The novel Dietland by Sarai Walker (she/her) totally changed my world when it came out in 2015. Here we are, seven years later, and you can bet my expectations were high for Walker’s new novel, The Cherry Robbers. Pitched as a story about the Chapel family, who made their riches on gun manufacturing during the Civil War, The Cherry Robbers synopsis suggests it’s a ghost story. The mother of the family is haunted by those killed with a Chapel gun. “Ooooh, a ghost story. I love it!” I thought as I bought the hardcover novel.
The novel opens in 2017. Famous living painter Sylvia Wren is home alone in New Mexico while her life partner is in Brazil. New Mexico, painter — I’m getting Georgia O’Keeffe vibes. A total recluse, little is known about Sylvia, and her fan mail is handled by her partner (when she’s home). But when Sylvia decides to get her own mail one day, she opens a letter from a journalist who claims to know who Sylvia really is: the famous daughter who disappeared in the 1950s, Iris Chapel, last living child of the Chapel family. How dare some journalist threaten Sylvia! The letters keep coming, and Sylvia decides to let her story out, but on her own terms. And thus we get the three blue diaries.
The majority of The Cherry Robbers is about the Chapel daughters. Their father is always working, and largely uninvolved. Their mother, Belinda, has screaming terrors much of the night, a condition she’s had since birth. For as far back as she’s aware, the women in Belinda’s family have given birth to a daughter and died in the process. Thinking she can avoid the same fate, Belinda remains unmarried much of young adulthood until her brother confirms he will no longer support her. Get married, or get in the gutter, seem to be the options. Belinda marries into the Chapel family, and her husband feels it is her duty to let him have sex with her. Six daughters are born, and still Belinda lives.
Then, when her eldest turns twenty, Belinda predicts a horrible future, like some sort of clairvoyant: the Chapel daughters cannot get married or they will die. One by one, the Chapel sisters get married (or have sex; see the title) and die. Narrator Iris Chapel (Sylvia in the present) is the 5th out of six sisters, and so she must endure death after death, people calling her mother crazy, and her father in denial.
While The Cherry Robbers is totally readable, Walker gave away too much in the beginning. Because we know Sylvia is 80-something in the present, the story loses tension. She must have escaped, she must not have married or had sex with a man at any point, she must not have birthed children. Thus, as the sister ahead of Iris dies, I had no fear that she, too, would come under threat. In a way, the story grows predictable: meet some random guy, fall in love in two months, get married, die after the wedding night. Where’s the subversive nature of Dietland? Where is the deeper message about women having to rely on men for security? And goodness, where are the ghosts?? I’m starting to think that ghostly Gothic synopsis was a PR hook.
I actually wanted more about the mother’s family, especially the part about the Chapel father telling Belinda that she must give herself to him sexually, as it is her duty. That part is so brief, but I almost wonder if marital rape is his crime and the death of his daughters upon first sexual experience with a man is punishment. It’s in the book, but for a 420-page novel, it is such a small, small part.
Although it’s an interesting novel, The Cherry Robbers leaves many questions that get lost in plot holes.
CW: self-harm, attempted suicide, marital sexual coercion.
Grab the Lapels 
That’s a beautiful cover. When you stated the synopsis, I was all into it! Then, reading your review, I’ve lost any interest because as you stated, not as advertised. Too bad it was predictable and disappointing. 😦
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There is a movie on Amazon called Winchester that sounds like the same synopsis, and while I have not yet watched it, I think Winchester delivers on the ghosts! Sarah Winchester, a real person, thought she was actually haunted by those killed with the family’s brand of gun.
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We were supposed to go to the Winchester house when we were out in San Jose, but it just never happened. D:
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In the book the house is in, like, Maine or something, and the character moves to New Mexico. Interesting…
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Took some liberties looks like.
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I started this weeks ago, got to the part where she gets the letter from the journalist, and then set it down and haven’t picked it back up yet. That doesn’t bode well. 😕 I will probably give it another 30 pages or so but if it doesn’t grab me I’m DNF-ing. Too many books! I loved Dietland passionately too. High expectations here as well.
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It’s odd that Sylvia is based on Georgia O’Keeffe and Iris’s mother, Bianca, is based on Sarah Winchester. Why pull so heavily on real people? The author acknowledges these connection at the end of the book.
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If the works of this author are anything like the Windows operating system, each life changing experience will be followed by an underwhelming experience. Here’s hoping this is the Millennium Edition of books and the next one she writes will be so awesome you won’t even need another one for over a decade.
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😐 ……. Okay, you have a point.
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Interesting review! I’m not so keen on ghosts but I like the marriage/sex/children curse idea so I might check this one out anyway. Thanks for flagging that the blurb is a bit misleading!
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You’re welcome!
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420 pages is a big commitment, especially if you know from the start how things are going to end up and you’re just reading to see the process of them getting that way. There are authors who can pull it off and I like the working backwards device when it’s done well, but I think it’s a tricky thing to get right.
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True! 420 pages did feel overly long. Biscuit and I were talking about what if we did know Sylvia is Iris from the first couple of chapters, or what if there were hints that it ended differently. Or what if the story were told from the perspective of someone who lived in the town instead of in the family, etc.
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My immediate thought was that a character haunted by the victims of their family’s gun manufacturing would be a fascinating and very timely book. But this sounds like something entirely different. Something different that could have also been interesting and timely but seems to have fallen flat. I do like that cover though.
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I learned that there is a movie called Winchester that is the synopsis of The Cherry Robbers. I’m going to watch it soon! It’s on Amazon. So, weird that there is a movie and a book with a similar synopsis, but the book doesn’t follow through and the movie, a horror flick with ghosts, apparently does.
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How strange. Are they connected in any way or just a coincidence? Let us know if the movie follows the premise any better!
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I will! I plan to watch it this week.
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