Sour Cherry
core novel 2025 Sour Cherry
Record
| First published | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.49 (4,113 ratings, collected 2026-08-19) |
| Page count | 312 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781963108194 |
Synopsis
Sour Cherry is a retelling of the Bluebeard fairy tale told through two interwoven narratives. An unnamed stage actress, whose own career centers on performing stories about violent men, tells her young son a dark fairy tale about a boy born in a grand house with sharp nails and pointed teeth, seemingly cursed from birth and blamed for blight and misfortune in his village as he grows. As the fairy tale develops alongside the actress's own life story, including her history with an abusive father figure, the novel weaves the two threads together to examine how the stories people tell about violent men shape, excuse or fail to explain the harm those men go on to cause, asking throughout whether such figures are born monstrous or made that way by the world around them.
Where it sits
- Universe: Sour Cherry
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Natalia Theodoridou
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award for Best Novel (Best Novel), 2025: finalist; Confirmed directly via nebulas.sfwa.org's own nominated-work page; did not win (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, already admitted, won that year).
Sources
- Rating-platform listing: Sour Cherry
- Nebula Awards (SFWA): Sour Cherry nominated work page
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/natalia-theodoridou/sour-cherry/
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