I really did not get into this book very easily but persevered. However the style of writing was difficult to engage with and the subject matter was uncomfortable for me.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Not going to trash this because it's a debut, and I do think Glass has the potential to be a good writer so I'll read her future work, though I didn't enjoy or appreciate this book.

I don't mind books that value language over story, and I don't mind gory or weird things happening (actually I generally like that). But the language, while experimental and repetitive, isn't interesting or new. The word choices aren't interesting and they aren't presented in an interesting way: eg. "I watch the pools of grease floating on the water. White. Whirling. Floating. Slowly.". I suspect this will be compared to Eimear McBride's work, and it will be to this book's detriment because McBride's use of language is far more confident and polished.

It's a very, very short book but I still found my mind drifting and I skimmed most of it. It really wasn't for me, but I'll give Glass's next book a go as I think there's a potential, and after all debuts are never perfect; we all need a starting point to improve on.

I don't like to not like a book. But this book left me feeling.... lost really! Like the author was saying something frightfully clever, but didn't really want to tell you what that was. The book has some alarming content (rape, murder, cannibalism, death), but it is all so abstract that you constantly doubt that what you are reading is real. And I very much doubt that there really was a man made of custard, so I tended to doubt everything! Which rather spoilt my enjoyment. The stream of consciousness writing style takes a but of getting used to, but added in to the constant wordplay just felt too confusing. Not a favourite, I'm sad to say.

I liked Peach for its fast flowing prose and beautiful language, but I must admit that the surrealist plot was somewhat lost on me. It made me feel like it was a book I wasn't clever enough to 'get.' I saw Emma speak about it after I'd finished it and wished I'd heard her explain it first - I think I might have enjoyed it more if so

There are moments when Peach is stunningly realistic; the raw sensations capture a pure essence of trauma. But this is far from a realistic book. To read and enjoy it you need to be prepared to embrace the bizarre, the surreal and the downright ridiculous.

It’s a book of impressions, and language. The first line tells you, inescapably, that we’re setting aside convention. “Thick stick sticky sticking wet ragged wool winding round the wounds...” This novella is dense with alliteration, assonance, repetition and rhythm, and it shifts and slips around.

The best way to explain it is with examples, so here’s another: “The blotches blind me. I walk blind by Green’s side. Blind side. Blindsided. and I close my eyes seeing as I can’t see anyway. The orange blotches pin themselves to the inside of my eyelids. Pretty sun. Set. Scent. he’s holding my hand but I follow his scent and the snapping sound of his legs.” I would happily paste endless quotes.

I was worried the poetic language would make it hard work, but it’s actually surprisingly readable. The language is the tool, not the focus, here; and it works wonderfully to reveal Peach’s altered reality.

Peach is the central character. When the book opens she has just suffered a devastating sexual assault, and through the course of the story she struggles to deal with the physical and emotional impact of that. Desperate, but unable, to confide in someone, and haunted —
either figuratively or literally — by her attacker. It’s not exactly clear which.

Because working out what’s actually happening in Peach is not that simple. Reality in the novel is fragile. Her impressions are powerful and confused and often the impression on the reader is powerful yet confused too. You can never quite be certain if the things she reports seeing and hearing are real. Her parents are self-obsessed and oblivious, but would they really not notice a profoundly injured daughter? They greet her happily, just after she has described at least some visible injuries: “My eyelids are fat. Swollen. Swollen black from the slap.”

Then there’s the the surreal, metaphorical way describes people. She sees/experiences/describes her boyfriend, Green, as a tree, her attacker, Lincoln, as a sausage, and her baby brother is a made of jelly and dusted with icing sugar.

Sometimes this works brilliantly. As a vegetarian, it makes sense that her attacker is perceived as meat, and her loving boyfriend is the safe haven of a tree. You can imagine her emotions are so powerful towards these two, that her clouded impressions overwhelm reality; the metaphors a coping mechanism following the rape. But other times it didn’t work for me. When we have babies made of jelly and teachers made of custard, it dilutes that power. It feels like she’s always seen people this way, trauma or no, and that's when it slips into the ridiculous.

