Sour Cherry
by Natalia Theodoridou
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Pub Date 1 Apr 2025 | Archive Date 15 Apr 2025
Headline | Wildfire
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Description
Something terrible has happened.
In a mysterious apartment filled with ghosts, our unnamed narrator attempts to explain this to her child - how do I talk about this? she wonders.
The truth must become something beautiful. We must begin with a fairy tale.
And so she begins to construct a beautiful fairy tale for her child - one that begins with a strange baby boy whose nails grow too fast and whose skin smells of soil. As he grows from a boy into a man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Tragedy strikes in cycles - and wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. These ghosts call out desperately to our narrator as she tries to explain, in the very real world, exactly what has happened to her.
And they all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin:
If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
A debut novel as emotionally poignant as it is fiercely smart, Sour Cherry is an arresting debut examining toxic masculinity through its chorus of women - deconstructing the idea of what makes someone a monster.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781035416141 |
| PRICE | £20.00 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 320 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Tracy S, Librarian
if you loved the fairytale of Bluebeard you will love this ..a fairytale for adults.
It is a well told story with ghosts of the past and fears for the future.
A boy is told a tale of something awful that has happened and this will follow him and dictate his future.
It has a moral of sorts and it is a q modern read that will get you thinking..
Maya T, Reviewer
A Bluebeard retelling with a modern twist. I love how the author mentioned the walking on fire embers, this is a traditional ritualistic dance in Bulgaria which is practiced thill this day and it's indeed magical. The storytelling is disjointed at times and there are no quotation marks, but this is because of the person who is telling the story and the situation she's in. The only negative I have for this book is the repetition at the end, the fairy tale repeating itself with no clear descriptions of how some wives perished, most of them were just mentioned briefly. The most full and developed story was the one of the first wife and the son Tristan. I loved him as a character and found his narrative very touching and hopeful. Overall this is an exceptional book, I would highly recommend it if you love retellings and historical fiction. The horror is light as there are no gruesome descriptions only short mentioning of things happening around and because of the lord. But the situation our storyteller is in is really horrific. The story it's heavy on its metaphors regarding domestic violence, which is not my favorite, but it's done very well. My rating is 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC.
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