Bitter Orange Kindle Edition

I have to admit that the writing is decent, but the author lost me as a reader when the main character (Frances) threw rocks at a starving cat that had swiped some food from her shopping bag. I couldn't get past this. I decided that I intensely disliked Frances, who is described repeatedly as being overweight and would've benefited from sharing her food, and I no longer cared what happened to her. Animal cruelty is the one thing that will always make me stop reading and return a book. Also, there is a long and horrifying scene about a fox with its leg caught in a trap. I'm always glad when someone provides a review alerting readers about animal suffering/cruelty, so I hope to return the favor.

Claire Fuller's moody and arresting novel, "Bitter Orange", beautifully reveals and ultimately resolves, the story told by Frances Jellico as she lies dying. Frances, through Fuller's luscious prose, narrates what happened to her during a few weeks in the summer of 1969, just after her mother, an invalid, dies; Frances having nursed her for ten years. With her sudden freedom, 39 year old and socially inexperienced, Frances, take a job evaluating and reporting on the gardens of an English manor house called Lyntons. Frances meets, and is immediately beguiled by, Peter and Cara, who have come to evaluate the contents of Lyntons for its American buyer. Frances also meets the local vicar, named Victor, who is facing a crisis of faith. These are the first friends Frances has ever had.There are only 5 characters in "Bitter Orange" and one of them is Lyntons itself; a crumbling decaying ruin of a rambling atmospheric mansion. Although there are whiffs of Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier, and Charlotte Bronte, here...Fuller is to take full credit for the measured suspense, the disquiet, the perfect pacing of the story. We know that we aren't getting the "full picture" from either Frances or Cara, but expect twists! Inconsistencies will be resolve, and juicy mysteries will be revealed; I couldn't put "Bitter Orange" down until the shocking end.If you'll indulge me on a mini-review of the cover art: while the vivid oranges and greens of the cover painting are gorgeous (oranges are indeed a recurring metaphor throughout the novel), if I were choosing the cover I would have selected a moody and darkish watercolor or blurry photo of an old Palladian bridge through the trees - more gothic than garish.

This was a richly atmospheric and unsettling novel. I found it to be incredibly depressing and heart wrenching. Claire Fuller has a wonderful writing style and it felt like I was reading an old classic, not contemporary fiction.Frances Jellico goes to live in the attic of Lyntons, a rundown mansion in the English countryside, to work and document her findings. She quickly becomes fascinated with the couple living in the rooms below her. She realizes that she has a peephole in her bathroom, and can watch their lives unfold. As the summer continues, Frances befriends Cara and Peter, and quickly learns that all is not right in their complicated relationship.Peter and Cara are the first friends Frances has ever had in her 39 years, making her an extremely vulnerable and heartbreaking character. I felt so much unease as I read the book, and I was not prepared for the devastating ending. I love Claire Fuller's beautiful writing, and I will read whatever she publishes.

I did enjoy this book, it has all the ingredients of a popular formula - a woman looks back at the one golden summer of her life, the only time she was loved and had friends. Ingredients include a romantic sinister setting, food, alcohol, a few cryptic notes, some secret spying, an unreliable narrator and some star-crossed lovers. However the formula is not well-executed, because I didn't get much of an image of the house compared to Manderley (Rebecca), for example, which I could navigate tomorrow if I found myself there. Also for people who sat around talking so much about their past (or imaginary past) they didn't put much thought into their actions on the day.There are a few missing links in the story. Frances, the narrator, had presumably gone her whole life without making a friend and there's no real reason for this apart from an unpleasant mother. For someone so isolated without much education, she somehow is offered a job that requires some specialist expertise, demonstrating that she must have had some level of confidence and drive... but nothing of that is shown. There's no logic to why she is suddenly so comfortable with these strange neighbours, when she must have had neighbours and schoolmates in the past. Also why was she so passive about what was clearly going on with all those beautiful objects? As it's a familiar formula, just a few extra sentences here or there might have smoothed out the logic.The other thing that bothered me was the timeline. Frances was 39 in the story's opening, yet 20 years later, it sounds like she's on her deathbed as an elderly woman. It's a long way to the end of the story to figure out that detail. I think the story would have been more logical if she had been reminiscing on her sickbed from 40 years later.SPOILER ALERT:I don't know how she got permission to be buried where she was, after all those years and in those circumstances!!

