Black River Orchard Review

I didn’t know I needed a book about a spooky farmer’s market, but apparently, I did. Let’s get into my review of Black River Orchard.

Synopsis

It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples . . . and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

Even if something else is buried in the orchard besides the seeds of these extraordinary trees: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. It’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.

My Thoughts on Black River Orchard

Black River Orchard was an experience. And by experience, I mean a fever dream. It’s probably the most unique horror story that I’ve ever read, and it would take a lot to top it. I didn’t know an apple could be so creepy, but Chuck Wendig pulled it off.

Don’t go into this one thinking that it will be a fast-paced horror novel. You will surely be disappointed. The pace is slow bordering on meandering. It follows the growth cycle of the apple, and it builds tension along the way. It took a while to get through it, but I never lost interest. Honestly, for the first few chapters it almost felt more slice of life than horror. It follows a few characters through their daily lives so that we really see the impact it had on the characters. By the end of the story, they were completely different people.

One thing I did note was that some of the characters were better than others. A few have really rich, developed personalities, but others feel a little flat. It almost seemed like in his effort to be super diverse a few characters suffered and leaned almost toward stereotypical. But that mainly happened in the side characters though, so it wasn’t necessarily detrimental to the story.

And the last little thing that drove me crazy were the political rants mixed in the story. Now don’t get me wrong. Reading is political. As an author it is more than okay to share your political beliefs in your work but do it correctly. In this case a few of the rants were out of place and random. It let the author’s voice slip in just a little too much. It sort of had a man behind the current type feeling. Honestly, it pulled me out of the story just a little bit. It’s jarring to have a teenage character spouting out lines that sound like they’re coming straight from a political analyst. They just needed to blend into the story a bit better.

But overall, I could overlook those two issues because this book was just so innovative and intriguing. I guarantee if you read this, you’ll never look at an apple the same way again.

My Rating: 4/5