IF NOTHING ELSE, EVE, WE’VE ENJOYED

THE FRUIT

written by Elaine Pascale

published by Withersin Press

ISBN: 978-0982484210

 

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

6.2.09

 

 

Sure, blame it on the men… wait, it usually is our fault.

 

Fruit tells a woman to kill her polygynous husband, and not because of the other wives.  Women are treated to a getaway where they can never get away.  Something horrible is growing in Jody Burkoff’s belly, but is it more terrible than what she is capable of?  There is only one winner in this pageant but looks have nothing to do with it; it is all about survival of the most determined.  A myth of hatred becomes truth at a local shopping mall.

 

A bomb could have gone off in the room while I was reading this book and I wouldn’t have noticed.  Pascale writes in the realm with the giants.  She is one step past fantastic that is hard to define, and a little frightening, and yet we yearn to travel there as often as possible.  To be honest I started to read this book thinking it was a novella/novelette (I never read about a book before I start one; for some reason I’ve forgotten long ago) and I was quite confused until I realized it was a short story collection being told by fruit. A quick reread led to be tremendously more satisfying.

 

I stumbled across Withersin Magazine about two years ago and was extremely impressed. There is no mistaking that Misty Gersley and Kim Sumek aren’t trying to make a good genre magazine, they’re trying to make the best. And, with “Eve” as an example, that same attitude is being carried into Withersin Press.

 

Buy it as soon as it comes out:  5 out of 5