Premium Content:

Bibliophile | The Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon

Fruit of the Dead
by Rachel Lyon
Scribner

This stunningly seductive tale is based on the ancient Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. In Rachel Lyon’s modern take on the tale, eighteen-year-old Cory Ansel was drifting through life after losing interest in her studies in the final year at high school.

- Advertisement -

Working at River Rock Summer Camp was not what she thought she would be doing after Senior Year. But at least she was spending time outdoors and away from New York and her highly strung single mother Emer who was bombarding her with options.

Cory’s mother was the head of an agricultural NGO and Cory had been brought up to make healthy choices about what she ate. When one of the parents asks her to come to a diner with him and his two children he has collected from the camp, her mother’s warnings about food are surpassed by the dopamine rush of sugar, salt and animal fat.

With his kids Fern and Spenser clinging to her, their middle-aged, divorced father offers her a child-minding job for the rest of the summer. As the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is obscenely wealthy and lives on a private island off the coast of Maine.

In the Greek myth, Hades kidnaps Persephone and secretly gives her pomegranate seeds (a symbol of marriage) in order to keep her in the Underworld. Rolo offers Cory some of his supply of opiates that are manufactured by his company, and Cory indulges in everything the island has to offer.

Unable to communicate to the mainland, Cory explores this fascinating new life of excess but, as Lyon reminds the reader, “the membrane between fun and danger is flimsy and easily torn”.

Meanwhile Emer is increasingly distraught and, like Demeter, she searches for her daughter. The mesmerising tale comes to life through the voices of the girl who doesn’t realise she has been abducted and her increasingly frantic mother.

Rachel Lyon began writing this haunting story early in her sobriety, and her examination of the power of addiction in a modern underworld is compulsive reading.

Lezly Herbert

Latest

On This Gay Day | Britain repealed the controversial 'Section 28' laws

The laws were brought in by the Thatcher government in 1988.

Government urged to consider combatting LGBTIQA+ hate in school curriculum

Education Minister Jason Clare is tackling antisemitism, but what about homophobia?

On This Gay Day | Neil Tennant is celebrating his birthday

See what else happened on this day in history.

Julia Zemiro to host ABC’s new true-crime panel show ‘Crime Night!’

"Anyone who loves bingeing the latest true crime podcast, or playing detective in the group chat, this is the show for you."

Newsletter

Don't miss

On This Gay Day | Britain repealed the controversial 'Section 28' laws

The laws were brought in by the Thatcher government in 1988.

Government urged to consider combatting LGBTIQA+ hate in school curriculum

Education Minister Jason Clare is tackling antisemitism, but what about homophobia?

On This Gay Day | Neil Tennant is celebrating his birthday

See what else happened on this day in history.

Julia Zemiro to host ABC’s new true-crime panel show ‘Crime Night!’

"Anyone who loves bingeing the latest true crime podcast, or playing detective in the group chat, this is the show for you."

Paola Pivi exhibition brings explosion of colour to AGWA

The Italian-born artist is known for playfully blurring the line between fantasy and reality, incorporating animals and everyday objects in surreal scenarios.

On This Gay Day | Britain repealed the controversial 'Section 28' laws

The laws were brought in by the Thatcher government in 1988.

Government urged to consider combatting LGBTIQA+ hate in school curriculum

Education Minister Jason Clare is tackling antisemitism, but what about homophobia?

On This Gay Day | Neil Tennant is celebrating his birthday

See what else happened on this day in history.