Tag: Aimee Bender

Reviewed by Lotte:

The Butterfly Lampshade is about a mother with a mental illness, psychosis, and a daughter trying to decipher her past and work through her present. We begin by seeing the extent of Francie’s mother illness and the facts of what happened next. However as we get further into the story Francie recalls these memories and gives them more details and context.

I’m going to be honest from the start, this wasn’t a book for me. It was more of an introspective study of a mind experiencing psychoses than a story. It was told from the perspective of the protagonist, Francie, mainly through her internal voice which only added to that inside perspective. There were whole passages of internal monologue that were so long it became boring and dry. Despite Francie searching for answers, to remember and understand, there just didn’t seem to be much happening. It’s definitely a very subtle approach which maybe had a beauty to it that I missed.

The pacing was also pretty slow with lots of overlapping and repeating which, in my opinion, was totally unnecessary. If you enjoy a book that meanders then you’ll probably enjoy this, but I prefer stories with a bit more going on. I just found myself becoming a bit frustrated which made it harder to relate to Francie even though I desperately wanted to.

As with a previous book of Bender’s, I felt the premise was really good and held so much potential, but it just didn’t quite play out as I’d expected. So don’t let me put you off if you think you’ll enjoy – maybe it’ll play out well for you. It was a pretty quick book to read so if you’re wanting to give it a chance I found it easy to get through.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Author: Aimee Bender
Publisher: Random House UK, Cornerstone
Release date: 30 July 2020

Reviewed by Lotte:

This was the story of a young girl who discovers she can taste emotions in food, right down to where and the situation in which the food was made. From here the story shares her struggles with this, the secrets she stumbles across and then the unfolding of other family members potentially having gifts too.

This book contained so much promise with an excellent premise, but I felt it was poorly executed. For a start it felt like multiple books crammed into one, as if the author had many ideas so tried to incorporate them all, which only left it feeling like it was all half done.

So firstly, we read of Rose’s gift and although there were reactions to her struggles and refusal to eat certain food, there was even more left unsaid. Characters picked up on it in different ways but seemingly lost interest and left her to it. And that’s without mentioning the implications of said ‘gift’. This just felt unbelievable for me, given Rose’s age.

Bender then sets out multiple avenues that the story could follow throughout the book with none of them coming to fruition. The initial way was a way in which Rose’s gift could be used for good with a friend and how that then twisted into dependency. This is where I thought the story was heading and I was excited by that prospect. But it was not to be. Then it looked like she might use it to unearth secrets like when she discovered her mum’s additional activities. This seemed like an unnecessary part of the story as nothing came of it. It only added to the lack of believability.

Then the story twisted to the brother’s problem which just seemed weird and disconnected from the theme…he became an inanimate object, a chair. Seriously? I did not understand this at all! We begin to learn of perhaps a family trait – we know of Rose and her brother, then we find out about her Grandfather and potentially her father. Again, I thought this was finally where we were heading. But it turns out the Dad refuses to work out what his gift might be, he only shares a small amount about the grandfather and nothing really of the brother.

Eventually Rose finds a path for her life and a potential career but we’re now at the end of the book and so following the same theme, this aspect is unexplored too.

This book was about everything and nothing. This particular lemon cake was indeed sad.

Author: Aimee Bender
Publisher: Windmill Books
Release date: 1 September 2011