Fruit of the Dead
Rachel Lyon
2 ratings • 2 reviews
Fruit of the Dead
Rachel Lyon
2 ratings • 2 reviews
An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld. Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears. Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Rachel Lyon’s Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America’s own late capitalist mythos. Lyon’s reinvention of Persephone and Demeter’s story makes for a haunting and ecstatic novel that vibrates with lush abandon. Readers will not soon forget it.
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0Fruit of the Dead is a trendy reimaging of the story of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. Set on a private island, Cory once a camp counselor, is hired as a nanny for a wealthy pharma king. She has a strained relationship with her mother, which grows as the summer continues. To think that this is a reimaging is a stretch. Some high-level themes from the original story are displayed, but that's about it. The style of the book is outrageous. The dual POVs are told from two different perspectives (one chapter in 1st person and the next in 3rd person. Sometimes both in one chapter!) The lack of quotation seemed unnecessary, especially in how it was formatted (maybe this will be better in the final publication vs the ARC). For such an overly wordy book, everything important felt surface level. Cory seemed to have two functioning brain cells, even before the drugs were introduced. Her mother still felt like a mystery at the end of the book. And our male main character was as gross as they come (not to mention a disturbing age gap). Also, please check your CW before reading. Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the eARC.
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