Scan barcode
sophiareads_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings: parental abuse, domestic abuse, self harm, slut shaming/victim blaming, sexual abuse, rape (mentioned)
This novel is an exploration of trauma and as such deals with a lot of very heavy subjects. Please take all the content warnings into serious consideration if you need to.
Lily has spent her life striving to appease her emotionally volatile mother. Though Lily is on the brink of gaining independence when she moves to Oxford for university, her relationship with her mother grows even more complex and strained when Lily begins to get flashbacks which are not her own, but are snippets of her mother's traumatic past.
Wow. It's been a while since a novel has left me so emotionally floored. 'Loved' doesn't feel like the correct term, because this is such a heavy book, but I am incredibly impressed by it, and I certainly don't think I'll forget this one any time soon. Aside from a very engaging writing style, the story is easy to get drawn into, as the reader spends the narrative unravelling the stories of Lily and her mother. The depiction of inherited trauma and cycles of abuse is at times tough to read, but ultimately very well done, and handled with a lot of kindness. The novel's exploration of the complexity of relationships and different facets of people is also excellent. This was quite a difficult book to assign a star rating to for me, but the success of balancing the emotional gut punch it gave with clear tones of sympathy, love, and hope made this a five star read.
Thank you to NetGalley, Ella King, and HarperFiction for the ARC of Bad Fruit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Self harm
Minor: Rape and Sexual violence
More...