The book seemed so intriguing and while the writing was good, the story unfortunately lacked...everything. From the characters to the actual story, nothing much happened. I read to the very end hoping that there would be some pay off, some action or secret revealed. The couple of "surprises" that were there seemed to be forced upon the two dimensional characters in a most underwhelming way.

Sitting down with what I thought was going to be a delicious read was a big disappointment. The characters didn't feel authentic nor did I believe the connections that were presented between them rang true. I felt there was some lovely description but the story didn't work for me. I would take a pass even if you are a Claire Fuller fan.

Not for the first time, having read a Claire Fuller book I immediately started to re-read it, conscious that in urgent pursuit of the story I may have missed something of its delivery. Which I had. The narrator, Frances Jellico amost broke my heart with her social ineptitude, her yearning to have and to be a friend, her self-consciousness, and yet her lack of self consciousness, as evidenced by the cardboard hat made for church attendance, her hopeless over-dressing for her first dinner with her neighbours, and the outfit that she wore to dine out with Peter. His supposedly well-meaning remark "don't worry that people were staring at your outfit tonight" seemed like an exquisite act of cruelty almost. The relationship between the narrator and the mis-matched couple, who seemed desperate to play out their intimate lives in front of a relative stranger, seemed fraught with danger. Had Frances been a more confident 'together' person, would they have pursued her friendship? I doubt that. The ending was shocking and unfair, and it came too soon. Well done, Claire Fuller. A sensitive and perceptive work.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Claire Fuller's style of writing. This is one of the few authors who produces writing that makes you need to 're-read only to discover even more depth the second time around. Bitter Orange's quirky main characters have so much hidden depth it left me wanting to understand their back stories just a little more than is given away. Just when you think you understand were the story is going, in comes another twist. I read this book with ever changing emotions for the main characters. Be prepared for something between compassion and disgust. The best book I have read in 2018.

Great book. Super fast delivery. Thank you.

If ever there was an illustration of why three into two don’t go – because there’s always one left over – then Bitter Orange is it. Told in a series of flashbacks by a narrator whose memory (or truthfulness) cannot necessarily be relied on, the events of one momentous summer are gradually revealed to the reader. Only towards the end of the book does the true nature of what occurred and its consequences become clear in what, to this reader at least, came as a startling revelation.Arriving at Lyntons, Frances is friendless, the product of a solitary upbringing who has has spent recent years solely responsible for the round the clock care of her sick mother, now deceased. She is immediately drawn to the two other occupants of the house who seem keen to welcome her into their lives. However, the relationship between Peter and Cara is a curious one – at times, intense and passionate, at other times, fractious. There are things about their relationship that don’t ring true or seem to be part of some sort of performance being put on just for Frances. Becoming confidante to Cara, Frances begins to suspect the secrets Cara reveals to her may be either fantasies or beliefs she has convinced herself of in order to wipe out the memory of past trauma.I loved how the house with its air of dilapidation, decay and abandonment became an unsettling background presence to the story being played out within its crumbling walls with their peeling wallpaper, under its leaky rooftops and in its expanse of overgrown gardens and neglected buildings. It injected a real Gothic feel to the story, making Frances’ strange imaginings seem somehow possible. A toilet flushing in the night, scary? The author managed to make it so!The book explores the idea of the need, indeed compulsion, to do penance for past deeds – both actions and failures to act – and how not everything is what it seems (like the bitter oranges of the title). As it turns out, small actions can have unintended and tragic consequences.

I don't usually read literary fiction because I struggle with the lack of plot, however many of my fellow crime authors praised this title so I bought it to see what all the fuss was about. It is obvious that Fuller became a published author through an English literature or creative writing degree and not as many do through experiential genre writing because it is rich, flawless, taut and tempered writing that has a very fluid plot. By that I mean, as a reader, I expected the book to lead me to a conclusion that involved a crime, and guessed it would involve the murder of someone. However, I found this title more of a psychological exploration. Hence why I've listed it as a literary thriller. The suspense and tension one would expect from such a novel is there, but because of Claire's literary knowledge I found it did not contain the the typical arcs associated with genre fiction. Although her writing is engrossing, observational, and descriptive, Bitter Orange is more of a slow-burning character study on the lead up to a crime rather than a lengthy prose-filled (padded) investigation into how or why the protagonist does what they do. Although I was pleasantly surprised to find that the individuals motivation was revealed and was authentic to them and plausible in reality. The end is neatly tied and I enjoyed the journey.