Bad Fruit

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

I loved this one. Very fast paced, had me turning pages as I tore through it – I had to see how it would end. The characters were well rounded and the narrative felt believable. Gave me chills. Solid five

This was a chilling story of family trauma that had me intrigued from start to finish. I enjoyed the fast pace and short chapters, which allowed me to get through the book quickly. This book became increasingly more uncomfortable to read as it went on, due to the dark nature and quickly deteriorating state of Lily's mother. This was terrifically written and I can see it doing incredibly well once it is published! I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC!

Wow, okay this book was a lot to take it from witnessing the toxic ways of Mama and how much she really controlled everyone and bent everything to fit her way out of pure fear,

Spoilers a head!

What was the most interesting for me was how Lily knew that he mama was in the wrong, was unhinged, did bad things, and yet we see her come to her defense more towards some points of the book and Jules trying to break her sister out from under their mama, but then for Lily to finally be ready to break away, get away and leave all her family behind since she has finally been able to strand up against her mama AND THEN JULES IS LIKE WELL YOU COULD JUST LET IT ALL GO AND USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! I was really hoping Lily would be able to escape with her sister and they’d break away from the control, toxic manipulation of their mother together,

I really enjoyed reading this and see the struggles of a young girl wanting to please her mama just so she would love her and keep her happy made me keep reading it in one sitting.

Thank you Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are always honest.

Writing: 3.5/5 | Plot: 4/5 | Ending: 5/5

TRIGGER WARNING: rape, self-harm, domestic violence

THE PLOT

Lily lives to appease her ruthless, abusive mother. She doesn't try to understand her mother's behaviour, just survive it, but when she starts having flashbacks about her mother's past, she is forced to peel back layers of generational abuse.

MY OPINION

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a thriller. This is a literary novel exploring the nuanced, complex relationships between a family riddled with generational abuse. DO NOT pick this up expecting some whodunit type novel.

OOHHWEEE my therapist is gonna get an earful when I see her next. I don't want to reveal too much about my family life—I mean I'm wearing a ski mask in my profile pic so that should give you an idea of my desire to be incognito—but this particular story was difficile to get through.

IF YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR MOTHER OR FATHER OR BOTH, CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED. If you don't have the coping mechanisms to deal with being #triggered by family abuse, don't self-harm by forcing yourself to read this. Mental health >>>>>>

I didn't look into the author too much before reading—I just checked to make sure if she was Asian because ain't no way I'm reading a story about an Asian tiger mom on bath salts and her half-asian daughter written by some white chick from North Dakota (more on this later). But, after I finished, I read the author was not only Asian, but a corporate lawyer involved in anti-human trafficking and child abuse. Her expertise shone through. I could tell she understand the many, MANY layers of domestic abuse; the sick Stockholm Syndrome, the bargaining (I'll take it because they'll pay for my school), the guilt,,, she nailed it.

It was important to me the author is Asian because I'm TIREDT of white people only including Asian women to be petite, trophy wives to fat, rich white guys. I loved The Darkest Web—but literally the only POC in the entire book was a shrewd Asian woman mooching off her lawyer husband. NEXT. And since this book got deep with it and the way culture influences family dynamics, understanding that on a genetic level is necessary. Now, I'm not saying all Asian moms are like this, or only Asian moms can be like this—but let's just put it this way, if you know, you know. And Ella King KNOWS.

The writing was just okay—a lil too try hard in some areas, but damn she nailed that plot and the ending. I'm glad it was a positive ending. I don't think I could've taken any more sadness tbh. And I loved how the author included two characters that actually cared and helped. You need people outside of your situation to get you out the other side.

No snark here. Just feels. This book will weigh heavy on my heart for a long time.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: heart-wrenching but on-point depiction of fucked up family dynamics at its best, great depiction of Asian culture and values influencing said dynamics

Cons: writing was a little OD at some points

This book was sad. It's heartbreaking to know things like this really happen to people. It was dark and heavy but interesting and suspenseful. The kind of book that will stick with you for a while.

