The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Review by Haleigh Ehmsen
In this novel, Rose Edelstein at the age of nine discovers that she can taste emotions in food. While eating birthday cake baked by her mother, she tastes her mother’s sadness. She starts a diet of pre-packaged snack food and finds out she also knows where it was made. For example, Oreos come from a factory in New York. She tries to avoid eating her mother’s meals as often as she can but one night while nibbling on some spaghetti she uncovers her mother’s affair at work. From then on she feels distant from her family, especially her brother who often disappears. This novel is very intriguing and kept me interested through to the end. It made me wonder, What would Rose taste in a meal I prepared?