Then there’s the suggestion that these are not metaphors at all. As author Emma Glass said in a recent interview (http://www.hamhigh.co..uk/etcetera/books/hampstead-author-emma-glass-i-have-drawn-on-some-intense-feelings-1-5358633) “I wanted it to be strange.” Albeit with a certain inconsistency. Peach is a peach, but all her human body parts are there, Green is a tree, but he has branch arms and trunk body, Mr Custard and Lincoln, seem entirely custard and sausage. With faces.

But this is an experimental book, so perhaps it doesn’t need to be entirely consistent, or hit every ball straight. It’s as free-wheeling as Peach’s own unstoppable imagination. The blurb for the book features a quote from Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders: “Her fearlessness renews one's faith in the power of literature.” And it’s that fearlessness which makes this book special. It asks questions about what a book can be, what language you can use, who gets to filter the way you see the world, even who says what’s real and what isn’t. It doesn’t need to answer each of these questions perfectly, and it doesn’t. But perhaps asking them is enough.

A really interesting, well-written book. I look forward to seeing what else Emma writes.

This short novella does not ease you in gently, the first lines hit you like a train

Thick sticky sticky wet ragged wool winding round the wounds, stitching the sliced skin together as I walk, scraping my mittened hand against the wall, Rough red bricks ripping the wool. Ripping the skin. Rough red skin.

Slowly we realise that this is the aftermath of a rape and the girl, Peach, is attempting to reach home, to safety, to assess her injuries and get clean.

The rest of the novella continues in a similar vein as Peach’s thoughts pour out onto the page. Keeping her rape secret she carries on her everyday life as if nothing has happened, yet her stream of thought, her constant fear that he is ever present, lurking in her head, in the background and everywhere she goes remains.

Peach is portrayed as just your normal, average teenager, academically bright, a steady boyfriend and from a loving family. Her rape is harrowing but what I found even more harrowing was the aftermath. How Glass, describes Peach’s inner most thoughts and feelings is revelatory and you almost want to ask her how she knew what to write, where it came from, how she could get so deep into Peach’s psyche.

The narrative is in short staccato sentences, almost poetic in its structure, but with immense power and intensity. It is brutal to read but so very compelling and sad.

I did find myself at some points wanting to scream at her to tell someone, to get help, but I think that would have made life even more difficult for Peach, who just wants everything to be normal, yet is tormented by an act of such violence, that it consumes all her energy.

The ending was just brilliant, in fact the whole novel was brilliant!

Emma Glass has written the most stunning debut. It will not be to everyone’s taste and much of it is deeply harrowing and shocking but oh my goodness it is brilliant.

Thank you to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for a copy to read and review

This is a debut novel by author Emma Glass and she has produced something truly unique. Her writing is composed and bridges any gap between poetry and prose, with emotion portrayed often through alliteration and repetition of key phrases.

The story follows Peach, who has been brutally battered and left bruised one night, though it is never clear what has happened. Her thoughts meander over the incident and the consequences in which at one point she believes she may be pregnant.

The remainder of the book paints a graphic picture of the effect the trauma has had on Peach and how this is expressed by her in changes to her body shape, and in her perception of the ordinary things of life.

There are mythical and superstitious elements to Peach's damaged psyche. I must admit that some of it escaped me, but this thin volume has such power and leaves the reader in no doubt of Peach's pain and the ultimate consequences.

It is quite unlike anything I have read before, and whilst I cannot claim to have fully understood it, it definitely is distinct. Unfortunately it is an acquired taste so not everyone will appreciate the style.