What I thought was going to be a high level look at familial trauma and abuse turned out to be much more heavy than I anticipated. They weren't messing around when they said 'for fans of My Dark Vanessa'. King paints such a full and intense dynamic between Lily, the favorite, as she searches to set out on her own at Oxford, her mother-fearful all are out to tear her down and seeking to gain control anyway she can, her father who swings between innocent bystander and active participant, and her siblings as they struggle to find the balance between advocating for Lily and resolving their own trauma. I am not kidding in the slightest when I say the climax of this one had my shaking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the review copy.

Bad Fruit is a book that will stick with me. It is an intimate, difficult look into familial abuse and trauma across generations. Lily, our seventeen-year old protagonist, has a complicated relationship with her mother who keeps her under strict surveillance and has extreme moods that only Lily can navigate. Lily slowly begins to remember things, memories that do not belong to her, and through those memories she discovers devastating things about her mother and family.

Throughout most of the book, Lily is surrounded by obstacles and complex feelings that don't allow her to leave. Abuse is rarely as simple as that. King does a phenomenal job writing difficult scenarios and emotions into small chapters that pack a punch, especially as Lily continues to discover things about her mother and her past. Lily's tenacity shines through even the saddest scenes and you just want her to get out and become the person she was meant to be!

While this book is not an easy read, it was an incredibly well-done portrayal of abuse and the complexities that can surround it.

Content Warnings: sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, infidelity, trauma, familial abuse

WOW. Simply WOW. How can I put into words how much this book affected me? It captivated me, it unsettled me, it chilled me, it made me yearn for a fictional character in a way that I haven’t in a long time. It also admittedly, triggered me a bit, as some of Mae’s abuse/treatment towards Lily was reminiscent of my abuse by a family member. The author explores and peels back the layers of multi generational trauma in such a raw way, unlike anything I’ve read before. I also found the complex relationship between Lily and her siblings very interesting: they have their own traumas with Mae and want to protect Lily, yet they have also left Lily to fend for herself. Lily’s father is another complex character: is he another victim of Mae, or a wiling accomplice?
This book grabbed me right at the start and didn’t let me go until the final page. The author writes in an engaging way, with chapters that made you eagerly anticipate the next turn of the page. I can’t wait to read more of Ella King’s work.

Bad Fruit is a novel about intergenerational trauma. It asks particularly difficult questions, like how much of a free pass we give someone with complex trauma when it affects their parenting in ways that damage their children? And what we think of those children, if they go on to damage their children? Bad Fruit allows you to examine the role the other parent plays in child abuse and ask what we can expect from them too: "I try to meet his eyes, gauge whether he will step in if this gets out of hand, but it has always been out of hand. He has never stepped in." These are tough questions and Ella King does a very impressive job making a compassionate description of "the relentless line of mothers and daughters hurting and inflicting hurt." What's even better is it is done with an intersectional lens.

The novel is told from the perspective of Lily, an 18-year-old first generation British-Chinese woman and is largely about her relationship with her Chinese Peranakan mother. With two other siblings who have both moved out of home, Lily is having a crisis of identity, both her racial identity as multi-racial "ang moh gui, white devil", and coming of age and deciding where she ends and her mother begins, which is complicated by trauma. Looking different from her mother is problematic for them both: "It doesn't escape me: her whitening her skin while I'm yellowing mine." Their love language is food and culture. Peranakan food "the taste of okak otak, fish cake grilled in banana leaves, the deep spice of bak kut teh, pork rib tea" are the ways they connect, and sour juice (for which the book is named), is the way they rip apart.

If that all sounds depressing—and in places Bad Fruit is a sad and distressing book—it is also directed at solutions, how might a daughter break the cycle of intergenerational trauma. Instead of linear time, it suggests kairos, the Ancient Greek way of mapping moments in time "when the fates change." While I won't tell you if Lily finds a way "to solve the dark clot of a question we dare not utter even to ourselves: If our mother loves us, why does she hurt us?" I will say this Bad Fruit is a book worth reading to find out. With the publisher pointing to My Dark Vanessa as a comparison, I would have to say Bad Fruit is a much better book.

Thank you NetGalley and Astra for the advanced reader copy.

How do you review a book that immediately made me want to call my therapist and block my own family on social media? Bad Fruit at its core (see what I did there? I'm proud) is about generational trauma. As a person that has been intensive weekly therapy for undoing the damage that my mother has caused, this boom was a whole lot for me to digest. It's beautifully written. Have your therapist on speed dial.

