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A review by bebocarrick
Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Wow. This book absolutely blew me away. As far as Hades/Persephone retellings go, I had only read Lore Olympus (a favorite) before this, which is a romantic and more positive retelling of the ancient myth. While I definitely don't think there's anything wrong with more positive retellings, what I adored about this one was that it did not shy away from the darker aspects of the Hades/Persephone myth and showed how problematic that kind of power dynamic is.
The relationship between Cory and Rolo is NOT romanticized, which is refreshing due to the increasing popularity of age gap "romances." Despite this, the relationship between Cory and Rolo is not needlessly graphic, relying more on Cory's discomfort and Rolo's sickening attention to her to show his predatory intentions.
Cory is also not shown as a helpless, despite certainly being a victim. She is wild, reckless, and curious about the world. She is a quintessential teen in some ways, wanting to rebel against her mother, find her place in the world, and seek new highs. I think her quintessential teen-ness adds to this story rather than takes away from it, as other readers have suggested. It makes the story feel all the more real.
And then we get to Emer's perspective. Her protectiveness of Cory and sheer willpower to save her daughter, whatever it takes, was both admirable and like watching a train crash off the rails. I adored her fierceness and the way that her calm, collected persona fell away as she got more desperate to reach her daughter. I also found the writing in her sections SO beautiful.
The ending of this novel was *chef's kiss* PERFECT. It beautifully paid homage to the ancient myth (as did so many other moments in the story), while keeping the novel fully embedded in its dreary, modern setting. It brought the themes of addiction, medical ethics, medical racism, motherhood back to the readers' mind as something to ponder over later.
If I had one complaint about this book, it would be the one that other readers have pointed out: the way the dialogue was formatted. The lack of quotation marks did make me have to re-read certain scenes to see who was speaking, and I did grow frustrated with this throughout the book. However, there are too many good things for me to say to let this frustration lower my rating.
As stated previously, though the book is not needlessly graphic, readers should be aware of the following trigger warnings: sexual assault, grooming, drug addiction, alcoholism, and self-harm.
Publication Date: 5 March 2024
Wow. This book absolutely blew me away. As far as Hades/Persephone retellings go, I had only read Lore Olympus (a favorite) before this, which is a romantic and more positive retelling of the ancient myth. While I definitely don't think there's anything wrong with more positive retellings, what I adored about this one was that it did not shy away from the darker aspects of the Hades/Persephone myth and showed how problematic that kind of power dynamic is.
The relationship between Cory and Rolo is NOT romanticized, which is refreshing due to the increasing popularity of age gap "romances." Despite this, the relationship between Cory and Rolo is not needlessly graphic, relying more on Cory's discomfort and Rolo's sickening attention to her to show his predatory intentions.
Cory is also not shown as a helpless, despite certainly being a victim. She is wild, reckless, and curious about the world. She is a quintessential teen in some ways, wanting to rebel against her mother, find her place in the world, and seek new highs. I think her quintessential teen-ness adds to this story rather than takes away from it, as other readers have suggested. It makes the story feel all the more real.
And then we get to Emer's perspective. Her protectiveness of Cory and sheer willpower to save her daughter, whatever it takes, was both admirable and like watching a train crash off the rails. I adored her fierceness and the way that her calm, collected persona fell away as she got more desperate to reach her daughter. I also found the writing in her sections SO beautiful.
The ending of this novel was *chef's kiss* PERFECT. It beautifully paid homage to the ancient myth (as did so many other moments in the story), while keeping the novel fully embedded in its dreary, modern setting. It brought the themes of addiction, medical ethics, medical racism, motherhood back to the readers' mind as something to ponder over later.
If I had one complaint about this book, it would be the one that other readers have pointed out: the way the dialogue was formatted. The lack of quotation marks did make me have to re-read certain scenes to see who was speaking, and I did grow frustrated with this throughout the book. However, there are too many good things for me to say to let this frustration lower my rating.
As stated previously, though the book is not needlessly graphic, readers should be aware of the following trigger warnings: sexual assault, grooming, drug addiction, alcoholism, and self-harm.
Publication Date: 5 March 2024