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3.11 AVERAGE
3.11 AVERAGE
Peach is an intense little book about a young woman dealing with life after an attack. Glass writes in a style that I have not ever encountered before which was definitely enjoyable. I had a hard time following some of the plot points (I probably could have done a closer reading) but I also found the characters a bit one dimensional--which felt intentional but I had a hard time identifying her intentions. That all being said, I'm excited to read more from Glass. Definitely a newer author that I will continue to follow.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
this was the most messed up thing i have ever read and i will not sleep tonight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Cannibalism
It's a lot to deal with, pals
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Moderate: Cannibalism
Very hard to review. I oscillated between giving it 2 stars and 4 stars. This novel is a stream of consciousness following the sexual assault of a girl named Peach.
Conceived as part of a creative writing dissertation the author credits Stein, Joyce and Dylan Thomas as influences. And it shows.
Highly poetic and alliterative, not always successfully, Peach describes her attack and it’s effect in the days immediately after.
Much of the imagery is of food and it is overwhelmingly visceral. It is highly graphic and never is the reader comfortable.
As an experimentation with literary form it is interesting and unlike some similar recent novels, mercifully short. The reader does not need to be in this world for long and I was grateful for that.
Conceived as part of a creative writing dissertation the author credits Stein, Joyce and Dylan Thomas as influences. And it shows.
Highly poetic and alliterative, not always successfully, Peach describes her attack and it’s effect in the days immediately after.
Much of the imagery is of food and it is overwhelmingly visceral. It is highly graphic and never is the reader comfortable.
As an experimentation with literary form it is interesting and unlike some similar recent novels, mercifully short. The reader does not need to be in this world for long and I was grateful for that.
Very difficult to read. And that's a compliment. A young woman's assault in brutally direct narrative and language.
the form was really irritating; i feel like it would've been better written in stanzas instead of a long prose. the story was fine but everything about it was taken away by the literal meanings and rhymes. peach's parents were disgusting and that cannibalistic turn at the end made me want to put the book down and never pick it up. everything was really weird and i just wanted it to be over. i just didn't enjoy it or the way it was written.
Such despair and violence, most of it graphic, is present in this short novella, but it is compelling from beginning to end. There is such an urgency to both its prose and its storyline. The characters, particularly Peach, are complex and strange; they make such peculiar decisions at times, but this serves only to make them feel more human. Emma Glass' use of wordplay within Peach is masterful. Unsettling and markedly interesting, Peach is a strange novella, but such a memorable one.
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Peach by Emma Glass 🍑
🌟🌟🌟✨
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Last Friday as I wrote in my Stories I had an absolute belter of a charity shop trip. One of those where you walk in and instantly spot 3 books you want - an appropriately magical moment for the last days of #secondhandseptember. Peach was one of my finds: a v short read I’d been curious about for a while, and one that I read in less than 24 hours over the weekend after finishing The Outrun.
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⛔️ CN: rape, mild gore, spoilers
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🍑 The plot: Peach stumbles home, bleeding and traumatised from a sexual assault. Her parents don’t seem to notice her distress, consumed as they are with their new baby and with having sex with each other. As her attacker circles closer and closer, threatening and even hurting the people she loves, Peach starts to unravel.
-
This is a very strange book that veers between dream and nightmare. The characters are half-human, half-anthropomorphised objects: her jelly baby brother, her treelike boyfriend Green, her teacher Mr Custard who slops amorphously around the room - and her attacker Lincoln, who stinks of meat and gristle. It makes for visceral and disorienting reading, and I found several parts truly horrific. Though it doesn’t dwell directly on her attack, it depicts the horror of its aftermath very well - it’s actually hard for me to look at the cover after reading it, as the needle and thread hearkens to a gory moment at the beginning where Peach sews her own mutilated labia back together.
-
It’s definitely a powerful book, and one that haunts you after reading it, but I felt like it was spinning its wheels a bit towards the end. It seemed to have nowhere to go but in endless circles in this painful fever dream. Maybe that was the point, and if so, maybe that’s why I couldn’t love it, because it just made me too sad.
-
✅ Read it if you like poetic, experimental novels and raw confrontations of sexual assault and rape culture.
-
🚫 Avoid it if unconventional prose like this frustrates you, or if you are trying to avoid depictions or meditations on rape, because this is very dark.
🌟🌟🌟✨
-
Last Friday as I wrote in my Stories I had an absolute belter of a charity shop trip. One of those where you walk in and instantly spot 3 books you want - an appropriately magical moment for the last days of #secondhandseptember. Peach was one of my finds: a v short read I’d been curious about for a while, and one that I read in less than 24 hours over the weekend after finishing The Outrun.
-
⛔️ CN: rape, mild gore, spoilers
-
🍑 The plot: Peach stumbles home, bleeding and traumatised from a sexual assault. Her parents don’t seem to notice her distress, consumed as they are with their new baby and with having sex with each other. As her attacker circles closer and closer, threatening and even hurting the people she loves, Peach starts to unravel.
-
This is a very strange book that veers between dream and nightmare. The characters are half-human, half-anthropomorphised objects: her jelly baby brother, her treelike boyfriend Green, her teacher Mr Custard who slops amorphously around the room - and her attacker Lincoln, who stinks of meat and gristle. It makes for visceral and disorienting reading, and I found several parts truly horrific. Though it doesn’t dwell directly on her attack, it depicts the horror of its aftermath very well - it’s actually hard for me to look at the cover after reading it, as the needle and thread hearkens to a gory moment at the beginning where Peach sews her own mutilated labia back together.
-
It’s definitely a powerful book, and one that haunts you after reading it, but I felt like it was spinning its wheels a bit towards the end. It seemed to have nowhere to go but in endless circles in this painful fever dream. Maybe that was the point, and if so, maybe that’s why I couldn’t love it, because it just made me too sad.
-
✅ Read it if you like poetic, experimental novels and raw confrontations of sexual assault and rape culture.
-
🚫 Avoid it if unconventional prose like this frustrates you, or if you are trying to avoid depictions or meditations on rape, because this is very dark.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Rape
While this short novella is certainly powerful and surreally strange, the warnings about the graphic content should not be taken lightly. Aside from the bizarre storyline, which reaches stomach-churning grotesquerie frequently, I thought it strained too hard to be clever - with an annoying reliance on alliteration and onomatopoeia when the shocks don't suffice to keep one's attention.