What a debut!!

In Bad Fruit, we follow 17 year old Lily who lives under the scrutiny of her mother May whose love flies dangerously close to hate. As her mothers behaviour escalates, and she starts to unravel, so do the memories that Lily has kept locked away and she starts to have flashbacks she doesn’t recognise.

First of all I just want to say how well written this was! The author creates such a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere throughout the book that makes you feel like you’re right there with Lily trying to navigate the unpredictability of her mother. This book was so easy to fly through and extremely hard to put down. There’s something about difficult mother-daughter relationships that really interests me and this was an incredible exploration of those bonds full of tension, anxiety and the sense of impending doom.

Right from the beginning we’re immediately thrown into this toxic mother daughter relationship and introduced to the ways Lily’s mother controls and manipulates her including making Lily dye her hair black and wear a different shade of makeup and contacts to make her appear more chinese like her mother, as well as needing a glass of spoilt orange juice every day which Lily is forced to try first to make sure it is just right. Over the course of the book we watch as May gradually becomes more unhinged and family traumas and secrets begin to surface, shedding light on the family’s past.

I also really appreciated how the side characters including Lily’s siblings were fleshed out alongside the main characters and you really got to experience this family’s dynamics and relationships with eachother.

I don’t want to say too much more because like with any good psychological thriller, it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible and experience the twists and turns yourself- but this book and it’s author are both ones to watch!

Memory, inherited trauma, family, abuse, race, toxic relationships and much more are all explored in this book so if you can handle those topics, I’d definitely recommend this!

The writing, particularly that of the setting, was one of my favorite parts of this book. It is a very intense book, and not always the easiest to read due to the topics it covers, but the twists in it are unexpected and crafted well.

4.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House, Astra House for the chance to read this book!

Wow, what a read this was! It wasn't the thriller that I anticipated it being, but nonetheless, it still blew me away. The descriptive writing describing Asian foods was so well done that I could picture and literally almost taste everything the book was describing as I was reading. This book has a lot of trigger warnings, just be aware before you pick it up. It was hard to read at times, but I'm glad I did. It was definitely different than anything I have ever read before.

I’ve read a lot of thrillers featuring strained relationships between mothers and daughters, but this really is something else.

Oh man, this was a lot. It's incredibly chilling but so captivating that it's difficult to put down. Family trauma can be difficult to capture in a way that reads as realistic, but King manages it well. This is heavy, but so engrossing that it was basically impossible to put down.

thank you astra publishing house and netgalley -

i have never read a more visceral book about the volatile relationship between an immigrant parent and their children. i’m not going to lie and say i flew through this book, because in all honesty i had to take days off of reading before picking it back up. Ella King manages to show us how intergenerational/childhood trauma can affect siblings in different ways. King manages to show us the loneliness and the need for control exhibited by Lilly’s mother, May! When her children challenge her, May spit vile words at them calling them worthless. she seeks to destroy them in anyway possible so that they can continue to obey her outrageous demands. she twists their memories, words, and everything in between so much so that her children turn against one another in hopes that one of them will become or remain “mama’s favorite”. we see this more since we are following the last kid, Lilly during the summer before she leaves for Oxford. throughout the hot english summer days she has flashbacks of what appears to be her mother’s childhood and the horrid things that happened to her, with no reason why she’s the one having them. But how can you continue to care for someone who continues to hurt you? At the age of eighteen, Lilly is trying to find the answer to this. She is now fighting for her sense of self and independence, but realizes this will need to progress much faster than she anticipated and will need to figure out who is truly there to help her. fucking heartbreaking and suffocating read! i can’t believe this is a debut novel!!! Go Ella!

tw: rape

Captivating, intense story about family trauma and abuse. I particularly loved the writing and the cultural background info (especially the cooking). Definitely recommend!

