Fruit of the Dead

A Novel

By: Rachel Lyon

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Joy Osmanski

* “Mesmerizing.” —Town & Country * “Twisty and unsettling.” —People * “Ancient Greece meets Succession by way of Emma Cline…deliciously dark.” —Ruth Gilligan *

A “superb…refreshing” (The New York Times Book Review) reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set on a lush private island, exploring themes of addiction and sex, family, independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld.

Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother’s disappointment, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is wealthy, divorced, and magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo offers her a job, Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and the opiates manufactured by his company, she tells herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help that only she can hear.

Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America’s late-capitalist mythos. Lyon’s reinvention of Persephone and Demeter’s story makes for a haunting, electric novel that listeners will not soon forget.

©2024 Rachel Lyon (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Awesome Book Let Down By Subpar Cory Narration

Rachel Lyon offers a thought provoking novel in this retelling of the Persephone myth that is weighed down by poor narration, specifically Carlotta Brentan's performance of the Cory sections. Those who listen to this book on audio are being prevented from accessing the best possible experience with this text.

I've seen books, such as Tania James's Loot, get re-recorded after being weighed down by poor narration, and I'm thinking Fruit of the Dead would benefit greatly to have the Cory sections re-performed. I'm sure Brentan is capable of better & if it isn't her who reperforms them then we all know there are no shortage of narrators who could get the job done.

Computer generated reader?

I did not care for narrators-both sounded like they were computer generated. The way they pronounced words sounded wrong. I lost interest in parts because of the monotonous reading. Story itself was OK albeit predictable.

The narrator of Cory is annoying

I tried to get into this book, but it was meh at best and it didn’t help that that narrator of the character Cory was super annoying. Had to speed it up to make it less annoying.

A pretty faithful retelling

It has the same vibes as myths and is pretty slow like them as well. But I liked it

Imaginative and Beautiful Reimagining

I finished this book and had full body chills! Wow. An intelligent, beautiful, and gut wrenching reimagining of Persephone and Demeter.

I am delighted to have stumbled across this author and plan to read more of her work! The artistry of her words will stay with me.

Just ok

This book was ok. Someone I love recommended it so I had Follow through and finish it. The narration really irritated me at first to the point I didn’t know if I could finish because the girl has a slight accent that comes out every so often and it was throwing me off. The story itself is very mediocre in my opinion, but had a lot of potential. This story would’ve been incredible if someone else wrote it. It was very interesting with the two different perspectives from mother to daughter. The end had a tiny itty bitty twist but nothing stand-out ish.

What the actual heck did I listen to?

Honestly wish I could delete this listening experience from my memory. I appreciate the “message” author tried to proffer but honestly, it was just so lifeless and depressing and disturbing.

Great promise of a story does not hold up

Some descriptions in every chapter read like a list of chores. The language of the characters is quite unimaginative.