Book Review
Title: Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Genre: Contemporary, Thriller
Rating: 4 Stars
The opening to Comfort Me With Apples was strange as we are introduced to Sophia, who lives in Arcadia Gardens with her husband. The first things that made me questions what was going on is Sophia constantly repeats that she was made for her husband and that they are perfect for each other although we haven’t met him yet. What we learn about Arcadia Gardens is also strange as there are a lot of rules for those that live there and it seems very much like Big Brother is watching them at all times.
Things get even more strange when Sophia mentions she isn’t allowed in the basement due to it being renovated but it gave me vibes similar to The Bloody Chamber. Sophia’s descriptions of her environment are also strange as she makes everything in the house out to be much larger than her. She talks about having a staircase to get out of bed and the actual staircase is so large she has to dangle down each step making it seem like she is living with a giant, giving her this small and fragile appearance. Things get weirder again when Sophia encounters a locked drawer in their home, but rather than speaking to her husband about it or ignoring it she breaks the drawer open and find a hairbrush and a lock of hair inside. While she doesn’t believe that the hair came from a person, she does contemplate and gossips with the neighbours about her husband cheating on her but she is regular made out to be the most beautiful person in Arcadia Gardens and it wouldn’t make sense. We also know that Sophia is breaking some of the rules as she makes her own soap which is against the rules but I need to meet the husband and figure out what is going on.
Suring tea with her neighbours, Sophia ends up meeting the musician/policeman called Mr. Semengelof and at first Sophia hates him because he sparks something in her that she hasn’t felt with even her husband. Mr. S is beautiful in Sophia’s eyes and when he plays for them she enters a kind of trance where we get some dark and disturbing imagery. During this conversation, Mr. S also asks a lot of questions about whether Sophia is happy and whether there is anything is wants changed or removed from her home and Sophia lies to him and I have a feeling that Mr. S knows she is lying. From what I can gather about the rules and the residents is a lot of them are breaking the rules but these are overlooked, maybe because they have money or maybe because they go after the more serious rulebreakers like the one Mr. S mentions.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel we see Sophia finding more odd things around her home, not just the hair and hairbrush but she finds a bone in the knife block which she knows is human, specifically a human fingertip and she knows only her husband could have put it there. After having a strange dream, her husband returns home and Sophia’s worries are put to the back of her mind although she is actively fighting not to ask him about the things she has found. She does questions him on what he does while he is away and he appeases her, although it seems he is very much in control of every aspect of Sophia’s life which isn’t life the other women who have more equal relationships with their husbands and this might be the reason he chose Sophia as his wife because of her docile nature. However, she is constantly being asked by a lot of people if she is happy and it makes her question things. She claims she is happy but her actions say otherwise and I can’t wait to see what happens.
With her husband home, he and Sophia attend a pantomime, but she lets it slip that she knows about the criminal that he was hunting as he mentions that he and Mr. S work together. This scares her husband and he does get a little physical with Sophia before leaving for work again. That night Sophia tears her home apart looking for more signs of another person and she finds a lot including bones, organ and blood and she realises that the house wasn’t built for her, it was built for whoever came before her although she doesn’t know who this is and the pantomime showcased this as it featured what Sophia thought was her story but it was story belonging to another woman that was being communicated to her by her friends. After finding this information out, Sophia is obviously crushed but I am eager to see what she does with this information now she has it or is she going to bury it and ignore it as she has done in the past.
After fleeing from the house, Sophia ends up meeting Cascavel who claims to know both her husband and Mr. S but not because they worked together. As they talk Cascavel reveals the information Sophia has been seeking to her but only when she is ready to accept the answers whether they are good or bad. The whole novel seems to be a retelling of Adam, Eve and The Garden of Eden and that makes Cascavel the serpent but there are also some fantasy, sci-fi elements sprinkled in there which make it quite interesting to read. One of the final questions Cascavel asks Sophia is what her husband’s name is and she seems to struggle like she doesn’t know the name of the man she married. Cascavel makes her offer of giving her what she seeks even though it won’t help her or make her happy but it might provide her with hope, hope to be different from the numerous wives who came before her who all ended up dead presumably at the hands of her husband and I think she is going to accept.
In the final section of the novel Sophia learns her husband’s name is Adam and he has been creating wives with his father but none of them were like the first wife. He claims the last wife before Sophia who ran away was Lilith and Sophia was supposed to be perfect but she isn’t after meeting Cascavel. Adam kills Sophia and in the final sentences we meet Eve as she is born in Sophia’s place. Overall, the novel is a dramatic and lyrical retelling of Adam and Eve or what happened before Eve was created by God. While I don’t usually like novels that are religious in tone I did apricate the beautiful writing style and the dark imagery really appealed to me as a horror fan.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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