Literary fiction at its best a very dark novel of familial abuse.A heart stopping page turner that shocked me made me sad but kept me involved from beginning to end. Highly recommend.#netgalley #badfruit

Where do I begin? I don't think this is a book anyone would describe as a book they "enjoyed". Bad Fruit, is dark, emotional, twisted, and sad. Very "Mommie Dearest" meets "The Act". This story highlights young Lily's difficulties with an emotional. manipulative, abusive mother, May. Delving deep into the subject of generational abuse, Bad Fruit explores the reasons behind abuse, how different people deal with the abuse, as well as science behind why most victims block it out. Lily is her mothers favorite, or is she? One day Lily begins having flashbacks that are so intense they make her sick, but are they hers? Triggered by words and objects, Lily's flashbacks grow more intense, sending her down a difficult road to the answers she so desperately needs. Bad Fruit was difficult to read but even harder to put down. Major trigger warnings! This will be a difficult read for most. However, there is light in the turn of the last page.

Ella King's novel is one of the most intriguing novels I have read in a long time focusing on family dysfunction and child abuse. Lily is about to begin her studies at Oxford but trying to endure the final months at home with her difficult mother, May. Lily is the youngest of three siblings whose parents are Singaporean, May, and British, Charlie. Jacob and Julia have left home. Jacob is already divorced with two young children. Julia swears she will never get married or have children. Charlie is a forensic pathologist and comes and goes at irregular intervals, sometimes for days.

Lily is May's caretaker. May is childlike in many ways, including the food she will or will not eat. May loves the color pink and has a collection of teddy bears she talks to. May is mercurial and Lily never knows what tiny thing will set her off so Lily is living a nightmare. She has funny little flashes of memories that seem to be things her mother told her about her childhood in Singapore. Unfortunately, Lily doesn't know what is real about her mother's memories. When May goes off on a tangent about money or food, Charlie quickly has a job he needs to tend to and Lily is left to take care of her mother.

As the novel gets deeper into May's life and Lily's difficulties with dealing with everything, the full dysfunction comes to the forefront. Fortunately, Lily meets a young professor at Oxford who seems to understand the hell Lily has been subjected to and tries to help. Things get much worse as the novel reaches a climax and I was glued to my seat, wanting to call the police myself! This debut novel is a perfect beginning for Ella King's literary career. I loved the book.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for this ARC.

Lily is “Mama’s Girl” or “Mama’s Doll.” She’s the youngest of three siblings, and in order to retain her position as the favorite, she’ll do whatever Mama asks. With a Chinese mother from Singapore and white father from London, Lily doesn’t quite fit in. She dyes her hair blacker, she wears contacts to hide her heterochromia, she wears yellow-toned makeup to make her look more Chinese, more like her mother’s daughter. But she’s so much like Mama that she’s started experiencing flashbacks that seem to be of her mother’s life. Lily’s mother appears to be increasingly unhinged as Lily gets closer to moving out of the house and going to Oxford, and as all of their lives seemingly start to unravel in front of them.

Please note that this is *significantly darker* than most books I review, and I’ve listed content warnings at the bottom in case you prefer to go in unspoiled. It’s psychological thriller in style, and starts slowly as King sets her stage, picking up pace towards the middle of the book, and then by the end I was frantically flipping pages to find out the ending. (I’m so used to happy endings these days and now cannot handle not knowing where something will end.)

The entire book is told from Lily’s perspective, and having an eighteen-year-old unreliable narrator raises the stakes in this one. The interplay of relationships - mother-daughter, father-daughter, siblings - makes this one particularly interesting, too. I’m also always fascinated by stories that play with the concepts of flashbacks and memories. The book does some heavy lifting with the concept of identity, as well, particularly as Lily is torn between multiple worlds of Chinese and white identities, mother and father, past and present, and self and other.

I’d like you all to please read this one so I have more people to talk about it with! I can’t say much more without spoilers at this point. I highly recommend picking this up as a buddy read so you can tear apart theories with a friend as you go! It reminded me of my favorite Emily St John Mandel book, Last Night in Montreal, so if you read and liked that, I recommend this as well.

Thank you to @astrahousebooks and @netgalley for the eARC for review. This is out 8/23/22.

CW: emotional abuse, sexual assault, memory loss

Thank you to Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for an egalley in exchange for my honest review.

Bad Fruit is gorgeous and complex and maybe hits a little too close to home.

We see a story of family and memory told through the protagonist, college-bound Lily, while living with an abusive narcissist, as she transitions from the place of Golden Child to Scapegoat.

