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.

Nice prose, but not as inventive as I expected or would have hoped. Every word up to the concluding pages reminded me of reading The Stepford Wives so many decades ago, not an experience I enjoyed at the time, and not one I wanted to revisit. The denouement was distasteful to me. I would rank it lower, but the author's style is competent and pleasing, and the book might seem more original to younger readers.

My Review:⭐️⭐️.5/ 5 stars

Beautiful cover art, but this approximately 100 page thriller about a bored housewife in a private gated community, Arcadia Gardens, misses the mark. I enjoyed the little guidelines of the strict community like no holiday lights and no children - expecting a weird utopian society with a killer on the loose or something. Her husband goes on long work trips and there is a locked basement Sophia cannot ever enter - and her neighbors are not telling her the whole truth about her husband. It was only over a 100 pages and I couldn’t wait to just finish it to figure it out - and I was incredibly disappointed. So much potential, but the ending left me hanging, and not in a good way.

Thank you to Macmillan/ Tor Books for the ecopy in exchange for my honest review!

Quick read, it had and uncanny valley feeling until the actual story was revealed. I did not see that coming although there was some foreshadowing.

The longer I sit here and think about this book, the higher my star rating becomes. It was maybe a 1 WTF star immediately upon finishing but writing my review a couple weeks later here we are at five. This was short, bizarre (still rating it WTF though), and really unique.

I really like Valente's writing, and the idea for this novella was great but I guess it just wasn't for me. I was a little disappointed by the ending. I think I would have liked a bit more action, or maybe a more important reaction from the main character.

A brave, twisty, and spooky feminist novella by Valente written like only Valente can. Several moments made me go, "she REALLY did that!" A critical look at suburbia and gender roles through a horror-fantasy lens.

One of my absolute favorite novellas ever! This is also my favorite Catherynne M. Valente book of the five I've read. It's also really difficult to talk about without spoiling something about it. (And it's not just me! The author said the same thing in a panel I watched, hah.) So I'm just going to be vague and say there are nods to several different fairytales and mythologies, there's a dark homeowners' association involved, the prose and descriptions are absolutely stunning, and the story is CREEPY AF.

I read this book six months ago and I am already overdue for a reread.

Bonus trivia from the author event:
- The homeowners' association rules interspersed throughout the novella are from real HOAs...in Florida. (Where, apparently, a lot of strict HOAs reign. Floridian friends have confirmed this for me.)
- The section names are different types of apples.

If you're looking for a novella, LOOK NO FURTHER! This is dark fantasy / retelling at its best.

Thank you TorDotCom for providing a free advanced e-book in exchange for an honest review.

While I enjoyed the length and pacing of this quick read, the ending was unexpected, but not in a good way. I didn't enjoy the allegory at all. While this book wasn't for me, I would recommend it for those who like short, gothic horror.

I’ve been sitting on this review for a while, trying to figure out just how I felt about Comfort Me With Apples. It was an intriguing book, and you can’t help but be drawn in by the mystery that Valente has created. It’s also an unexpectedly disturbing book, one that sneaks up on you. And the ending flipped everything I thought I knew about the book (which, admittedly, was very little) on its head, presenting me with an entirely new view of the events.

For such a short novellas, Valente truly packs a ton into this story, making every word count. This is also an incredibly atmospheric story, where the tension is slowly, but increasingly, ratcheted up over time. You’ll feel unsettled by this odd world, and the horror aspects are perfectly blended with the mystery.

This isn’t going to be a book for everyone, but for someone looking for a brilliantly written tale who doesn’t mind feeling unsettled, Comfort Me With Apples is a fantastic read. And if anyone ever wants to discuss that tending, my messages are open!

