The Particular Strangeness of A Gift

What do your taste buds tell you? Do they reveal the ingredients and seasonings used in a recipe? Do they give you insight to the cook’s secrets? Can you tell whether food tastes extremely good or horrible? Well, a young lady tasted sadness in a slice of lemon cake on her 9^th birthday. Ever since then, she’s had the gift and the curse of tasting feelings. That’s right. She can taste the cook’s feelings in whatever dish they prepared.

Her discoveries and perspective of people deeply impact her. I just wish Rose would have used this gift to her advantage. She could have possibly saved lives and offered counseling to those depressed. We also find out that her brother has a special story of his own. The siblings both have trouble embracing their strange gifts. There were so many other avenues the author could’ve taken the characters, but the story went elsewhere.

I’m not usually into reading books about extraordinary powers or magical realism. Because I am new to this genre, there were a couple head scratching, bbm confused face moments. If you aren’t already familiar with or open to this genre, it is not the book for you. I’d also like to mention the strange omission of quotation marks throughout the book. It was hard to decipher actual dialogue from someone’s thoughts. Nevertheless, Aimee Bender’s strange prose is still enchanting and creative.

Literary Marie's Rating: ♥♥♥