Cherry Baby
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Apr 14, 2026
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell returns with a breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything — and isn't sure she wants it back.
Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie . . .
Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home.
Tom is the creator of Thursday—a semi-autobiographical webcomic that's become an international phenomenon.
Semi-autobiographical. That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry . . . "Baby."
Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby.
Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page—let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store.
While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in . . . and wondering who she's supposed to be without him.
Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin.
She'd meant it.
One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom's overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album . . . and someone recognizes her from across the room.
Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom.
Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry.
And best of all . . . he's never heard of Thursday.
Tender, funny, and utterly human, Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell's richest, 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.