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"The highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her "slyly subversive" (EW) cult-hit Dietland-a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up"-- "The highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her "slyly subversive" (EW) cult-hit Dietland-a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up. New Mexico, 2017: Sylvia Wren is one of the most important American artists of the past century. Known as a recluse, she avoids all public appearances. There's a reason: she's living under an assumed identity, having outrun a tragic past. But when a hungry journalist starts chasing her story, she's confronted with whom she once was: Iris Chapel. Connecticut, 1950: Iris Chapel is the second youngest of six sisters, all heiresses to a firearms fortune. They've grown up cloistered in a palatial Victorian house, mostly neglected by their distant father and troubled mother, who believes that their house is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons. The girls long to escape, and for most of them, the only way out is marriage. But not long after the first Chapel sister walks down the aisle, she dies of mysterious causes, a tragedy that repeats with the second, leaving the rest to navigate the wreckage, to heart-wrenching consequences. Ultimately, Iris flees the devastation of her family, and so begins the story of Sylvia Wren. But can she outrun the family curse forever?"--… (more)
User reviews
I didn’t just love this, this is my favorite read of 2022 so far. It's a thrilling gut-punch of a book. The night I finished it, it kept me up till 4AM because I didn't want to put it down. Maybe I need to read better books, but this doesn't happen often with me! The last time was with Emily M. Danforth's “Plain Bad Heroines” and... now that I think of it, I would recommend “The Cherry Robbers” to anyone who loved that book too. Like 100%.
Read this if you love gothic books with gorgeous prose writing, feminist and queer elements, some spookiness, and a whole lot of tragedy.
Sylvia Wren, the protagonist of The Cherry Robbers, has been forced to write a memoir – partially to preclude a rapacious journalist
The journalist's harassment forces Sylvia to reveal herself to the reader. We learn her secrets – her birth name was Lily Chapel, an heiress of the family firearms fortune. One of six sisters, she witnessed at least two of them commit suicide directly after being married, and expected that the rest of them would suffer the same fate. Her mother was cold and aloof, plagued by her belief that the ghosts of victims of the Chapel weapons haunted the huge “wedding cake” mansion. Shades of Sarah Winchester and her similar fear of avenging spirits.
Sylvia's language is lush, beautiful; we see the Chapel household as isolated, stifled, awash with stifled female sexuality that loathes or fears sexual intimacy with a man. Sylvia's childhood was in the 1950s; neither her mother nor her older sisters obtained any independence. This atmospheric narrative, burdened with grief and guilt, is nevertheless entrancing as the reader follows the course of the Chapel sisters' lives with bated breath. At least I did.
Family curses, ghosts, madness – the exotic features of the Gothic novel. But this novel is sadder, weighted with history and suppressed emotions.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Bookish. This is an honest review.
When I saw that the story was set in Bellflower Village near Greenwich, CT I thought the name was close enough to Bell Haven, CT and that this novel would fictionalize the Martha Moxley murder. Fortunately this was not the case, although it does draw on the history of firearms manufacturers in Connecticut and characters draw influence from the real life figures Sarah Winchester and Georgia O'Keefe. The better part of the novel depicts Iris' coming of age story and the extensive grief of seeing her sisters one-by-one. The novel has feminist overtones and critiques of the weapons industry. The framing story set in the present day details Iris, a successful but reclusive artists living under the nom-de-plume Sylvia Wren, dealing with a persistent journalist attempting to reveal her hidden past.