Review: 'Comfort Me With Apples' by Catherynne M. Valente

 The moment I read Deathless I knew two things: I very much liked Catherynne M. Valente's writing and I needed to make sure I didn't overdose on it immediately. So I have slowly but surely been spreading out her books over the years, indulging here or there so I don't run out too soon. But when I saw Comfort Me With Apples no restraint could hold me back. Thanks to Macmillan, Tor-Forge, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 11/9/2021
Publisher: Macmillan - Tor/Forge

Comfort Me With Apples is a terrifying new thriller from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of Gone Girl and Spinning Silver

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?

At just over a hundred pages, Comfort Me With Apples is more of a novella than a novel, but Valente packs a punch in those pages. The difficulty with books like these is that since it does pack a punch it's best to go into the book as blank as possible. But then how do I write a review about it? SO there is going to be some talking around the main topic, there is going to be some hinting, but no straightforward explaining. I think there is a beauty to going into a book blindly, to let it surprise you. I frequently find myself avoiding books that are garnering a lot of buzz, at least initially, so that I can read it at a time when I can form my own opinion and not let it be influenced by other opinions. I'm talking myself out of a job here, but I would recommend avoiding detailed analyses of Comfort Me With Apples so that Valente can surprise and enchant you the way she did me.

Sophia's life is perfect. She is beloved and she loves. Everything around her is also beautiful, even if the whole house is too large for her, to the extent that she needs cushions to see herself in her vanity mirror. But that is fine, because her husband made it for her. So what happens when a single choice introduces doubt into this perfect world? When everyone keeps asking you if you're happy and you can no longer fully say 'yes'? Valente builds up the tension around Sophia perfectly. From the very moment, from the line 'I was made for him' a modern reader is suspicious, but we can't be quite sure what we're suspicious of. I entertained a whole set of theories while reading Comfort Me With Apples, especially once I started picking up on the references and themes Valente was incorporating. Once we near the ending and the tension becomes more palpable I couldn't stop reading, couldn't stop thinking. And even after I had finished it, I continued unraveling the story's layers and implications in my mind.

Catherynne M. Valente doesn't necessarily need me to praise her, but I do need to tell you that her writing in Comfort Me With Apples is superb. Not a word is awry or unnecessary, instead it is so well-crafted that I have difficulty picturing what the writing process must have been like. There was one instance, early on in the book, where something simple like a gift is explained in such a casual way that it completely threw me for a loop. Suddenly I felt like I was reading a different kind of book, like I needed to pay a different kind of attention. Comfort Me With Apples is a perfect blend between suspense, mystery and myth. It tells a story that feels familiar and yet surprises you at every turn. The novella is grounded by Sophia who, despite her naïve nature, is an utterly endearing main character. You want the best for her, even if her own impulses lean more towards a Stepford Wives-situation. Amongst the mystery and mythology of her own tale, Valente asks the reader some difficult questions to which only they can find an answer. 

I give this novella...

5 Universes!

I very much enjoyed Valente's writing before Comfort Me With Apples, but this has lifted my appreciation to a new level.