationship between mother and daughter? Why does it always seem like mother prefers her son? Her mother did tell her she ought to know better...

[Elle T. Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this short story. Loved the characters and relational tension created and held in such a brief space.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"But that’s the woman of it. Her own self one of the first ones to cut the ground from under a sister woman..." Faulkner wrote those words 94 years ago and it's no less true today. The notion of being a "girl's girl" sounds frivolous, when in reality it's radical solidarity and acknowledgement of the divide between each sex's lived experience.

While reading Pitted it's worth noting how quickly I jumped to being annoyed with Alice. By page 6, I was already making highlights with snarky annotations, and for what? For trying to grow into her own person, for trying to give voice to her ideas about the world? The mockery on my side is a mirror of that same derision she casts towards her mother, because that's what we do. We cut each other down, while the men around us are held to a lesser standard.

There's Neil, seemingly having no responsibilities while Alice is signing him up for sports, making the grocery list and shopping with her mother, babysitting.

Their father who waxes on about things he wants but is seemingly unable to achieve, while the implication is that he can't be bothered to try. Because he's alone, without a mother-wife to care for him.

The creeper in the grocery store who is being too friendly with a child, and has the audacity to be annoyed when she pretends to ignore him out of self preservation.

The surgeon who "doesn't know where to cut." My man, a tree and a person have some very distinct differences, I bet you could figure it out. Like a big boy, like someone trained and licensed to cut on people.

Meanwhile Alice's mother is striving to be patient and gentle with her daughter; a young woman who is raging against the limitations of her age and ignorance. She compliments the cosmetic changes in her daughter even though she disagrees with them, which could have been addressed as a medical issue sooner if Alice hadn't immediately put her hackles up. She readily steps between Alice and a mugger, while still extending kindness and compassion to the girl wielding the knife. She takes in all of her daughter's vitriol and mistakes and doesn't judge, just carries on with that same weary indulgence I've seen in so many women who've come out on the other side of girlhood; worse for wear, but wiser, and hoping the next generation will be spared.

At one point Alice asks her mother if she would save her if she intentionally endangered herself. Her mother says "no" because the scenario is so unnecessarily willful and Alice knows better. So, like the impetuous child we all were at some point, Alice snatches a peach pit from her mother and swallows it. The story ends with Alice's mother reassuring her daughter that she's on her side, that's she with her, despite the horror they've just experienced. It's easy to read this as the tale of a prodigal daughter rebelling against her mother and coming home pregnant and alone. And maybe it is, but it also works for so much of the harm that young women experience at the hands of the world; alone, having eschewed (or been excluded by) their own sex.

I think this review is longer than the story itself. 😅

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity.

[Scarlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 🌟

Writing Style
Cleary's writing is oblique, providing room for self-insertion. The narrative is fragmented, with brief accounts/vignettes of Alice growing up alongside her mother and brother Neil, stitched together with a recurring, surrealist motif of peaches.

The writing was extremely poetic. At times, it contrasted with Alice's detached, sardonic inner voice, which I enjoyed. The structural use of the peach pit was brilliant, playing with the fear of swallowing a seed. By the final pages, Alice is in a hospital bed with a peach tree growing from her intestines and her mother performing the surgery.

There are echoes of magical realism throughout. The transformation sequences (leaves under fingernails, buds in the eyelashes, roots through the gut) feel Kafkaesque. It reminded me of The Memory Police in its nonchalant treatment of the surreal; a horror that creeps in.

Mother-Daughter Dynamic
I loved how the relationship between mother and daughter was explored. The way this story captured the emotional exhaustion of watching someone you love to be inexplicably generous with strangers whilst prioritising others before you?

"The truth of mothers and daughters and daughters and mothers and mothers of mothers whose daughters have daughters is —"

I do think this book could have benefitted from an additional 10 pages just to further explore this.

Recommendation
If you love magic realism or anything that blurs the line between the surreal and the painfully domestic, this is for you.

Thank you Net Galley and E.M. Cleary for the ARC.

[Wren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! ♡

I think Pitted had exactly the sort of premise I should have loved, which is probably why I was more disappointed by it.

Alice is thirteen, already doing far too much of the parenting in her house, and quietly keeping a list of everything her mother thinks she does wrong. Then she swallows a peach pit and her body begins doing increasingly impossible things. That is such a good setup! Fuhhh.

