Title: Comfort Me with ApplesAuthor: Catherynne M. Valente
First Published: November 9, 2021
Publisher: Tordotcom
Pages: 112
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Feminist Fiction, Horror, Thriller
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.
It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.
But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze....
But everything is perfect. Isn't it?
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
It’s been a while since I’ve felt this conflicted over a book. For one, the author has a gorgeous writing style that was just a pleasure to read, I couldn’t put the book down. The narrative style feels dreamy and whimsical, it oozes fantastical magic. It starts off as a domestic thriller but evolves over time with some genuinely spooky moments. I liked Sophia, she was so dainty and small, and her naivete was charming, her sweetness made her surroundings feel vicious.
Where the book lost me is really with the ending. I picked up on a few interesting names that gave me hints about the direction, but it felt so rushed, and everything gets explained in a big information dump. I did appreciate the clever twist on an old story, though it wasn’t quite for me. The book wasn’t what I expected which was both to its benefit and its detriment. Even so, I admired Valente’s writing style so much I’m keenly interested in reading more of her work.
Quote
“I was made for him.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente is the New York Times bestselling author of forty works of speculative fiction and poetry, including Space Opera, The Refrigerator Monologues, Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series, Deathless, Radiance, and the crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Own Making (and the four books that followed it). She is the winner of the Andre Norton, Tiptree, Sturgeon, Prix Imaginales, Eugie Foster Memorial, Mythopoeic, Rhysling, Lambda, Locus, Romantic Times’ Critics Choice and Hugo awards. She has been a finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with a small but growing menagerie of beasts, some of which are human.
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