Comparisons with Eimear McBride are going to be inevitable for Emma Glass and this novella. We are back in modernist territory, with its fragmented sentences… “Rough red bricks ripping the wool. Ripping the skin. Rough red skin. Rough red head.” The eponymous Peach has been brutally sexually assaulted. She chooses not to share this with anyone: not her parents, not her boyfriend, Green, nor other adults, but to internalise it herself, which she does by literally sewing herself shut, in a graphic but brilliant scene, and subsequently swelling up – with what? Guilt? She’s not pregnant - so much so that her stomach prevents her from doing things.
It’s an extraordinarily visceral book. The characters, bar her comically hypersexual parents, are literal representations of foodstuffs, animals, plants. The arboreal Green has “twig-thin fingers… they smell like springtime.” Her adored little brother, Baby, leaves behind him sprinkles of sugar. My favourite is probably Mr Custard, her college biology teacher, slipping onto the floor in the classroom- “Sorry. It’s still early. I haven’t quite set yet.”
Far more disturbingly, under this system of taxonomy Peach’s assailant, Lincoln, is depicted always as raw, rancid meat, particularly sausages, and slimy grease… Horrific sexual assault is not enough for him; he stalks Peach, sending her letters comprised of cut-up letters (another nod to modernism) and assuring her that he “loves” her. There is a satisfying inevitability to Peach’s revenge, but it may not be enough to free her from her ordeal.
Apparently the book took a long time to write, but Emma Glass is wise enough to keep it pared down, at just 100 pages, meaning this whip-smart and deeply disturbing tale never outstays its welcome.

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, murder, animal abuse, possible (?) cannibalism

I hate giving a low rating to any book. I have such admiration for authors - for the blood, sweat and tears that go into writing a book in the first place, then having to navigate the publishing world and subjecting themselves to readers who can lift them up or tear them down with their words.

If you are interested in reading this book, please don’t just go by my review. There are a lot of 5 star reviews for this book as well, and who knows, maybe you’ll be adding one yourself after reading it. My review comes from a place of confusion and ‘this wasn’t the book for me’ rather than malice. I applaud the author for successfully navigating the publishing world and for the many positive reviews I’ve read.

Having said that ... my brain hurts! Had I borrowed this book from the library instead of requesting an ARC I would not have finished it.

You know those books that hoity-toity book clubs rave about with their “literary masterpiece” this and their “author stunned with their use of [some big fancy word that the general population can neither spell nor use in a sentence]” that? You may listen to these people and smile and nod, but on the inside you’re thinking, ‘How did you get that from this book?’ and ‘I must be completely stupid. I have no idea what you’re going on about.’ I think that’s going to be the unfortunate fate of this book; a polarising “most exquisite piece of writing ever!” or “what the hell did I just read?!”

Reading like a stream of consciousness, Peach (the novella) opens with Peach (the person) having just been brutally sexually assaulted and follows her down the rabbit trail of its physical, emotional and psychological aftermath. I came away from Peach having very little grasp on which words were literal, fantasy, hallucination, nightmare or flashback - and I’m not sure I was supposed to. I can handle gruesome, triggery books, I understand the internal turmoil following sexual assault and revenge fantasies, but I. don’t. UndErsTand. This. book.

Which brings me to the writing style. There are so many one word sentences, some sentences start with a capital letter and others don’t, words have randomly capitalised letters scattered through them. I expect it was deliberate, intentionally messy and disjointed to reflect the emotional state of Peach and her internal dialogue, but I just found it messy. I understood what was happening (sometimes) but I couldn’t figure out if the author was going for prose, poetry, some combination or something else entirely.

There’s the use of food to describe people, including:
* The rapist / stalker / maker of creepy hand delivered notes with words cut out of magazines, Lincoln, is sausage, pork, oily, greasy, slimy
* Mr Custard, college biology teacher made of custard
* Baby, Peach’s brother who remains unnamed is icing sugar, jelly.

Mam and Dad are overtly sexual, so much so that I found it as uncomfortable to read as I did the sexual assault. Speaking of Green, Peach’s boyfriend, the same evening of his daughter’s sexual assault - “You make such a cute couple, and the sex sounds amazing, says Dad.” (12%)

Immediately following his daughter’s face flushing red with embarrassment, “It’s okay, Peach. Sex is a good thing. Me and Mam do it all the time. We just did it now on the kitchen table. It’s human nature, Peach, don’t be embarrassed. Green is a lucky guy. Most girls won’t put out until they’re married. But not our Peach. and we’re proud of you.” (12%) I’m sorry, what??? Then good ol’ Mam and Dad, along with boyfriend Green remain oblivious to what Peach is going through for the entire novella.

