Sour Cherry: A fiercely haunting gothic horror novel examining gender and power, reimagining the fairytale Bluebeard
Winner, 2026 LOCUS Award for Best First Novel
Named a Best Book by Chicago Review of Books, Lithub, GoodReads and Ms. Magazine
A Best Book of Summer by Barnes & Noble
“Harrowing . . . a fairytale for the ages, subverting the tale of Bluebeard to deconstruct the systems of gender, power, and the excuses people make for bad men.” ―Chicago Review of Books
“A murder ballad sung in a dark room―it’s slow, haunting and strangely beautiful.” ―The New York Times Book Review
The tale begins with Agnes. After losing her baby, Agnes is called to the great manor house to nurse the local lord’s baby boy. But something is wrong with the child: his nails grow too fast, his skin smells of soil, and his eyes remind her of the dark forest. As he grows into a boy, then into man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Trees wither at the roots, fruits rot on their branches, and the town turns against him. The man takes a wife, who bears him a son. But tragedy strikes in cycles and his family is forced to consider their own malignancy—until wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. The ghosts become a chorus, and they call urgently to our narrator as she tries to explain, in our very real world, exactly what has happened to her. The ghosts can all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting and unforgettable debut novel, Sour Cherry, confronts age-old systems of gender and power, long-held excuses made for bad men, and the complicated reasons we stay captive to the monsters we love.
Named a Best Book by Chicago Review of Books, Lithub, GoodReads and Ms. Magazine
A Best Book of Summer by Barnes & Noble
“Harrowing . . . a fairytale for the ages, subverting the tale of Bluebeard to deconstruct the systems of gender, power, and the excuses people make for bad men.” ―Chicago Review of Books
“A murder ballad sung in a dark room―it’s slow, haunting and strangely beautiful.” ―The New York Times Book Review
The tale begins with Agnes. After losing her baby, Agnes is called to the great manor house to nurse the local lord’s baby boy. But something is wrong with the child: his nails grow too fast, his skin smells of soil, and his eyes remind her of the dark forest. As he grows into a boy, then into man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Trees wither at the roots, fruits rot on their branches, and the town turns against him. The man takes a wife, who bears him a son. But tragedy strikes in cycles and his family is forced to consider their own malignancy—until wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. The ghosts become a chorus, and they call urgently to our narrator as she tries to explain, in our very real world, exactly what has happened to her. The ghosts can all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting and unforgettable debut novel, Sour Cherry, confronts age-old systems of gender and power, long-held excuses made for bad men, and the complicated reasons we stay captive to the monsters we love.
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Community Reviews
I’m a fan of ghost stories, but after reading, I couldn’t describe how I felt about this haunting tale. I had many conflicting emotions. There will be some initial confusion as you begin reading the story but just go with it. Trust me. We meet Agnes, whose baby has died (but the narrator is not Agnes). She has been hired to nurse a local lord’s baby boy. They become close, and she stays long after she has finished nursing, almost raising the boy as her own. She senses something is not right with the boy. His fingernails grow long and fast, he smells like dirt, and strange things happen around him. The crops die, the animals birth strange creatures and items, and the people fear him. As he becomes a man and marries, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. These ghosts haunt the narrator and the man. The man has a son even though he never wanted one and tragedy is always around the corner.
Once you wrap your head around the story, it pushes full steam ahead and there is no going back. So you sit by the fire with the ghosts and you read. You get lost in the ethereal, dreamy story. It begins to feel very dark. You eat a cherry. You understand the darkness. You are also like the child who wishes for a different ending. But you know what the ending will be. To say that it is heartbreaking is to simplify it immensely. The author’s writing style is such that you are transported to another time and place. You can feel these women, and then when are hollow and feel nothing. One of the more powerful moments for me was the description of the many wives. It was rushed and hurried, only giving a few paragraphs to each (numbers instead of names), as if their existence didn’t matter. Their bodies were thrown here and there. I lost track of how many there were (maybe that was the point). This is a bold fairy tale retelling and I can’t wait to read more from this author! Thank you to Tin House Books for providing this book for review consideration via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.
Once you wrap your head around the story, it pushes full steam ahead and there is no going back. So you sit by the fire with the ghosts and you read. You get lost in the ethereal, dreamy story. It begins to feel very dark. You eat a cherry. You understand the darkness. You are also like the child who wishes for a different ending. But you know what the ending will be. To say that it is heartbreaking is to simplify it immensely. The author’s writing style is such that you are transported to another time and place. You can feel these women, and then when are hollow and feel nothing. One of the more powerful moments for me was the description of the many wives. It was rushed and hurried, only giving a few paragraphs to each (numbers instead of names), as if their existence didn’t matter. Their bodies were thrown here and there. I lost track of how many there were (maybe that was the point). This is a bold fairy tale retelling and I can’t wait to read more from this author! Thank you to Tin House Books for providing this book for review consideration via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.
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