Bad Fruit

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The story builds to become one that you just can't stop reading. I was walking around the flat, feeding the cat, making my lunch, brushing my teeth and my Kindle was with me while I just had to keep reading.

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. This unforgettable debut follows 17-year-old Lily and her complex relationship with her troubled mother. A riveting novel exploring how family ties can both make us and break us.” I just couldn’t stop reading Bad Fruit, there were more than a few moments where my heart was in my mouth and it’s been a while since I so desperately wanted things to turn out OK for the lead character – but Lily grasped my heart. Bad Fruit is brilliant, taut and explosive. Ella King deftly explores the toxicity of generational trauma while being unafraid to confront the racial tensions that can simmer below the surface. A bold new voice.”

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We meet Lily in the summer just before she’s due to start university, she’s secured a place at Oxford – her future looks bright. She lives with her parents in Greenwich, South-East London and has two older siblings: a sister, Julia and a brother, Jacob. So here I am again, standing at the fridge door, my tongue clinging to the roof of my mouth. Blood orange juice, three days off. I try it, gag and spit it down the plughole. Perfect. Just graduated from high school and waiting to start college at Oxford, Lily lives under the scrutiny of her volatile Singaporean mother, May, and is unable to find kinship with her elusive British father, Charlie. When May suspects that Charlie is having an affair, there's only one thing that calms May down: a glass of perfectly, spoiled orange juice served by Lily, who must always taste it first to make sure it's just right. Ella King opens up the fraught space between mother and daughter to reveal both the unbearable weight of inherited traumas as well as the uncontainable desire of a heart reaching for life. Bad Fruit cuts away the skin of a family as if a daughter could be a knife slicing through lies, pain, and fear. The heart hidden beneath all the secrets is sweet. The heart hidden beneath the secrets is hers. Breathtaking.”

On the surface, Lily’s life looks idyllic but it soon becomes clear that it’s far from that, revealed to us through her unique coping techniques, including the safe space she creates in her attic bedroom: 'Here’s where I keep me, in this hole under the floorboards.' Just graduated from high school and waiting to start college at Oxford, Lily lives under the scrutiny of her volatile Singaporean mother, May, and is unable to find kinship with her elusive British father, Charlie. When May suspects that Charlie is having an affair, there’s only one thing that calms May down: a glass of perfectly spoiled orange juice served by Lily, who must always taste it first to make sure it’s just right. If you’ve struggled with abuse relationships of any kind then be wary before diving into this masterpiece, this could be triggering for you. Our main character Lily is on the brink of attending her dream college in the fall. She only has two remaining months to survive her mother’s moods and catering to her demands. She wants and needs to get away! In a debut whose drama and suspense are worthy of a thriller, Lily manages her mother’s erratic behavior, often consoling her with a glass of her favorite drink: spoiled juice.”

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

I don't know, I just feel like I should have felt something tugging at my heartstrings and I didn't. I just could not get immersed in this story no matter how sharp the actual writing was. I know her mother experienced horrific abuse but I'm not a believer in that being any justification for abusing her own children but I say that as someone who grew up with loving and supporting parents. What do I know? On this subject, thankfully, very little. 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. Mesmerizing, dream-like and darkly suspenseful, Bad Fruit captures the damaging love and loyalty that children can bear towards abusive parents who are suffering from and passing on their complex trauma.” true that the mother-daughter relationship was nuanced, as were the main character's other relationships, and the author excels at writing the duality and complexity of their dynamics. yet, it still did not pull me into the story. i was not invested at all, which was probably why i was able to fall asleep three times. really, i don't have anything particularly bad to say about the book because i was simply bored. it just didn't do it for me. I don’t think I have read any fiction carrying a dysfunctional family theme with this bunch of mental health issues before. This would be the first, and it amazes me on how I actually enjoyed it a lot— although I would say, it was stressful, harrowing and quite blistering too.

As a storm of memories builds over one stifling summer, Lily must recast everything. What if her house isn’t a home – but a prison? What if her mother isn’t a protector – but a monster . . . Bad Fruit blew me away with its powerful and absolutely immersive look at 17-year old Lily’s life. This psychological thriller explores a complex and dark family dynamic: what do you do if the most toxic relationships in your life are with your immediate family?