The Cherry Robbers

By: Sarai Walker

Narrated by: January LaVoy

""Sarai Walker has done it again. With The Cherry Robbers she upends the Gothic ghost story with a fiery feminist zeal."" —Maria Semple

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.

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

INSTEAD IT WAS THE LAST.

Iris Chapel and her five elegant sisters, all of them heiresses to the Chapel firearms fortune, live cloistered in a lavish Victorian mansion. Neglected by both a distant, workaholic father and a mentally troubled mother—who believes their home is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons—the sisters have grown up with only each other for company. They long to escape the eerie fairy tale of their childhood and move forward into the modern world, but for young women in 1950s Connecticut, the only way out is through marriage.

Yet it soon becomes clear that for the Chapel sisters, marriage equals death.

When the eldest sister walks down the aisle, tragedy strikes. The bride dies mysteriously the very next day, leaving her family and the town in shock. But this is just the beginning of a chain of disasters that will make each woman wonder whether true love will kill her, too. Only Iris, the second-youngest, finds a way to escape—but can she outrun the family curse forever?

Sarai Walker, the acclaimed author of the cult-hit novel Dietland, building off the Gothic tradition of Shirley Jackson, brings to life this riveting, deliciously twisted feminist tale, a gorgeous and provocative page-turner about the legacy of male power and the cost of female freedom.

Captivating

This was a book that was hard to put down even though I had to stop several times to take a break. I don’t think I will soon forget it.

Women Rights

Opening yourself to “feelings “ or impressions of your dead loved ones can be a helpful grieving process. I have experienced when our son was murdered 9 years ago

The story we all need

I waited to read this one. I was too scared that my expectations would be dashed. But, finally, I have read this stunning work and am happy to report that it was everything I could have dreamed of and more.

The characters are deep. They are individuals with lives, purposes, and desires. Even the men (who definitely take a backseat in this story) are somehow, in just a few sentences, turned into nuanced humans with unique qualities that make them memorable and district. I was able to connect in some way with each of them. From the loving housemaid who tried her best to help the 6 daughters of the house feel cared for to the jerk who took away the oldest sister.

The plot is not the point - and I love it. We know what's going to happen in almost every part of this book based on the summary. Yet, as the girls grew up, I was spellbound. As each sister met her fate, I was awestruck. Absolutely nothing in this novel was shocking. There is no twist. But such is the power of this author and this story that I could not have cared less.

This is not a story I would recommend to just anyone. There are things that would rub some people the wrong way. For instance, some might argue that the conclusion is weak or that there isn't enough closure. I would argue that Walker's choice to not answer a lot of these bigger questions is purposeful, poignant, and perfect. This family's curse doesn't need a "higher power" or a "larger purpose" to be significant. This story taps into the most hidden, raw, and often ignored aspects of the normalized trauma women have been experiencing for generations and, in proper Gothic fashion, externalizes that trauma in order to show how it passes from mother to daughter. This story is meant to be felt and intuited. Walker has written a novel so compelling that there is no reason readers can't draw their own conclusions. She doesn't need to spell things out for us. If you can't handle that or you prefer that authors explain everything with heavy-handed precision, this is not the story for you.

Tragic and beautiful

I was completely heart broken by the end of this, and found myself weeping multiple times as the story unfolded.

The price women paid and are still paying for/during childbirth is unbelievable. Each woman has her story, no matter how easy her labor was, and this book is all about the childbirth story of one woman, and its consequences.

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Couldn’t stop listening

I was captivated by this book and have recommended it highly to my friends. I raced through it!