All her life, Lily has had a special ability to “handle” her mother, to baby her or manipulate her just enough to lighten the emotional load for her siblings and father. The family walks on eggshells, they live with a woman they can’t stand, but they love her so fiercely, and they need the support she so often withholds, so they cannot leave.

I’ve seen stories like this glaze over what these dynamics are like, but Bad Fruit doesn’t pull punches. The beauty and the ugliness of family is laid bare. Sometimes literally.

Lily is such a moving protagonist, even when she is trapped under her mother’s thumb. We spend the novel following her attempts to change the status quo and undo the cycle of violence, as she tries and fails.

It offers such a unique perspective of how ugly it can be to be the Golden Child, which is something I don’t think many of us know. I see so many perspectives from scapegoat kids, I thought we definitely had it worse. But this story shows that being the Golden Child is ugly as well, but maybe just in a different way. Conformity and degradation come at a great personal cost for Golden Children.

I loved it. It gave me insight.

The protagonists fascination with etymology was something I found to be unique and interesting to learn about and it often gave greater insight into the more subtle relationship dynamics between characters. If anything, this was a little bit under used. But it made the ending very satisfying.

This book totally destroyed me on multiple levels, and I know it will haunt me for a while to come!

In this story, Lily and her stunningly disfunctional family live through through a London summer full of drama, insecurities, and betrayals, and we learn how her volatile mother affects the entire family and slowly unravels them. We follow Lily trying to cope with all the traumas that connect the different members of her family, parents and siblings alike.

The story is absolutely messed up and often very messy, which the author captures perfectly in writing, managing to still portray each and every one of the characters in a relatable way, even at their craziest, which is no mean feat and makes this a masterpiece of storytelling.

For me, the only flaw in this book was the ending, which was not entirely comprehensible to me (but then maybe it wasn't supposed to be), but other than that this is a great book and makes for a great read (though make sure to look up trigger warnings because there is a lot of serious and traumatic stuff going on in here).

wow. a book about complicated familial relationships and generational trauma?? say no more, i'm sold.

after hearing glowing reviews from friends and mutuals online, i decided to read this book for myself and i was absolutely blown away. the writing style is so raw and invokes so many emotions, the characters and their relationships are so nuanced and complicated. the main character, lily's, relationship with her mother is obviously the focus and there's this very interesting push and pull in which lily acknowledges everything that her mother, may, has done for her and holds so much compassion for her due to her past while also realizing that she has to let go of her relationship to her due to the abuse that she and her siblings endured throughout her life.

the only criticism that i have is that the flashback scenes in the book feel a little bit clunky and out of place in comparison to everything else. that may be how they are supposed to be, and it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book at all, but it did take away from my ability to comprehend everything lol.

so much about this book hits alarmingly close to home for me. definitely re-read material and i really am hoping that this book gets big!!

Bad Fruit is the next unhinged girlie novel that everyone will be posting about in August. Lily is a recent high school graduate waiting to start college at Oxford in the fall. She has a tumultuous relationship with her volatile Singaporean mother. Lily lives under extreme scrutiny in an effort to appease her mother, May. As her mother becomes increasingly abusive to the entire family, Lily starts to have flashbacks but they aren’t flashbacks from her English childhood, the flashbacks are of her mother’s childhood in Singapore. This is a story about inherited trauma & explores the dynamic of the mother / daughter relationship.

There are some brutal elements to this book so please check the trigger warnings before reading.

My opinion + some spoilers:
This a book that can be (maybe should be) devoured in one sitting. I just didn’t read it as quickly as I think others will. While my grandmother is not nearly this bad, definitely elements of this book reminded me of her which is why I would have to take breaks from reading this. This would be a great book for a book club since it would promote discussions of femininity, race, & the mother / daughter dynamic. I thought this book was extremely thought provoking & now I want everyone else to read it so we can discuss. This is a great debut novel & I will definitely purchase when it is released in paperback (because I’m that person). I can’t wait to see what Ella King writes next!

Lily is the youngest of the three children of May who is Singaporean and Charlie who is British. The story is told from the viewpoint of Lily, 18, who has been offered a place at Oxford and just wants to survive the summer at home. She feels it's her duty to play the family peacekeeper between her volatile mother and the rest of the family.

