The Daughter She Wanted - Felix Graves (2025)

The Daughter She Wanted (2025) by Felix Graves is a speculative horror short fiction that dives deep into the psyche of a high school girl with an abusive foster mother. 

Opening thoughts 

This was a chilling and haunting read from start to finish.

Worldbuilding

The Daughter She Wanted is a very internal story focusing on the main character's mental state as she goes through what could probably be termed as psychological torture. So worldbuilding isn't really applicable here, but it's not needed. Graves does a fantastic job at make the reader feel as though you are experiencing these thoughts and feelings as if they are your own.

Emotion

I wanted to cry the whole time reading this book but I think I was in too much of a shock to be able to. Every time the main character put herself down, using her stepmothers words, I wanted to scream "No, you're wrong! Those aren't true!" Truly a heart wrenching read. 

Ingenuity

I really loved the use of dreams as a way to reflect the character's mental state. I won't go too into detail about them since this is a short story and I don't want to spoil anything, but I also loved the bit of perhaps mystical or magical meaning they may have.

Relationships

This was such a clear and brutal depiction of an emotionally abusive parent. The foster mother time and time again sets such high expectations for her daughter while at the same time telling her and making her believe that she is worthless. And still, the daughter loves her. Because how could you not love your mother?

Description

This is another area that wasn't super present, but again wasn't needed. The main characters aren't given names, but you still feel such a deep emotional bond with them. It's a very internal story, focusing on the mental anguish of the main character. You truly feel all of her ups and downs. The dreams that I mentioned above are very vividly described however, and it's a very effective contrast to the rest of the story.

Engagement

A super quick read that kept me on my toes the entire time. I found myself highly engaged trying to pick out each manipulative tactic of the foster mother.

Final thoughts

The Daughter She Wanted absolutely gutted me. I was screaming at the characters the whole way through and was left speechless by the end.

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