Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Themes
Synopsis
The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse. On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother--her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother--tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden--her mother's life outside the home, her father's detachment, her brother's clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender's place as "a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language" (San Francisco Chronicle). From the Hardcover edition.
Is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
This literary fantasy explores heavy emotional themes including maternal depression, family dysfunction, and emotional neglect through the lens of a young girl's magical ability to taste emotions in food. The magical realism serves as a metaphor for emotional awareness and family secrets.
What to know going in
This book has no graphic violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include emotional abuse, depression, and family dysfunction (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
A unique story about a girl who discovers she can taste people's feelings in the food they make, forcing her to confront painful truths about her family.