I liked the weirdness of it, and there are flashes of really lovely, unsettling imagery...but twenty pages just wasn't enough for me. The mother daughter relationship is supposed to carry most of the emotions yet I barely felt like I knew either of them before the story was asking me to understand what their relationship meant.
The same happened with the magical realism. I could see the metaphor forming around growing up quickly, being reshaped by your mother and literally having things take root inside you (I have mummy issues this shoulda been SO good), but it never had enough space to become properly strange or painful. It felt like I was being shown the outline of an idea I would have loved to watch fully develop.
And weirdly, the part I wanted more of most was Alice's list. There was so much personality in the idea of a teenage girl cataloguing every tiny criticism levelled at her, and I wish the story had pushed further into that bitterness and humour.

There is definitely a version of Pitted that works for me. I think it is just about fifty pages longer. As it is, I liked the concept much more than the story itself.

[robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

“’alice, you’re a marvel,’ her mother would say and take out her tweezers. ‘let me take you apart.’”

navigating the struggles of mother/daughter relationships, pitted narrates a young girl called alice keeping a long list of things that her mother claims she does wrong. it discusses adolescent tension with the self, and the curated proof of existence through the list of dont-do’s emphasised the self-indulgence in negativity that underlines the teenage experience.

although i understand the brief length of this book, and enjoyed the abrupt tone that frequented the prose, i do wish that it was longer. the physical manifestation of conflict was not developed, and there were frequent mentions of alice’s imposed maternal identity for her younger brother that is given no real depth. i also wish that there could’ve been more emphasis on the list of wrong-doing’s, as alice’s internal monologue in regards to adding a point to the list was incredibly humorous.

the botanical horror and magical-realism elements of this book were also quite engaging, and i think that they matched the tone of the perspective very well. overall, thematically and conceptually this was a brilliant short story, but i wish that some elements could’ve been explored in a greater depth.

thankyou to netgalley, and e. m. cleary for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review !

[Jordan Frances Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very short but compelling story exploring the complicated relationship between a young girl and her mother, centred around the unsettling moment when she swallows a peach pit. I really enjoyed the blend of magical realism and emotionally believable family dynamics, which made the story feel both strange and deeply grounded at the same time.

The writing is vivid and easy to read, and I found myself hooked almost immediately. Despite its short length, the story creates tension and emotional complexity that stayed with me throughout.

Certain parts could have been explored in more depth, particularly the emotional impact of the daughter’s transformation and how it changed the dynamic with her mother. At times the plot meandered slightly, although I appreciate this gave more space to understand the characters and their relationship.

Overall, this was an engaging and intriguing read that left me wishing I could have spent a little longer in its strange and emotionally layered world.

Thank you to E. M. Cleary for providing a copy for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[⁺˚*༓☾ ness ☽༓*˚⁺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ★ — A brief yet meaningful look into what it means to be the daughter of a mother whose attention sometimes overlooks your existence. Pitted is a simple story, tinged with magical realism and delivered through a modern, fable-like tone. Its aim isn't to reinvent the genre, but rather to center the tense dynamic between a mother and a daughter who longs for connection.

I found Alice's character endearing in her attempts to understand her mother's behavior and identity. However, I also hoped for more instances of contact and miscommunication, to really solidify how much the mother relies on Alice to run the household and raise her little brother. [On a more personal note, I hoped for a lot more botanic horror.] Because the story is so brief, there isn't time to create a more complex background leading to the final resolution, but Pitted remains a lovely quick read for anyone who enjoys reading about strained family dynamics with a touch of the surreal.

Thanks to NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for providing me with an ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by how unusual and original this short story turned out to be!

It's about a strange girl who has a strange relationship with her strange mother.

The daughter seems to be parentified, or to have adult responsibilities even though she is only 13 years old. At one point, her mother says: "you're such a child," not in a way that suggests she is pointing out the obvious, but rather, in the way that adults say that to other adults to tell them they are being immature. It seems that the mother has high expectations for her daughter and isn't supporting her in the way she needs.

Along with the strange dialogue betwen mother and daughter, there are some strange things going on with peaches. There is friction between the two throughout the story. In a bizarre, fantastical way, a peach pit results in the ultimate test of their relationship.

The ending is quite beautiful.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing me with an eARC of this story in exchange for my honest review.