4 stars! (out now)

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Pros
+ Valente is so f*cking clever
+ her writing style is fast-paced and sharp
+ she hides the horror right in plain sight
+ I thought we were going into Stepford Wives territory but then the story just completely derails (in a good way)
+ Sophia (MC): a wife happy with her perfect life
+ plot: Sophia lives in a private community and has a perfect life, including a perfect husband. He is perfect. Right?
+ themes: inner v. outer perfection, acerbic condemnation of expectations put on wives/women, inherited violence from fathers to sons, knowledge as power

Neutral
/ The twist won't be appreciated by a certain demographic of people. I can't say because it spoils the twist... But I really enjoyed it. So if you're a similar person to me maybe you'd like the twist too. (That's so vague, sorry! Don't want to spoil anything.)

Cons
- I wish it were longer! It's only 112 pages and I could have easily read double that.

TW: death, dismembered body parts

Catheryn Valente is known for drawing on fairy tales and retelling classic stories, such as in her Russian folklore-inspired novel Deathless. But her latest book takes quite a different approach, obscuring exactly which story it is retelling until the very end. Comfort Me with Apples, which came out just last week, is a bite-size horror novella that packs quite a punch for its small size.

Sophia is living a perfect life with the perfect husband in their perfect little suburban community known as Arcadia Gardens. She wakes up every morning thinking about how much she loves her husband and the house he built her, with its extravagantly large bed and furniture. She never even dreams of going into the locked basement that her husband has explicitly forbidden her from entering. But Sophia’s blissful ignorance is shattered one morning when she opens a drawer in her vanity to reveal an unfamiliar hairbrush and a lock of another woman’s hair. How did someone else’s hair get inside her house? Inside her vanity? And whose hair could it possibly be? Sophia runs her errands and makes house calls with her neighbors, but all the while she can’t help wondering about the lock of hair…. As the chapters are interspersed with increasingly sinister excerpts from the agreement between residents and the Arcadia Gardens Home Owners Association, it quickly becomes clear that there is some serious trouble in this paradise.

Cat Valente’s writing always has an ethereal, fairy-tale quality to it that is well-suited to plots that borrow quite heavily from folklore. I can’t really discuss the main story at the heart of this retelling without spoiling it (although, if you’re cleverer than I am, you may pick up on it much sooner than I did). But blended with this central story are folkloric elements reminiscent of one of the most disturbing fairy tales, in my opinion: Bluebeard. The French folktale “Bluebeard” has many variations, but the core story is that of a young woman who marries a wealthy and powerful widower. When she moves into his luxurious home, her husband forbids her from entering one locked room. Unable to resist her curiosity, however, the wife opens this locked door and behind it discovers the corpses of her husband’s former wives. I consider this story to be a Proto-Gothic fairy tale, since its plot elements have been incorporated into countless Gothic novels. In fact, you could consider many manifestations of the First Wife trope to be variations on this story. Thus, the minute Comfort Me with Apples mentioned a locked door in this otherwise perfect home, I had an inkling of what might be behind it.

But the creepy setting of Comfort Me with Apples is not limited to just the interior of the house in which Sophia and her husband live. This novel takes the most idealized of American settings—suburbia, of the proverbial white picket fence—and twists it into something far more sinister. The suspenseful atmosphere of the novel is built up through snippets from the gated community’s HOA contract, which lays out the list of rules that residents must follow. At first these seem innocuous, like what colors of paint one is allowed to paint one’s house with. But more alarming rules are slipped in between the kinds of things we might expect. This is definitely the kind of situation where you’ll want to read the fine print!

If you’d like to read Comfort Me with Apples for yourself, you can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or order it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know what you think in the comments (though do try to avoid spoilers for those who haven’t yet)!

Well this was a strange little story.
I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling it for others. It truly is a short story, clocking it at 112 pages.
Comfort Me With Apples is a horror story that is unsettling from the start.

Thank you to Tordotcom & NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Sophia is a dark and memorable character and this was a very quick read. Put this on your TBRs for spooky season!

This novella is full of surprises - a unique perspective on an age old story, combined with creativity and more than a hint of cheekiness. The writing is almost poetic and the story is shorter than most but with filled with thought-provoking impact. Sophia loves her husband more than anything - she is made for him. But he is often not around and the neighbours keep asking her if she is happy. And now she wonders if she is, especially considering the strange items she begins to find around the house. I’d hate to spoil the twist, suffice to say it’s cleverly written and I love what the writer must have been thinking when creating the premise.

