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Named a Best Book by Chicago Review of Books, Lithub, GoodReads
A Best Book of Summer by Barnes & Noble
"Harrowing . . . a fairytale for the ages, subverting the tale of Bluebeard to deconstruct the systems of gender, power, and the excuses people make for bad men." ―Chicago Review of Books
"A murder ballad sung in a dark room―it's slow, haunting and strangely beautiful." ―The New York Times Book Review
The tale begins with Agnes. After losing her baby, Agnes is called to the great manor house to nurse the local lord's baby boy. But something is wrong with the child: his nails grow too fast, his skin smells of soil, and his eyes remind her of the dark forest. As he grows into a boy, then into man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Trees wither at the roots, fruits rot on their branches, and the town turns against him. The man takes a wife, who bears him a son. But tragedy strikes in cycles and his family is forced to consider their own malignancy-until wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. The ghosts become a chorus, and they call urgently to our narrator as she tries to explain, in our very real world, exactly what has happened to her. The ghosts can all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
Natalia Theodoridou's haunting and unforgettable debut novel, Sour Cherry, confronts age-old systems of gender and power, long-held excuses made for bad men, and the complicated reasons we stay captive to the monsters we love. Haunting and strangely beautiful….Theodoridou's lyrical prose takes otherwise disposable lines and turns them into poetry…. this hallucinatory novel is a sad, violent, horrible delight.-New York Times Book Review
Masterfully crafted… Like a magic eye picture, Sour Cherry is a horror or thriller when viewed at one angle but, tilted ever so slightly, it's a myth, legend or bedtime storyIt's a tale of buried pain personified as a curse, a beast, a pestilence that follows the family, the bloodline. The fairy tale style only serves to make the truths within it truer. Beautiful and harrowing…. With a writing style that had me mesmerized from the first page, Theodoridou has an amazing talent for storytelling that's so effective that the ending - while predictable and maybe even unavoidable - still stunned me and moved me to tears.
-Associated Press
Theodoridou's prose is precise and impressively controlled, often horrific and dark... Bluebeard may seem to be all over the literary landscape these days, but I'm pretty sure you've never seen one quite like this.-Locus
A scorching ghost story. . . . This dark allegory will linger in readers' minds.-Publishers Weekly
A modern fable masterpiece.-Chicago Review of Books, A Most Anticipated Book of 2025
Haunting. . . . simmers with dark enchantment and Gothic menace. . . The language is atmospheric and surprising. . . . the characters are inventive in chronicling nested fairy tales and unsettling metamorphoses-Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
Atmospheric. . . . a Bluebeard's Wife-esque fairy tale horror that questions monstrosity, masculinity, romance, and power…. deeply affecting and unsettling.-Reactor, A Most Anticipated SFF Book of 2025
Wholly original and really gorgeous.-Polygon
A vicious, beautiful piece of work that will cling to you like a ghost.-Den of Geeks
Haunting and unforgettable.-READJUMPSCARES
A folktale, a whisper, and a dream all at once, Theodoridou's debut is beautifully told in rhythmic, singing prose. Sour Cherry is unforgettable?one of my absolute favorites of the year.-Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls
If you love Kelly Link, Angela Carter, and Carmen Maria Machado, then Natalia Theodoridou is your new favorite author.
A Best Book of Summer by Barnes & Noble
"Harrowing . . . a fairytale for the ages, subverting the tale of Bluebeard to deconstruct the systems of gender, power, and the excuses people make for bad men." ―Chicago Review of Books
"A murder ballad sung in a dark room―it's slow, haunting and strangely beautiful." ―The New York Times Book Review
The tale begins with Agnes. After losing her baby, Agnes is called to the great manor house to nurse the local lord's baby boy. But something is wrong with the child: his nails grow too fast, his skin smells of soil, and his eyes remind her of the dark forest. As he grows into a boy, then into man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Trees wither at the roots, fruits rot on their branches, and the town turns against him. The man takes a wife, who bears him a son. But tragedy strikes in cycles and his family is forced to consider their own malignancy-until wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. The ghosts become a chorus, and they call urgently to our narrator as she tries to explain, in our very real world, exactly what has happened to her. The ghosts can all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
Natalia Theodoridou's haunting and unforgettable debut novel, Sour Cherry, confronts age-old systems of gender and power, long-held excuses made for bad men, and the complicated reasons we stay captive to the monsters we love. Haunting and strangely beautiful….Theodoridou's lyrical prose takes otherwise disposable lines and turns them into poetry…. this hallucinatory novel is a sad, violent, horrible delight.-New York Times Book Review
Masterfully crafted… Like a magic eye picture, Sour Cherry is a horror or thriller when viewed at one angle but, tilted ever so slightly, it's a myth, legend or bedtime storyIt's a tale of buried pain personified as a curse, a beast, a pestilence that follows the family, the bloodline. The fairy tale style only serves to make the truths within it truer. Beautiful and harrowing…. With a writing style that had me mesmerized from the first page, Theodoridou has an amazing talent for storytelling that's so effective that the ending - while predictable and maybe even unavoidable - still stunned me and moved me to tears.
-Associated Press
Theodoridou's prose is precise and impressively controlled, often horrific and dark... Bluebeard may seem to be all over the literary landscape these days, but I'm pretty sure you've never seen one quite like this.-Locus
A scorching ghost story. . . . This dark allegory will linger in readers' minds.-Publishers Weekly
A modern fable masterpiece.-Chicago Review of Books, A Most Anticipated Book of 2025
Haunting. . . . simmers with dark enchantment and Gothic menace. . . The language is atmospheric and surprising. . . . the characters are inventive in chronicling nested fairy tales and unsettling metamorphoses-Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
Atmospheric. . . . a Bluebeard's Wife-esque fairy tale horror that questions monstrosity, masculinity, romance, and power…. deeply affecting and unsettling.-Reactor, A Most Anticipated SFF Book of 2025
Wholly original and really gorgeous.-Polygon
A vicious, beautiful piece of work that will cling to you like a ghost.-Den of Geeks
Haunting and unforgettable.-READJUMPSCARES
A folktale, a whisper, and a dream all at once, Theodoridou's debut is beautifully told in rhythmic, singing prose. Sour Cherry is unforgettable?one of my absolute favorites of the year.-Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls
If you love Kelly Link, Angela Carter, and Carmen Maria Machado, then Natalia Theodoridou is your new favorite author.