Cherry Baby
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The big-hearted, grown-up new novel about love and second chances from million-copy international bestselling author Rainbow Rowell
Praise for Rainbow Rowell:
'Extraordinary humour and tenderness'
Curtis Sittenfeld
'Sweet, sexy, wise and nostalgic'
Gabrielle Zevin
‘So hot and delicious, so funny and smart and real. What a gift!’
Catherine Newman
'Rainbow Rowell is a damn genius'
Rufi Thorpe
'As funny and smart as its wonderful characters'
Emma Straub
'Gorgeous . . . I read it in one sitting’
Ella Risbridger
Cherry and Tom had built a quiet, contented life together in Omaha, until Tom’s semi-autobiographical webcomic went viral and turned their marriage into public property.
Now the world knows Baby, the character based on Cherry, better than Cherry knows herself – and Tom and Cherry have been separated for months.
That’s when Russ Sutton shows up. Floppy-haired, blue-eyed Russ Sutton, who Cherry had a crush on in college, and who now seems to have a crush on her.
All that’s left is for Cherry to rewrite her own story. Because if she isn’t Baby, and she isn’t Tom’s wife, then who can she be?
Told with deep tenderness and abundant wit, Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell's most affecting, most surprising, sexiest novel yet.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this witty, heartfelt story of love and resilience, a relatable heroine learns the hard way what it’s like when the world sees you as a caricature. Cherry is smart, pretty, talented, and a self-described fat person. She’s also in the midst of divorcing her husband Tom, whose hugely popular graphic novel is presently being adapted into a highly anticipated movie—and everyone seems to know that the character of Baby was based on her. Being a fat woman is hard enough without being a pop culture icon of a fat woman, and we loved the natural, painfully realistic way the whole mess complicates Cherry’s journey to love her body. Author Rainbow Rowell really does make Cherry a heroine to root for, from her delightfully bold fashion sense to her search for a love that can give her what her marriage didn’t. Funny, heartbreaking, and grounded in reality, Cherry Baby is the kind of romance we’ve been waiting for.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rowell (Slow Dance) delivers a big-hearted if imperfect second-chance love story. Recently separated from Tom, her husband of eight years in Omaha, Neb., Cherry feels a spark when she runs into her college crush, Russ. Unlike back then, this time the attraction is mutual, and the two strike up a fast-moving romance. Though she appears to cheerfully accept being fat ("She could say it out loud. She didn't hide from it"), Cherry suffers from persistent self-doubts, especially as she embarks on this new relationship. Meanwhile, Tom has been in Los Angeles helping produce a feature film based on his webcomic about a Cherry lookalike named Baby. When Tom returns to Omaha to pack up his things, Cherry's forced to confront her lingering heartbreak. Rowell punctuates her appealing conversational style with parenthetical asides on such subjects as Cherry's favorite Midwestern foods, while also thoughtfully exploring internalized fatphobia and the notion of self-acceptance in the age of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. Unfortunately, the characters' emotions and motivations remain unclear, especially Russ's, and a late flashback that finally explains the circumstances of Cherry and Tom's breakup feels both confusing and anticlimactic. This is a mixed bag.
