Sure, there have been books where I've laughed, cried, and been frustrated at different points as I read it (HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS comes to mind) - but to experience them all at once at the end of a book? Never. Never before have I read a book that left me feeling that way after finishing it. I was ready to laugh, to cry, and to scream in frustration. I finished reading MADAPPLE last night and, for the first time ever, I sat staring at the book in shock. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in a challenging and interesting read.

That being said, the book never comes off as preachy. I'm not a religious person, so the views some characters had about paganism, Christianity, and virgin birth didn't bother me, but there are definitely challenges to those with deeply held beliefs. The straight-forward, spares, and largely emotionless chapters of the trial (set in the present) are a nice balance to the emotional and richly written chapters accounting her past leading up to the trial. The story alternates every chapter between Aslaug's first-person narrative of her life living with her mother in the woods, and then aunt and cousins after her mother's death, and her on trial for the accused murders of her aunt and cousin. Weaving in broad topics of nature, religion, and mysticism, child abuse, and kidnapping, 'Madapple' is about a young girl named Aslaug. 'Madapple' is a surprising novel when i picked it up, I did not expect the book I ended up reading, and I was happily surprised.

Madapple book