[Yusra · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐
Thank you Netgalley and the Author for this book.
The cover and the description made me immediately request it, and I realized it was only published last month. For a long time, I have been reading and enjoying fiction about the ever-so-complicated mother-daughter relationship.
However, the storyline for this one was pretty unique. Since it is a short story, I will not be giving any details about the plot because imo the book description is enough.
When I started reading this I understood that the topic is too multifaceted to be covered in merely 20 pages. But the story still fell flat for me. The story would've surely worked better of only 30 more pages I guess. The ending was abrupt, but I would still recommend this to anyone wanting to read about this relationship as it does really shed light to the absurdities of the love-hate-pity-adroration-love cycle of a mother-daughter relationship.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

For how few pages this story has, the author manages to tell quite a long story. There's a lot of focus on the small things and a slow pace that guides you through scenes between family members, making me feel like I'm actually watching their dynamic play out.
Alice has a lot of thoughts on everything, but whenever she speaks, the rift between her and her mother becomes obvious, even though they appear to be quite similar. A lot of things should be said between them, and it takes the peach pit to make it happen.
The author paints a clear picture then, with Alice noticing the changes in her appearance but she doesn't talk about it, instead waits for her mother to notice. On the other hand, her mother is the last person to notice the changes. The very ending circles back to the argument that caused this, bringing them closer together.
It's a very well crafted story with characters that feel human with their quirks.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

*ARC Review- Thank you NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for the opportunity to read this story and review fairly.*

This is a very short 20 page short story about mothers and daughters.
Alice's mother always has something to say about how Alice is not measuring up. Even though Alice essentially keeps their house running and watches her little brother while her mom is off being a surgeon. This continues even after Alice swallows a peach pit out of spite. As the peach pit grows inside her, Alice begins to change in unexpected ways.

A mix of magical realism and prose from the view point of a young girl, this story was disarming and strange. I love a good short story but I felt like this one needed less flowery scene setting and more substance. I didn't understand what the point was that the author was trying to make. I know this story is part of a set of stories so many reading those would present some clarity.

[Ace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Thank you to the author for the copy of this short story so I could share my thoughts on it. This story was very vividly written. From start to finish, I was able to easily visualize the setting and characters in my head, and I feel like the descriptions of each character gave a lot of insight into them.

I believe the message of the story was supposed to be about the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, but to be honest, that wasn't quite clear—it was more of an impression than anything else. Also, I appreciate the whimsy of the magical realism aspect of the story, but I do not feel like it was integrated into the overall story very well. In my opinion, either the magical aspects needed to be told in a longer/more involved way, or else they would be better not being included at all.

This is more of a "glimpse" than a short story, and that's okay, it just makes rating it a bit difficult.

[Meg Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pitted is a really short but surprisingly memorable story about mothers and daughters. At only around 20 pages, it’s definitely a quick read, but E.M. Cleary manages to pack a lot into those few pages.

Alice’s complicated relationship with her mother is at the heart of the story, and the strange magical realism surrounding the peach pit makes for an unusual and unexpected way to explore that relationship. There’s something both whimsical and unsettling about the story, and I enjoyed the way the surreal elements added another layer to the mother-daughter dynamic.

Even though I would have happily read more and spent more time with these characters, I really enjoyed the story for what it was. It’s a quick, quirky read that manages to leave you thinking about the complicated ways mothers and daughters understand, frustrate, and ultimately care for one another.

Thank you to NetGalley and E.M. Cleary for the opportunity to read and review this story. All opinions are my own.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pitted is a very short story that deals with the mother-daughter relationship. Alice, the daughter, is wise beyond her years at times, having to care for her younger brother, but she still has youthful and naive moments. She and her mother have a strained relationship when viewed from Alice’s perspective, stemming from miscommunication and a lack of understanding on both sides. I liked this depiction and felt the story could have been extended to full novella length to explore this more.

There’s a level of whimsy that develops as the story progresses but I felt this ended pretty quickly and I would have liked to sit with this longer. This is a charming little story with a lot of nuance, I just wish there were more of it.

I received an eARC from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving this review.

[Cassie (eclectically.bookish.cassie) · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an odd, strange little story. At only 20 pages, it doesn’t require a lot of time or investment, and yet, I still find myself wondering about it a couple days later—thinking on the metaphor and structure and themes. It’s about mothers and daughters, about attention, about what unites and divides. I liked the writing style, loose and a bit whimsical. When Alice’s mother (a surgeon) must remove a peach pit from Alice’s abdomen, does Alice finally get what she wants from her? Her undivided attention and presence. And is the peach pit growing into a tree more than a magical realist element, but also a metaphor for puberty, for growing up, for what connects women everywhere? I don’t know. Maybe I’m overthinking it (likely), but a lovely short story.

Thank you NetGalley and EverWhen for the digital review copy.