Review: MADAPPLE by Christina Meldrum

I knew Madapple was controversial before I read it, and it is. But let me first share the things I liked about this book.

The literary agent who picked up Madapple, Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary Company, chooses books with a commercial concept and a literary voice. She picked up Maggie Striefvater’s Shiver before this. So I knew to expect a literary voice and I found it. The author, Christa Meldrum, must be a genius. I couldn’t believe how many paragraphs were full of poetic descriptions. And her knowledge of plants and herbs blew me away. This was my favorite part—it struck me because this is the same feeling one of my main characters feels about her ex-husband in my latest story and I wish I’d come up with this awesome comparison:

“How many times had I longed for Mother’s death? How many times had I imagined poisoning her with blue flag or corn cockle or jimsonweed? And now she is finally dead. And I feel dead, because I loved her. And because I was Mother’s marionette. Without her, what am I? Scraps of useless limbs and strings, with no one to hold me, direct my path.”

I also loved the court proceedings juxtaposed within the more detailed accounts of Aslaug’s life. Meldrum does so much show, show, show, that it was a great breather to read tell, tell, tell since everything in the court room was dialogue spilled out with dashes.

And now for what troubled me about the book. I thought about The Da Vinci code while reading this because it’s another novel that tries to explain away Christ’s divinity. The author talks of previous prophets and gods who did the same things Christ did before his birth, attempting to prove he could not be God’s son. And yet the story is about a girl who possibly had an immaculate conception and then the same thing happens to her daughter. This is a key question in the story and it isn’t ever really answered. I didn’t expect the author to answer this question and I’ve grown to like endings without too much closure, but part of me wonders what “was the point?”

I did get a little tired of some of the description, but I completely respect this author’s knowledge of biology and mythology (and of course her poetic language). And I absolutely adore the cover of this book.