Comfort Me With Apples
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4.0 • 54 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Comfort Me With Apples is a terrifying new thriller from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of Gone Girl and Spinning Silver
A Shirley Jackson Award finalist!
A Locus Award finalist!
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?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This gem of a novella from Valente (The Past Is Red) packs a lot of intrigue into a brief page count. Sophia lives in the upscale gated community of Arcadia Gardens, a supposed utopian oasis under the management of the Arcadia Gardens Homeowners Association. The rules in Arcadia are strange and specific, forbidding, among other things, dancing and the building of structures for beekeeping, but all are said to be in favor of purity and harmony. Sophia's life is basically a fairy tale, complete with a beloved husband at her side. But even as the reader takes in the frothy, enchanted atmosphere, there are hints that Sophia is teetering in an illusion that will soon launch her into darkness. This turns out to be the case when Sophia discovers a mysterious silver hairbrush and a dark tangle of hair in a locked drawer of their home and her fairy tale perception begins to dissolve. A masterful late reveal proves this to be a clever reworking of a famous story, reframing all that came before. Though there are some moments of excessive exposition, Valente packs in enough charm, curiosity, and foreboding to make this worthwhile. Fans will be delighted.
Customer Reviews
Before Sophia, there was Lilith
Let’s get this out of the way right away. I enjoyed this story. There is no hurry, scurry, or rushed activity, and still, the story carries you along. As you listen to Sophia’s self-talk, the tale captures you with the queerly odd Stepford Wives quality of her observations and self-depiction. She was made for him, and he was perfect. A refrain that takes on an aspect of foreboding and horror giving, causing the reader to wonder where the flaw lies.
Sophie has an odd knowledge set for an ideal mate to the perfect man. The fact that she recognizes all the cracks in her finely arranged home seems strange. These pieces of existence are not hers that are known and meant to be found, but she has no context for them until she does. With her new knowledge, Sophie makes a fateful decision, and the story quickly comes together and to a close.
What happened
I don’t even know what I just read. Five stars.