Book Review: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Summary: On her ninth birthday, Rose takes a bite of her mother's homemade lemon cake. With that bite Rose tastes her mothers emotions. That piece of cake shows Rose the thoughts of despair and depression of her always cheerful mother. Stuck with this magical gift, Rose tastes the emotions of her family that they've kept hidden the most. But some family secrets are too much for even her taste buds to handle. 


Review: I've had this book out from the library for a while and I finally got to read it! The cover is so pretty and the story sounded really interesting with a girl who can taste the emotions of the person who made the food she eats. When I actually read it though, I was kind of let down. The storyline was interesting enough, but I didn't really connect with Rose. I couldn't really follow her line of thinking and why she sometimes acted the way she did. At times, I felt like she never really grew up even though more than ten years pass throughout the book. The story was often jumpy, going from the present to past events with no real transition. Rose was a really interesting character and I think she was the only character I liked, even though I couldn't connect with her that much. I had absolutely no idea what was going on with her brother or what happened to him. The explanation was really weird and I just couldn't follow what was going on in Rose's mind. This book was very unique in it's story and characters, but the interesting ideas didn't come together in the story as well as I wanted it to.