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A review by paneerakbari
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Exquisitely written and a tremendously imaginative blending of often obscure sources. Valente wields language like a samurai with their sword, or a chef with a knife, and to rather the same effect, emotionally.
The book is novella-length, easily read through in a day if not a single (extended) sitting. It is dark, and tight, and uncomfortably close. The studied reader is liable to be piqued by the author's name-drops, and they work well as signposts pointing you on to the conclusion, itself another beginning. It's the sort of tale that, like all the best ones, matters more in the "getting there" than in the particulars of its plot: "how it's done" is so much tastier than "what it was" - though what it is includes penetrating insight, criticism so sharp you don't quite notice its bite, and a profound (though implicit) challenge to a particular ordering of some societies.
The book is novella-length, easily read through in a day if not a single (extended) sitting. It is dark, and tight, and uncomfortably close. The studied reader is liable to be piqued by the author's name-drops, and they work well as signposts pointing you on to the conclusion, itself another beginning. It's the sort of tale that, like all the best ones, matters more in the "getting there" than in the particulars of its plot: "how it's done" is so much tastier than "what it was" - though what it is includes penetrating insight, criticism so sharp you don't quite notice its bite, and a profound (though implicit) challenge to a particular ordering of some societies.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Gaslighting
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Religious bigotry