This is an exceptional novel about a toxic mother-daughter relationship and I found it extremely difficult to put down. It's definitely psychological in nature but I don't know if I'd call it a thriller. More like fiction or literary fiction as another reviewer noted. I'm not going to say much more because I don't want to give anything away. I'll just say that I was emotionally wrung out by the ending which I really liked by the way.

TW: Yes, lots of them! Proceed with caution.

I wish to express my gratitude to Astra Publishing House via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this debut novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Date of Publication: August 23, 2022

Thought provoking and explosive, this is a solid debut that will appeal to fans of My Dark Vanessa and the works of author Celeste Ng, according to the blurb. In my opinion, this was more a literary novel exploring generational abuse and the search for truth and freedom than a thriller. Our main character, Lily, is trying to survive her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior and the toxic relationship they share until she can escape to her first year of college life at Oxford in the Fall. The exhausting, psychological and emotional toll within the household increasingly builds over that summer and it is shocking and weirdly fascinating. Ella King is definitely an author to watch, her prolific writing skills along with her ability to tell a compulsive story makes me excited to see what she comes up with next! Thank you Netgalley, Astra Publishing House and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is available for purchase on August 23, 2022.




Unfortunately, those types of books do not appeal to me so this one was not for me

I really, really enjoyed this book. I haven’t heard of Ella King but the description and cover pulled me in, and I’m glad it did. It kept me hooked and engaged the entire time, and I am excited to be able to recommend this to certain students who I know would enjoy a read like this.

Bad Fruit has a couple of bad apples and one girl just trying to survive them.

It’s the summer holidays, and Lily is waiting for the fall when she’ll commence her first year of university at Oxford. Until then, she has to continue single-handedly managing her mother’s erratic moods since her father and siblings are incapable of doing so. From preparing her mother’s favourite Singaporean meals and spoiled juice to altering her appearance to look more like her, Lily will do just about anything to avoid her mother’s wrath.

As the summer progresses, Lily begins having disturbing flashbacks in addition to dealing with her mother’s increasingly unstable behaviour.

This novel examines weighty topics such as inter-generational trauma and abusive cycles.

Despite the heavy subject matter, the novel, at least initially, is prevented from feeling truly gloomy by Lily’s narration and her small support network.

However, at its peak, I felt that the author came just shy of emotionally manipulating the reader. Any more abuse and it would have felt gratuitous, in my opinion.

That said, this domestic drama is impressive. It’s been a few weeks since I finished reading this, and I still find myself going back and thinking about it.

It’s a short and quick read with a strong female character.

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future books by the author!

Thank you to Astra House for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

This entire book is a trigger warning on so many things and I loved it all. It's Mommy Dearest on speed with a dash of black tar heroin.

Some will tell you this is about "toxic mother-daughter relationship'.....if that's what you want to call this....sure. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. This is something else, something deeper, darker, more sinister.

Ella King is going to blow everyone out of the water with this.

This book is disturbing, dark and impossible to put down. I had no idea what was going on. Lily is going to Oxford, but she still lives at home. She dyes her hair and wears makeup to look “more Chinese” and drinks the spoiled juice her mother favors. Why? Who knows. Her relationship with her whole family is bizarre and unhealthy, but the way she’s her mother’s girl is insane. The characters are so flawed that you’d think it would be impossible to relate to them, but you’d be wrong. Lily, being a very, very unreliable narrator, is trying to figure out why she’s hallucinating what seems to be her mother’s flashbacks. The reader can’t help but try to figure out what’s happening, along with her. The text is impeccably written, and the plot just perfect. Not everyone will like it because it’s not a pleasant novel. Me? I couldn’t stop reading, even as I feared to learn what was going to happen next. This is a great book, good literature disguised as a… thriller? domestic suspense? I don’t even know how to describe it. Excellent!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Astra Publishing House!

Bad fruit? More like a whole bad orchard!

This story is about one of the most dysfunctional and toxic families it would ever be your misfortune to meet. Let’s meet the family:

May (Mai), mama - the mother, Singaporean, crazy as a loon, financial
adviser, how she maintains a professional job is beyond me
Charlie (papa) - presumably English, pathologist, spineless, or is he?
Jacob - their oldest child, married to Francine, separated 2 young boys
Julie - middle child, away at college
Lily - 17, finished school, heading to Oxford, mama’s favourite.

