Author: Aimee BenderTitle: The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake
Publisher: Doubleday
Publish Date: April 19, 2011
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.
Review: I have never read a book before that left me so totally and absolutely confused. When my friend, Jennifer, told me about this book last year, I immediately put it on my tbr list. I found it at the library a few weeks back and checked it out.
The plot was fabulous. A girl that discovers on her 9th birthday that she can taste the emotions of the people making the food she eats. The problem is that though that strange "talent" of hers is part of the plot there is more going on that doesn't involve it.
That stuff is pretty strange too.
I'm not sure where to begin either, except to say this book hurt my brain. Aimee's writing style and me did not get along. The main reason for that was her lack of quotation marks in the dialogue. That made me insane!
Then there was all the other craziness. The father couldn't go into a hospital, EVER! The mother was having an affair. Joseph, their son...was..erm..and this is where I get confused alot...I think he was becoming a piece of furniture.
I really just didn't get this book. Maybe I don't have the intellectual capacity to understand what the author was trying to illustrate, but I don't know. I'm totally muddled.
I am glad that I didn't buy this book, because if I spent $16.00 on this only to feel this way about the story, I'd be beating myself up.
Rating: 2 flowers
3 comments:
i know what's wrong Lemon Cake is yummy and happy..never sad. Sorry this one didn't work for you, and I agree it hurts when you spend your hard earned book money on something that leaves you unsatisfied.
I wondered about this one. I might (and that's a big might) read it, if I find it at a library sale. Great honest review!
No quotation marks? That's odd. :-) I'm glad it wasn't made worse by a loss of money.That's the way it goes sometimes, though. Not every book is for every reader. Mostly, the title makes me hungry. Thanks for sharing your review!!
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