Absolutely loved this book! The imagery is stunning and the allusions are clever. This is a weird book, but it will absolutely find popularity with the right niche.

Comfort Me With Apples was a unique blend of horror, biblical allegory, Stepford Wives, and bluebeard retelling. The story kept me uncomfortable the entire "ride," but in a good way. I highly recommend for fans of Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood.

I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews about this novella, but I liked it! For most of it, I wasn’t really sure what was going on. The writing was simplistic and felt a bit stilted, and the lack of worldbuilding was a little annoying. You’re essentially thrust into this world with no information, and you have to follow Sophia’s monotonous daily routine. However, the last third of this book blew my mind. It took a more horror-like twist, and once the big reveal came, I was completely invested.
This novella may not be for everyone, but it’s very short, and I’d highly suggest reading if only for the twist at the end.

I’ve really liked Valente’s books before, most especially her “Fairyland” series. Knowing her writing style, very lyrical and and fanciful style, I was really curious to see how that would adapt to a more chilling tone and story. I had high hopes, which is why I brought in our resident horror expert! But even with that in mind, I was still struck with just how well her unique use of words and phrasing would work to draw an increasingly disturbing picture. The build is slow, but the tension and dread wrap around you from quite early on, even if you can’t put your finger on just what is wrong.

Like Kate mentioned, this book is incredibly hard to review without spoiling the many secrets that are slowly unveiled as the story progresses. I think it is particularly interesting, though, having both Kate and I read it, because in some ways, we both came at this book from very different perspectives. Kate is more familiar with general horror and thrillers, giving her a unique perspective on the story. And I….


More like, I have a particular background knowledge set that I can’t mention because it will spoil the story. That said, those who have the same history will be quick to pick up on some elements of the story and can see where things are going a bit early on. Not to brag, but I was even able to put names to characters who never make the page. Yeah, be impressed. But that’s really neither here nor there in the end, as I don’t think being able to predict some of these twists or not really affects the reading experience too much. It was still super creepy and a very unique twist on some familiar elements.

Kate’s Rating 8: Unexpected and creepy, and hits all the right buttons for the kind of story it ends up being!

Serena’s Rating 8: A quick but creepy read that wraps up some familiar (and less familiar) elements into a brand-new tension-filled tale.

Catherynne M. Valente's latest novel, Comfort Me With Apples, is unlike anything I have ever read before. It's a horror with fantasy elements...or is it a fantasy with horror elements? Either way, this world has pulled heavily from both genres – with chilling effects.

Sophia is a woman that knows her place in life. She was made for her husband, a man who is very busy and works very hard. That work takes him away from her on a regular basis, leaving her alone in Arcadia Gardens.

The longer things go on the more cracks in the wall Sophia spots. Not literal cracks, per se. But cracks nonetheless. What Sophia finds is more than enough reason to be concerned about her very existence – and what her husband will do when he learns she's figuring things out.

"I was made for him."

Wow. I went into Comfort Me With Apples thinking I knew what I was about to find, and I was wrong. So very wrong. It was a pleasant surprise in many ways – I love it when authors can twist a story into something entirely their own.

On that note, I knew that Comfort Me With Apples was a retelling. What surprised me was which story Catherynne M. Valente chose to retell. I don't think I've ever seen this one done before, and I doubt that I'll ever see it again.

I'll admit, the story of Adam and Eve made for a terrifying good foundation here. It set the scene, leaving plenty of room for chilling events, haunting repetition, and so much more. From the very first page, I knew I didn't like that line - "I was made for him." The repetition made it all the more chilling, and for very good reason.

I'm sure that every reviewer out there is going to pick a different book or movie to compare Comfort Me With Apples to. Personally, it felt reminiscent of The Stepford Wives, but with a dash of Animal Farm.