So, just two of my multitude of unanswered questions:
* Why does Peach’s stomach continually grow larger and larger and larger?
* What really happened in the end?

Colour me confused!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Circus, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

Please note that the quotes are from the ARC and as such may have been changed prior to publication.

I feel like I just left this book even more confused than I did when I went into it. Had I not known what this story was about, I would have struggled to piece together a narrative out of the words that were placed on the page. This is a classic example of the writer just trying to be really clever and dress everything up with metaphors until we're drowning in an ocean of pretentious writing. Seriously.

This novella follows Peach, a young girl who is sexually assaulted and how she deals with the issues of this assault and how it starts to affect her life and her relationship with the world around her.

I just didn't understand what this book was trying to achieve. Yes, it makes some interesting comments on the psychological impact of sexual assault, but it really doesn't even try to make these as transparent as it needs to be. Really, there's so many different comments that this book makes about food and sex and pregnancy and all sorts of weird stuff that I struggled to understand what was happening.

I really did not enjoy reading this and the only reason I continued with this book is because it was so short and I was able to get through it in such a short amount of time. If you want to read a book that expertly deals with sexual assault and how it affects the women involved, I would recommend something like 'Asking For It' by Louise O'Neill. There's a certain amount of imagery you can take with your writing, but this book just took it to the point of bleeding it to death.

This is the first book by this author and she has produced something extraordinary. Her writing is confident and bridges any gap between prose and poetry, with emotion portrayed often through alliteration and repetition of key phrases.

We meet Peach as she struggles to get home in the dark after a deeply traumatic experience.
She is finding it difficult to walk, due to pain between her legs and is nauseated by the taste and feel of raw sausage meat. On getting home she rushes to assess and deal with the damage in what can only be an admirable manner after her ordeal.

It doesn't occur to her to talk with her parents who are totally engrossed in their own sex life, and in Peach's new baby brother, who she describes as being the perfect, round, happy baby, from whom icing sugar sprinkles whenever he moves!

The remainder of the book paints a graphic picture of the effect the trauma has had on Peach and how this is expressed by her in changes to her body shape, and in her perception of the ordinary things of life. Her boyfriend, 'Green', is sensitive to her but she doesn't confide in him.

There are mythical and superstitious elements to Peach's damaged psyche, which you will need to experience yourself. I must admit that some of it escaped me, but this thin volume has such power and leaves the reader in no doubt of Peach's pain and the ultimate consequences.

It is quite unlike anything I have read before, and whilst I cannot claim to have fully understood it, I am pleased to have read it and fully intend to re-read it when time permits.

This is a new author with a totally original voice; she is worth following.

Pashtpaws


Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I cannot quite decide what I thought about this book. Part of me liked it, it was different and a very powerful read dealing with a very difficult subject but the other half of me felt it went a bit too far with the discriptions and the language and writing was very different to what I normally ready. Cleverly done but I’m not sure it would be the type of style I would read again in the future.

