Bad Fruit

August 1, 2022
King delves into toxic family ties and intergenerational trauma in her hypnotic debut. As a summer heat wave blankets London, the already thin emotional boundary between 18-year-old Lily and her mother, May, dissolves further when Lily’s mind is flooded with images of a shattered glass of milk and a crumpled woman. After a doctor says they aren’t hallucinations but flashbacks, Lily believes the visions are her mother’s memories of abuse. Lily, who grew up with stories of May’s Peranakan Chinese heritage and childhood in Singapore, bends to May’s every whim, such as tasting the partly spoiled orange juice May prefers before serving it to her, and always wearing pink, May’s favorite color. Lily even goes so far as to wear makeup with yellow undertones and colored contacts to hide her eyes (“white devil eyes,” May calls them, convinced Lily’s British father is having an affair). Not long after the flashbacks start, Lily meets Lewis, a 30-something lecturer at Oxford. A former teenage runaway from a difficult home, Lewis picks up on Lily’s struggle and promises to help her get to the bottom of her flashbacks. As May’s manipulative behavior escalates and Lily seeks out the truth behind the flashbacks, King rachets up the tension in this perfect blend of psychological thriller and coming-of-age. This author is off to a great start.

June 1, 2023

King's unsettling debut follows 18-year-old Lily, who spends the summer at her parents' home in Greenwich, England, before starting college at Oxford University. Lily seems to be the only one who can calm her Singaporean mother, May, whose behavior has become increasingly volatile and erratic. Lily's father refuses to intervene, and her older brother and sister also remove themselves. As May becomes more fragile and demanding, Lily is plagued by disturbing visions--flashbacks from her mother's life that contradict what May has told her about her childhood. Lily's siblings are emotionally damaged by something from the past and cannot provide Lily with answers. As the situation worsens, Lily turns to Lewis, an Oxford professor who helps her gain the strength to uncover her family's long-held secrets. King creates a tension-filled narrative of generational child abuse and its effects. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller delivers a strong, clear performance. Still, listeners may be disconcerted by her portrayal of Lily, who has a standard Midwestern American accent rather than a British accent like those of the rest of Lily's family. VERDICT A compelling and suspenseful psychological thriller that should appeal to fans of Jessamine Chan's The School for Good Mothers.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

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