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3.11 AVERAGE
3.11 AVERAGE
Graphic and at times disgusting. Really makes your stomach churn. Peach is more of a 96 page poem opposed to a novel; short, choppy sentences that keep you hooked on the story.
The imagery stuck with me, I finished this book nearly a week ago and I’m still thinking about the smell of the rotting pink meat (ew).
The imagery stuck with me, I finished this book nearly a week ago and I’m still thinking about the smell of the rotting pink meat (ew).
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
CW: discussion of rape. I think this book is probably going to be a bit of a love/hate thing for most people. It’s a very short novel that focuses on the immediate aftermath of a rape, but told in an almost fairytale-like fashion (albeit of the Angela Carter variety). I personally was very much here for the way the alliterative, nightmarish, abject language spoke to the way the mind processes trauma, especially in terms of intrusive memories brought about by particular images or smells. There is a constant reference to grease and sausage fingers that I thought was pretty effective in conveying the utter horror of the physicality of the traumatic memories. Some parts of the narrative followed completely the nightmare logic of a dream and were utterly terrifying. The trauma symbolically manifests as a physical growth or weight gain for Peach whose belly swells inexplicably and this was an element of the story that I felt didn’t necessarily fully work. I got the way it demonstrated the heaviness of the trauma but there was something off about it that I can’t quite put my finger on. I was going along with the revenge narrative and I did feel that as a kind of wish fulfilment of enacting retribution towards her attacker it worked to an extent, although it was obviously utterly unrealistic. However the very final scene I just did not get. It didn’t seem to fit with that narrative and it left everything weirdly unresolved. I think this is an amazingly creative first novel but ultimately not without its flaws.