Read in 2019 & 2020
What a beauty of a novel! It simmers and glimmers with a Gatsby-esque quality but is very much a gorgeous specimen in its own right.
Lou is a young protagonist who bursts with energy and spirit and holds the desire for something to happen in her life – something many of us can relate to. She’s full of curiosity, adventure and imagination which sets the story in motion.
It begins with an apple in an Edenic world (off the Cornish coast) which offers up a tantalising entry point to the past and current lives of the Cardew siblings and their friends and family. Lou leads us in and out of the apparent magic and the earthy reality of their lives as we see her explore her own place in the world and watch her grow in independence.
Wood’s writing has a bright and buoyant quality to it, pulling her reader in immediately. At times there’s a lyrical feeling to her description and this helps to capture the fluid and almost dream-like nature of the world she creates – while never forgetting that the ‘real world’ still exists. Issues of loss, grief and mental health are present and give this YA novel an added layer of depth.
It’s a book I genuinely enjoyed reading (along with Laura Wood’s second YA novel Under a Dancing Star) and would highly recommend to anyone (especially those who love the Roaring Twenties and writers of that period).
The Literary Land 