'Peach' by Emma Glass

Saturday 21 July 2018

Peach by Emma Glass on Wooden Floor

This debut novel from Emma Glass immerses the reader in Peach’s personal hell in a agonising space between fear, reality and the absurd. The short novel follows Peach after a horrendous trauma as it bypasses all of those who surround her in a fractured reality that reads like poetry and descends into physical and palpable horror.

Every time I have picked up ‘Peach’ I have read it in one sitting and no part of me wants to deter you from this all-consuming reading experience by spoiling it in this blog.

Peach by Emma Glass on a white background

We the reader are guided through a nightmare surreal landscape by Peach in all her attempts to recover and move on from an out of novel event. But it is never that simple, through all her pain no one else notices, her parents are engrossed in their new born baby and plenty of noisy sex. Peach is left to fix herself. Alone in her room with her sewing kit and Glass’s incredible use of language we are tied to the page, unable to look away or stop reading.

'Slip the pin through the skin. Start stitching. It doesn’t sting. It does bleed. White thread turns red. Red string. Going in. Going out. I pull. Tug. Tug the pin. In. Out. Out. Out. Blackout.’

Peach by Emma Glass on white background

‘Peach’ is driven by the senses, from the repetition and invasive sounds to the stomach wrenching smells and textures that provoke visceral reactions. The most prominent is Peach’s attacker, described as fat and meat wrapped like an oily sausage. The stench of burnt meat gripping in her nose dislocating us from what is real and how she is translating her pain. Following with Peach encompassing the fleshy fruit more and more and rotting like a fresh peach would as she continues to suffer and disintegrate. ‘Hatred coats my tongue. Fuzz on bad fruit.'

Glass’s debut novel ‘Peach’ demonstrates her art of language, bringing poetry into prose and adding texture through words unlike anything i’ve ever read before. I have attempted to keep away from the plot of ‘Peach’ and can only urge you to pick it up, find a few hours and completely immerse yourself in it.

Peach by Emma Glass on a white background

Pick up your copy of 'Peach' here.

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