The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender - 2 stars

[Ellen]

Rose Edelstein was only 9 years old when she bit into her mother's freshly baked lemon cake and her world was shaken. Somehow Rose was able to taste her mother's emotions, in particular a deep sense of sadness. From that day forward, Rose's gift/affliction manifested itself in every bite of food unless it was something mass-produced by unemotional machines. Rose's family was a fount of emotions: a father who was emotionally unattached; a mother who was an emotional roller coaster of sadness, guilt, obsessions and sin; and Rose's older brother Joseph who was a genius but prone to disappearing acts. Rose herself felt isolated from her family and schoolmates while her food issues drove her even further inside herself.

I certainly can deal with magical realism and, at first, this was an interesting bit of fantasy along the lines of Sarah Addison Allen. The family dynamics were good and Rose's travels through youth to adulthood were fairly intriguing. It all came crashing down for me when the truth of Joseph's disappearances was addressed. Ok, that is just beyond weird. I don't think this author is for me.

[Nikki]

Haha - I remember having a similar reaction to this book: this is great -> still great -> oh no, she's gone too far now! I did enjoy the Rose parts though.

[Book Concierge]

It was a 2-star book for me as well. She did NOT do magical realism well, IMHO.

[Susie]

I’ve not read it, but the title is 2-star for me. 🤣

[Joi]

So happy to see others who did not like this. I feel like this book is one of the reasons I avoid MR.

[Book Concierge]

Joi wrote: "So happy to see others who did not like this. I feel like this book is one of the reasons I avoid MR."

Please don't let it keep you from magical realism. This is a VERY BAD example of that technique.