Comfort Me with Apples

  Tell me a story... about the "perfect" life

Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Expected publication date: October 26, 2021

Date read: August 1, 2021

Sophia is made for her husband. She feels it. And their life together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Her neighbors are enamored with her husband, which means she's one of the most popular people in the neighborhood. But even though everything seems perfect, Sophia does have some questions. Like why do her neighbors keep asking her if she is "happy"? Her life is perfect - isn't it?

First, I just want to say that this book is going to be really hard to review without spoilers, but I am determined to keep this blog spoiler-free, so I'll do what I can.

This is a really short book - only 112 pages - and I just want to say that I am amazed at what Valente can do with so few pages. (She did the same with The Past is Red, which I reviewed in a previous post). 

Right from the start the reader knows that something is "off" with this community (the Homeowners Association rules are a little bit odd, and are added to after every chapter). It honestly reminded me a little bit of the X-Files episode "Arcadia" (I have to believe that the location of this book was in homage to this episode, although I have no idea one way or another), where Mulder and Scully are investigating a murder in a gated community. 

I'll be honest - even though I caught on to some things fairly early on, around the midway point - I did not see where this story was going. And I loved that. I love it when a story can, realistically, go against my expectations and provide an ending that I wasn't expecting but that makes perfect sense. 

Overall, this book is really hard to review, but I think really easy to recommend. I think that anyone who likes a good psychological or domestic thriller will like this one, but you HAVE to go into it with an open mind. The Goodreads review compares this book to Gone Girl, which I think is a mistake. They're both good mysteries, but they're of a completely different story-set. This book would do better to be compared to The Stepford Wives, because it's more of a "something is off, but I don't know what" kind of domestic thriller than a Gone Girl type of story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller and doesn't mind a bit of WTF in their stories. Valente is a force to be reckoned with, especially when it comes to the novella-length stories. I can't wait to go back and read more of her novels. A fast, enjoyable read that I think a lot of people will enjoy as long as they go into it not expecting a specific kind of story. 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher (MacMillan-Tor/Forge) for an advanced copy of this book.