Lily is her mother’s current favourite child - her “little doll”, not a moniker to aspire to. Lily appears to be somewhat brainwashed to pander to her mother’s increasingly insane demands. She goes out of her way to please mama, including wearing yellow foundation to make her look more Asian and dying her hair black and preparing mama’s spoiled orange juice (yuk) although Lily has to taste it first (double yuk).

Mama’s gets increasingly demented when she suspects her husband of having having an affair with his daughter in law, Francine, Jacob’s estranged wife. Lily’s mind starts to fracture and she starts having flashbacks of her mother’s early life. How is this possible? This part reminded me a lot about Mirrorland a book in which every revelation only raised more questions. If you think of it like peeling away the layers of an onion, you need to picture a humongous onion as there are many, many layers.

As the story progresses you also start to wonder if Lily’s flashbacks are really of her mother’s early life or are they Lily’s own. It becomes increasing apparent that Charlie will be no help and may even be complicit in his children’s terrible abuse. Can Lily break away from her toxic family’s influence and make her own way in life? You will have read this to find out!

This was no thriller, it was a very, very dark story of inter generational abuse. I’m not even sure I fully understood it but I can say the author did a tremendous job in setting out a totally menacing storyline. There are many triggers littering this story like land mines. Enter at your own risk. Again, I’m not sure I can say that I enjoyed this book but I am in awe of the author’s unflinching spotlight on the darker aspects of Asian society and family dysfunction. Many thanks to Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

really enjoyed this one - more of a literary style psychological “thriller” and some really interesting commentary on Asian culture and how families function. the ending definitely surprised me

Whewwww what a wholly unique and twisty book BAD FRUIT is. Mommy Dearest vibes with a modern thriller take makes this debut compulsive and strange. I didn't know what to expect, so going along for the ride was fun. It is an insanely rough book to read, with tough depictions of child abuse and neglect. There is a mystery at the core, but it is much more about mental health, Stockholm Syndrome, and disturbing family dynamics.

Lily recently finished high school and is preparing to begin college at Oxford. She is half British, half Singaporian with two older siblings who have seemingly given up on their erratic, demanding mother and barely-home father. In a lot of ways, Lily is her mother's caretaker, an infuriating woman who is nuanced and childlike, but treats Lily horribly. The driving force of the book is wanting Lily to be ok, and the mystery is what on earth is wrong with her family. The story is emotional and the climax is fantastic, a really good literary fiction debut from Ella King.

I really loved this debut novel by Singaporean author Ella King. I think if you loved The Push by Ashley Audrain and a hint of Girl A by Abigail Dean you would love this book as well.

I thought the writing for this book was rather unique and I have to admit it was a bit tricky to get into at the start. But once I got the hang of the writing I flew through the book and I was completely absorbed in the harrowing story.

I found the book disturbing, especially the whole drinking sour orange juice and the weird coercions the mother put Lily through. It was truly some bizarre stuff. It just makes you wonder how trauma can affect someone so much that it’s passed on through the generations.

I love the flashbacks that Lily has, as Lily pieces together she uncovers her mothers secret past. I found it interesting how and why Lily had these flashbacks - memories she forgot about. But is it enough to end this devastating cycle of “bad fruit” in the family?

Thank you Ella King , Netgalley and Astra Publishing for providing a digital copy of Bad Fruit for reviewing purposes.

This novel feels like walking on eggshells. Going to be up front - this is about parental abuse, both emotional and physical, trauma, gaslighting, and the ways we survive and get through. Lily is about to go to Oxford, and is dealing with what she thinks if the last of her volatile mother and passive, unrelatable father. As her mom gets increasingly unhinged, Lily starts to have flashbacks that she knows aren't her own, and starts to lose her sense of self as she tries to find the truth behind them. This book is fucking wild, in the depths of what's uncovered and the level of trauma Lily and her siblings have dealt with, and how they deal with it. It's like watching a trainwreck, and you're genuinely not sure who is going to come out the other side of it. If you've got abuse in your past, you're going to want to go into this with both eyes open, but it's still an incredibly good read.