Well.. this was different. I am not sure if I just didn't really totally get it or if it just wasn't the book for me but my rule is that I review all the books that I actually finish and I did finish this so I am pretty much duty bound to try and formulate my thought on what I read.
Peach has suffered something shocking. We are drip fed information, at times really rather graphically, as to what and by whose hands. We follow her in the aftermath as she returns to her home and her life still affected both physically and emotionally by the incident. In that respect, it's really rather compelling reading. Much like witnessing an accident; you don't want to stay watching but at the same time, you can't look away, even if there is nothing you can do.
Instead of getting help, Peach just tries to battle on alone. We see her cleaning herself up, administering first aid and trying to fit back into her life having just swept it all away. Well, that's what she tries to do anyway but the situation she found herself in doesn't really allow this behaviour and it soon becomes evident exactly how much it has affected her; and rightly so given the nature of what happened.
The story is told in a way that some may find hard to get to grips with. I have to admit I initially struggled with what I was reading both in content and in the way it was delivered and, as already mentioned, I didn't quite get all of what I was reading. There were however some moments of clarity, mostly during the most shocking parts, which did leave me reeling as I finally understood what was really happening. Well, my interpretation anyway!
The themes contained within the book are sadly very prevalent these days and I think, in context, this is an important read albeit very harrowing at times. When I finished the book I have to admit to not being totally clear about the point of it all but after thinking about the book for several days after finishing, I did eventually come to my own conclusion about the message portrayed. I am not sure if this matched with the author's but then that's the joy of reading; it's subjective.
It's one of those books that I think will split opinion. For me, the jury is still out but maybe with a bit of time and a re-read, I might have more to say.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I didn't like this book. It is unsettling,yet a worthy subject. Peach has been attacked - raped- on her way home. Her parents don't notice her distressed state as they are too wrapped up in themselves and their new baby. Peaches sutures the wounds to her vagina and cleans up her blood and tries to act normally,but she is plagued by the smell of fat and meat,she has nightmares of sausage fingers and every day objects take on a sweet aspect, the baby tastes of sugar and there is a teacher named Mr Custard.
The story is written in prose, but it is not poetic. I found the structure to be really annoying and the whole book was too visceral for my taste. I would class this as a young adult read, it is a challenging and frank discussion of rape,and deserves a wider audience,it could almost be a nursing/ human biology textbook.
This is a debut novel and is awesome in its power and raw emotion. A difficult read,but it will find an audience. I have posted this review to Goodreads today.

This is definitely worth a read, as Glass' approach to creative writing is to be admired, but due warnings for the graphic content and harrowing story-line.

In short, this book is a surreal exploration of a life lived after tragedy. As the synopsis states: "Something has happened to Peach. Blood runs down her legs and the scent of charred meat lingers on her flesh."

Due to the subject matter, this is a profoundly harrowing read, and the graphic nature used to depict some scenes only adds to this. This is a novella that is steeped in imagery, both metaphorical and realistic, that are painted with an evocative vibrancy so jarring as to feel like a slap across the reader's face, on times. Whilst I did find that this added to the poignancy of the piece, it did make this also a painful read.

The surreal and abstract narrative-style used reflects the disjointed thoughts of the protagonists, as do the almost stream of consciousness style prose. Traditional grammar has been freed from its constraints and Glass has taken liberties with language to directly correlate with the atmosphere of the story. I appreciate books of this style, as I love to see language explored in various ways that differ from the norm. This experimental approach was brave but also one that started to break down, I felt, as the story-line was expanded.

I initially found this completely absorbing and loved having to scavenge for the truth in amongst the fantastical metaphors. But the imagery I earlier appreciated started to dominate the message portrayed and this caused a late and ultimate dissonance between myself and the harrowing story-line.

Darkly disturbing but brilliant, surreal but never silly, this short book punches well above its page count when it comes to creating a visceral reaction in the reader. Reading almost like poetry, this is the story of Peach, who is battered and bruised after something bad happens one night. Repetition and rhythm in the writing creates a memorable style, somewhat reminiscent of Solar Bones by Mike McCormack, but the real power comes from the suffering and despair that infuses every word. It seems strange to describe something so graphic as beautiful, but this book was beautiful, and unforgettable, and one I am sure I will be thinking about for some time to come.

Peach is the one of the best book’s I’ve read in ages.

I’m at a loss to describe this gut-wrenching, unique little novella. How to describe a book that punch you in the throat.

First off, I wasn’t sure I would like the style used by the author. It reminded me of A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing at first which I found unreadable. However, the style is nowhere near as dense as other books that use stream-of-consciousness and I quickly adjusted.

Peach deals with some pretty dark stuff including violent, sexual assault and stalking. Despite this, the book is not gruesome or unpleasant. The writing style used allows the author to avoid this. I was impressed by Peach.

I liked the fact this novella is written from Peach’s point of view. This makes the book very personal and emotional. I read it in one sitting and didn’t want it to end.