Reviews

Una fiaba-incubo fulminante.
Una sessantina di pagine che si leggono in un soffio e che catapultano in un mondo assurdo per farci scoprire la storia di Peach, una pesca vegetariana che viene violentata da un uomo fatto di salsicce.
La storia è breve, immediata, crudissima e intensa. La narrazione si snoda rapida, poetica e roboante in una costante danza dialettica ricca di arzigogoli letterari. L'autrice stessa dice di essersi ispirata allo stile di Joyce, a cui sicuramente non arriva, ma che riesce a ricordare. Una scrittura peculiare, che può non piacere ma che di sicuro risulta molto adatta ai fini della storia.
Una storia che si dipana rapida, senza sosta, senza fronzoli. Quello a cui assistiamo non è altro che il dolore di Peach che prende una specifica e ingombrante forma fisica nella sua vita e nel suo corpo. I suoi tentativi di affrontarlo e arginarlo, capiamo presto, sembrano non portare a nulla.
Il racconto è molto efficace: attraverso l'effetto straniante di una narrazione così peculiare e di un world building appena accennato ma comunque molto chiaro, l'autrice ci trasporta nel vortice del dolore di Peach senza darci tregua neanche per un secondo.
Quando rialzeremo la testa dalle pagine, a fine lettura, ricominceremo a respirare senza mai esserci accorti di aver smesso.

ember_is_gay's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Definitely check trigger warnings before reading this! Very dark themes and at times graphic.

The writing style and the layout of almost poet like chapters was not something that I was sure I would like, however I found it very effective in this story. The themes of this book are so important for us to being showing in media instead of ignoring or hiding.

The aftermath of being raped or sexually assaulted are not often shown or discussed, however I think Emma nailed a lot of what it can be like. I don’t really enjoy media focusing on the actual rape/assault as a plot point, and I never feel it is really necessary to describe/show the event in graphic detail as more often than not it feels like a shock tactic more than anything else. However, the book having the pure focus on the aftermath was something I had not seen before. I related a lot to Peach’s thoughts and feelings, her way of coping and the way her view on the world changed (or I assume changed as we had nothing to compare to as there was no pre-assault Peach).

Super weird ending that kind of came out of nowhere, but felt like it fit the rest of the story and in my head was actually metaphorical and not at all literal. I took it at a desire for punishing those close to her for not seeing her and not recognising that something was wrong in a similar way to how she was ‘punished’ by the person who assaulted her, or wanting them to understand. He forced himself on her, and she forced him on those around her.

Content Warnings

jarviswebber's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

katykelly's review

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4.0

Innovative and original, a dark, metaphorical journey into a teen’s attack.

4.5 stars

There have been increasing numbers of abuse/rape stories appearing in the last few years, boosting the recent “MeToo” movement with literary characters that show sexual abuse in many, varied forms.

This stands out. Like Sarah Crossan who writes in verse, this debut work follows a similar pattern of prose in short chapters (or poems) and uniquely every character is called by the name of a food (Peach is the main character, there is Spud) and each has physical attributes and characteristics that are described as their ‘food’. This is very well done, giving personality through food attributes.

The story is very brief - Peach has been attacked, and we follow her in the aftermath, coping with it and facing her life, her boyfriend, family, even attacker later.

I accessed this as a library audiobook. And it worked well in this format, with Peach’s voice the narrator, a vulnerable ‘fruit’ with a bruised skin, the format worked nicely when listened to.

Fascinating idea, it really stands out and made the plot feel fresh. The imagery will make this a great choice for teachers in KS4 looking to discuss the issues with less graphic content and plenty of literary devices to talk about with a class.

For a book with this topic as a focus, there is little graphic content, though the language of teenagers does reflect the sort of words they might use. One for ages 14 and above.

pizzaplantsandpages's review against another edition

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5.0

Dark, terrifying, honest, sad, angry take on sexual assault.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Definitely not for everyone, but I loved it.

oliodoliva's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

gabrielle_erin's review against another edition

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2.0

I absolutely see what Emma Glass was aiming to achieve with this book. There was some elements of this story that were absolutely brilliant, but unfortunately I could not suffer through the disjointed and frustrating writing style long enough to appreciate them. A dnf for me - great concept, questionable execution.

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