A review by sarahmcg
Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon

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

3.0

I wanted to like this book more! The cover drew me in and I felt intrigued by the play on the Persephone/Demeter story.

I’ll start with what I liked:
  • The author’s prose is gorgeous
  • I did find myself invested in what was going to happen to the main character, though I did not necessarily find her likable (and I don’t think she is supposed to be)
  • Dual POV of mother/daughter

My critiques:
  • The chapters were WAY TOO DAMN LONG - omg like I hate stopping in the middle of a chapter but I had to do that several times with this book when I would try and read a chapter before bed and it was taking forever
  • The ending… I didn’t like it! I don’t want to give any spoilers. But just… it felt like very poor character development 
  • I was just kind of bored and the story felt very repetitive at times

Overall, I think maybe readers that are more into lit-fic than I am might enjoy this more than me, so don’t write it off because of my review!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review; thoughts are my own. 
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