Holy cow was I not prepared for this novel. I was slow to be really gripped by it and picking it up and putting it down a lot made the first 30% or so pretty confusing, especially because it’s a very literary and complicated novel with more than one layer of unreliable narrator. Once I finally really got going though I couldn’t put it down. I think this is the most disturbingly messed up family I’ve ever read about; this book was dark and once the secrets and lies start unraveling and you begin learning the truth, it hits you like an 18-wheeler and then keeps running you over until the final scene.

4 stars since the beginning was confusing and didn’t hook me, but this was a good one if you have the stomach for it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.

Fast-paced and utterly engaging. A recommended first purchase for collections where thrillers are popular.

Lily has graduated from high school and is looking forward to escaping her home when she attends college at Oxford in the Fall. However, the more unhinged her mother May becomes, the less likely it seems that Lily will be able to leave her.

This novel addresses the complexities of abuse within a family. It shines a light on how it can become cyclical and why people stay. Trigger warnings that this novel contains instances of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. It is not a “fun” read, but it is a well written story.

Thank you to #NetGalley for an ARC of #BadFruit by #EllaKing - 4 stars

As her mother becomes increasingly unhinged, Lily starts to have flashbacks that she knows aren’t her own. Over a sweltering London summer, all semblance of civility and propriety is lost, as Lily begins to unravel the harrowing history that has always cast a shadow on her mother. The horrifying secrets she uncovers will shake her family to its core, culminating in a shattering revelation that will finally set Lily free.

This was a hard read. But so good.
Don’t miss this one

“- I love her!” He roars, and it’s the most shocking thing I’ve ever heard, more profane than the most explicit swear word, more obscene than the sickest secret, and in that instant, I understand why my father is in my mother’s thrall”

This is a novel about a complicated mother-daughter relationship and everything that goes with it. The trauma, the abuse, the doubts and the guilt. But also the difficulty to see things realistically when you’re part of it. It is sometimes so subtle and sometimes so loud, the author really nailed the complexity of it.
It is heartbreaking as you going through the game the mother plays to guilt trip her children. The blackmailing, the jealousy, the humiliation and the pain.
At some point in the book, I even questioned myself about feeling someone else’s trauma as I am very interested in the ability for your body to keep trauma. Could it be passed on to you from your ancestors?
This is a fantastic debut novel and I can’t wait to see what the author writes in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really did enjoy this novel, it kept me engaged throughout the entirety of it and I found myself wanting to know more and I connected to so many of the characters. I would highly recommend this read!

Will be posting a review to my IG page but truly loved this original and amazing book. Thank you Astra House.

Addicting and dark, as rotten and alluring as the fruit it’s named after. Bad Fruit is a slow descent through memory and darkness, and left me doubting that Lily would manage to escape from the complicated web of her family right until the very end

Lily lives with her parents - Singaporean mother May and British father Charlie - when she starts to have hallucinations.

BAD FRUIT explores the most toxic and dysfunctional aspect about mother-daughter relationship while brilliantly capturing the unbearable weight of inherited trauma. King exposes how past traumas often define one's sick behavior, although the manipulative/abusive nature shouldn't all be justified by it. This is a disturbing read in which one feels bothered by the trauma and child abuse. I wasn't expecting this one to be as devastating as it was, furthermore, I found it very thought-provoking.

Readers will be consumed by this book and the horrifying secrets uncovered. The story shows that "BAD” FRUIT is an understatement (more like "rotten fruit").

(ps: this was my second try and I am glad I did it)

(ARC from NetGalley but I read it wayyyy after the pub date so not really "advanced") To the girlies with mommy issues, this is for you. Lily is essentially the carrier pigeon/peacekeeper between her parents, Charlie and May. She gives in to her mother's every demand to keep her calm, until she finally cannot. Psychological thriller/family drama? Sign me up.

Wow, this was so incredibly disturbing but at the same time so addictive. This is a story of a highly dysfunctional family and three siblings who must survive in very difficult circumstances. The characters lives are all interwoven in a very toxic web and a mystery surrounds them. King’s writing is exquisite and suspense abounds. This will appeal to fans of Maid and Ginny Moon.