This is the second of five reviews I’m writing at least 3 weeks after finishing the book, so my recollections may be hazy… However, one thing that is crystal clear in my mind is the feeling I had about 2/3 of the way through Comfort Me With Apples. To be fair to the author and the story, I should have seen it coming. I have a degree in literature, and all the signs were there. But nevertheless, I found myself duped.
Before I get into what enraged me (which is a bit of a spoiler), I will say that the story was very interesting and I was really invested in trying to figure out what was going on for the first half of the novel. And the reasons I don’t like the book are very personal, so if you like works about strained marriages in claustrophobic settings with a big secret looming in the background, this one might be for you.
********* SPOILERS AHEAD ************
It’s a secret bible story…. That’s why I’m so mad. There are few things that make me angrier than finding myself inside of a secret bible story. Given the title, you can probably guess that the marriage is between Adam and Eve (or Adam and Sophia, in this case), which should have been obvious. And even if that wasn’t apparent, everyone in the book is named for an animal. And it turns out they are all animals. So there are just two humans among several humanoid animals named things like Mrs. Bear… I had my suspicions about halfway into the story, but when Sophia meets a serpent in the forbidden section of the neighborhood, it was VERY apparent what was happening.
So, for the same reasons I was not into Mother!, this one isn’t for me. It’s not bad, it’s just… biblical.