Reviews

y'all. this book here??? lovely. 10/10. Yah-Yah ate down with this one. I need another installment if at all possible. A healthy mix of horror and unconventional romance. love it

takesthecake_'s review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Indulgent, romantic, fleshy, frightening

Confronting what you dont want to know about yourself. Or believe about yourself

About making a home for yourself, outsider perceptions of disability, knowing the one you love is bones and meat in the back of your trunk

I have a physical copy in paperback—Lots of passages circled, lines underlined with blue and black pen, highlighted words with lime green pen

Jude hadn’t quite reconciled the beast and the woman

sturgeonfish's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

sooo good... the characters are amazingly written. plot is a bit meandering but the descriptions of settings + mood + violence are sooo vivid and amazing.

felixritt's review against another edition

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5.0

Stunning, thought-provoking, and visceral, Scholfield's prose (which are lush: delicious and nauseating) are matched in mastery only by their character work--the characters of Jude and Nemoira, and the overwhelming relationship between them, are among the finest and most complicated ever explored. These are women who invent themselves (and reinvent themselves) on the page before us; we meet Jude at the lowest point in her life, an empty shell of her mother's (and by extension, society's--white society's, as Jude is a Black woman) design, and stay with her for decades as she tends to her house and her garden, her own self image and all that it touches, with care. On Sundays is a horror narrative, and the horror is as exquisite as it is upsetting--upsetting in the sense that it upsets the acceptable, the expected, the pre-approved tracks of modern horror and does something entirely new even as it occasionally evokes past masters and gothic greats--but it is also a celebration of the deliberate passage of time. One of the most evocative lines of the novel (and there are many) describes Jude reclaiming her upbringing. "Singing, keeping house, keeping herself, cooking, sewing--these things once brought on hurts too hurtful to voice, and now she did them thoughtfully, joyfully." (Scholfield 88) The intent implied by this quote, Jude's careful, stubborn determination, seems to honor something so rarely celebrated in our fast-paced "grind" culture, yet this is consistently Jude's approach: to her new life, to the stewardship of the tainted land they sell her, to her tentative relationship with Nemoira. While Nemoira also reinvents herself before our eyes (and in fact, the scene in which we are given access to the Bear's mind is one of the novel's most chilling), it is this steady, well-defined purpose that Jude comes to embody which throws their respective responses to lifetimes of mistreatment and alienation at odds, and in the conclusion to this conflict,

Spoiler

where Jude not only survives, but does so with her convictions--wonderfully complicated by the question of what she owes to a society which has largely ignored and aided in her abuse--intact

does the heart of Scholfield's emotional endeavor shine.

At its heart, On Sundays She Picked Flowers is a novel as much about a woman who finds, reclaims, and creates her sense of self and upholds that no matter who challenges it as it is a story of blood, abuse, matricide, and cannibalism. This is horror done right--with not empty shock, not tired repetition parroting previous commercial success, but intent that drives the narrative as much as Jude's character.

hapikohw's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

dakotach7's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

This was a very beautiful book - whimsical in the way that reminds me exactly of my childhood, but also dark in a way that reminds me of some of my favorite books (ie it seems Jude and I both share a favorite book - The Haunting of Hill House). I love how haunted and haunting this book was, not to make another reference to Shirley Jackson, but it also reminds me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle in some ways too, in both its whimsy and darkness.

Spoiler

Anyways, there were many other things to love about it as well. I loved Jude as a character, she was so heartfelt and her actions and motives were so easy to understand, and Nemoira herself was an incredible character. I've had a lifelong love for bears and bear-people so Nemoira as a character really delivered, especially her own love and hunger for Jude + I think Nemoira's pov chapter was probably my favorite in this book.

Ultimately, this was great, and I would recommend to anyone who loves whimsy, architecture that is alive and watchful, and what makes someone human or non-human.

junimo's review against another edition

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dark

4.0

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