Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Apple Tree Yard

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

6 reviews

gellyreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I won’t lie, this book started off, really slow for me. It felt like a bit of a slog, and I feel like the pace didn’t pick up till at least halfway, if not a little bit past that. I also am flabbergasted that a plot that centers around

Spoiler

rape

Spoiler

managed to make me so invested, involved, and obsessed. The female rage in this was on point. I found most of it to be incredibly compelling. Once the pace picked up, I couldn’t put the book down. And despite everything, I love Yvonne.

Content Warnings

agoldendear's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective

3.0

I kept thinking that the book has the format of a Shakespearean tragedy—we know the whole time that a terrible fate awaits the protagonists, and the road up to it, caused almost entirely by our character’s unfortunate choices, unravels throughout the book. I enjoyed that aspect of it, and it’s what kept me going during the times when I didn’t want to read on.

There were two times that I wanted to put the book down for good. The first was during the beginning portion, in which Yvonne lives her life while having an affair. While I understand the need for a slow build up, perhaps it was a little too slow for me. Or perhaps I wished I wasn’t in Yvonne’s head so much, since a majority of the book is her musing or reflecting on various events and thoughts. Super thoughtful/philosophical books aren’t really my thing.

The second time I wanted to give up was during the main section that needs a content warning. If you want to know what the sensitive content is, it is listed in the relevant section on Storygraph. It was difficult to read, but Yvonne’s time afterwards and the various character’s reactions to it were even more difficult, at least for me. So, please be careful when going into this book. The difficult section is very relevant to the plot, so it can’t entirely be skipped, although I had to skim a bit due to having a hard time with the content.

A side note is that I might not recommend this book to people who get very upset about gender stereotypes—Yvonne talks a lot about ways that men and women are ‘inherently different’ from each other. I found it slightly irritating but likely accurate to a 50-year-old white woman.

Content Warnings