Early Novella Review – Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Thriller
Length: 112 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: October 26, 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-1250816214
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars
“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?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley.
Thoughts: I love Valente’s writing style and this was amazingly well written. This is such a creepy, excellent, mystery thriller but still has heavy fantasy/mythology tones to it. This was beautifully done and completely engaging.
This book focuses on Sophia, a woman who is supposed to be perfectly pleasant, who was built just for her husband. I loved watching Sophia unwrap the mystery of the town she lives in and of her place there. I loved the twists at the end as well; there is a lot of irony here and the story was cleverly put together.
Of course the whole book is written in Valente’s amazingly lush and beautiful writing style. The imagery in here is amazing and the story strikes a perfect tone of dark creepiness while at the same time questioning mythology, religion, and the place of women in both.
My Summary (5/5): Overall this was an amazing read, that I absolutely adored. If you are a Valente fan you’ll love this. If you enjoy creepy stories that poke at traditional mythology you’ll enjoy this too. This is amazing and less abstract than a lot of Valente’s books, making it much more accessible to a larger group of readers.
