Review: Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

on October 2021
Genres: Adult Fiction, Horror
Pages: 112
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.

It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

Comfort Me With Apples is rich and unsettling as we follow Sophia, the perfect wife to her absentee husband, on her quest of discovery. Why is she not happy in her perfectly manicured home and her strange yet seemingly well intentioned friends? Where does her husband go for days? Why does she start finding strange things in their home that have no explanation?

Sophia should be happy. She isn’t. She has all she has ever asked for. Doesn’t she? Obviously things are not how they appear. I love the HOA bizarre and threatening tone of the rules that begin every chapter. I love the neighbors, Sophia’s friends, who are maybe human/not human. They seem to know a lot more than she does. And I actually really like Sophia. She is curious and vulnerable and a very textured character of a woman who should be happy and yet continues to pull the thread to her own unhappiness. And why shouldn’t she? Isn’t Sophia in all of us?

The story is strange and wonderful and of course, I knew exactly where it was going because of how I was raised.  And that made it even more enjoyable, this very dark and twisted tale of the creation of Man and the questions the book raises about humanity and the feminine role. 

The book had perfect amount of tension and suspense, as Sophia doubts herself and continues on uncovering more and more oddities, the reader happily goes on this quest with her, rooting her on. I’m not one of those people who are screaming at the book “Don’t go up there!” I’m like –  “Go Lady! Unlock that door! He can’t keep those secrets forever!” And that’s exactly what Sophia does. 

The book is the perfect snack of strange and beautiful, enough to give you a taste of horror without being too gory. I will be diving into her back catalog very soon!