Sour Cherry

By: Natalia Theodoridou

Narrated by: Erifyli Gigante

“A folktale, a whisper, and a dream all at once.”—Rory Power, author of Wilder Girls

“If you love Kelly Link, Angela Carter, and Carmen Maria Machado, then Natalia Theodoridou is your new favorite author.”—Benjamin Percy, author of The Ninth Metal

A stunning reimagining of Bluebeard—one of the most mythologized serial killers—twisted into a modern tale of toxic masculinity, a feminist sermon, and a folktale for the twenty-first century.

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.

©2025 Natalia Theodoridou (P)2025 Headline Publishing Group Limited

Oooooh! So good.

I loved the book; it was captivating and the way the author built the characters’ mythology was powerful and consuming. A truly poetic body of work. The narrator has a beautiful voice that pulls you and right into the tale.

excellent storytelling

Excellent storytelling and narration. well paced. The author author managed to make an old fantastical story shockingly relevant to modern domestic life.

Bad

Incredibly boring. So boring. It seemed endless and repetitive. The ending is anticlimactic. Skip this one.

Repetitive and Boring

This is maybe the most disappointing book I have ever subjected myself to. Endless description that repeated over and over again without a plot to give it any substance or meaning. I kept listening because I thought there had to be something interesting or rewarding to tie it together or give me some insight. Instead it was a looong slow slog through a really boring half story. I think the author fancies themself an artist with words but I just found it to be nine hours of utter disappointment.