“Cherry Baby” by Bestelling Author Rainbow Rowell ~ Advance Book Review
Oh, the names!
Starting with the beloved, best-selling author’s moniker, Rainbow (!) ~ readers will surely appreciate the marquee names she’s bestowed on her star character, Cherry (Cherish) and her sisters: Honny (Honor), Joy, Faith, Hope. (There’s a familial meaning attached to each.)
This family of girls is BIG. Fat is a main character in Cherry Baby. The family are Big eaters ~ there’s lots of food moments from girnormous holiday menu prep to big family meals to early morning post coital treats in bed that will delight any food network enthusiast. The family is unabashedly fat; huge personalities to match. That they are so funny, adds a delightful confection to the story’s messy conflicts. The sister’s group texts alone give the novel a real-time buoyancy. Their needling and sisterly meddling makes you laugh and relate, while levitating the emotional drama of this second chance romance.
The novel is riveting ~ a very compelling story of intimacy, relationships, and self that hooks you from the first page. It’s complicated, but not.
I don’t think I’ve read a story line structured like this. It’s a true original.
Besides those side-splitting group texts, the novel uses back stories that provide rich nuance to the present, filling in the feelings and relationship dynamics that now drive the characters’ actions.
Here, I was also introduced to entirely new, dominant themes, mainly being fat. And to current issues that also address body image. Cherry’s sister Hope’s use of Mounjaro, a GLP-1 medication, serves up resentment with a side order of a wee bit of envy and bewilderment.
You have no time to marvel about the novelty of the book’s style though, (only us reviewers might engage in this) because the author takes you into Cherry’s world of heartbreak, resilience, and the struggles of how modern life ~ e.g. jobs, family, opportunities, responsibilities, self-image, love, forgiveness ~ can lead us into situations that most of feel are out of our control. It’s messy but it’s not.
We are in for a ride with the adult Cherry on her way to divorce from her now oh-so-famous husband, Tom, the creator of Thursday—a semi-autobiographical webcomic, turned bestselling graphic novel, turned into a widely popular series, and soon to be a film, who is now an international phenomenon. A reluctant one, but still…
(Initially I thought: “graphic novelist, that’s different.” The detailed descriptions of Tom’s artful work became clear when I read that Rowell has also written her first graphic novel, PUMPKINHEADS, and the monthly SHE-HULK comic for Marvel. The author’s familiarity with the genre makes it a rich platform and vehicle for the story’s action.)
Cherry is conflicted about Tom’s webcomic and her role as the inspiration for Baby ~ the featured character in Thursday, described as a "wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned" caricature.”
While Cherry wholeheartedly supports her husband and his art, she doesn’t read Tom’s popular webcomic. Is she manifesting avoidance?
What she can’t avoid is everyone recognizing Cherry from the cruel depiction in the webcomic series.
This dynamic creates what should be a red line for her. But it seems to me that her love for her husband allows her to indulge in a kind of willful denial ~ “If you ignore something, it doesn’t exist…”
But resolving what is her true identity is central to her and her marriage’s happiness. Does she resent Tom because he’s pursuing his dream while she hasn’t been able to live her passion of creating art, despite having been an art student?
Would she force Tom to explain or reconcile why he uses her in this way?
Do others see her as a fat cartoon? At one point she thinks she’s thought of as a “Garfield.”
The book ignites with Cherry rediscovering a high school heartthrob (who was her best friend’s boyfriend back then) and they soon become lovers in what seems to be a promising relationship and a good way for Cherry to move forward following her impending divorce from Tom.
While Tom is reluctantly pursuing his high-profile career leap in Hollywood, Cherry is back at their home in Omaha, trying to cobble together her next chapter while caring for their dog and working her less-than-fulfilling job. She’s despondent about the future but resolute in her intent to keep her job in marketing at the railroad ~ where she met Tom ~ and to move on.
Having run into an old friend and crush, Russ, who confesses that Cherry was really the one he wanted to be with all along, and has big plans for the two of them, the reader can’t help but think this will be her new, happy life.
There are sexy encounters with both Russ and Tom which are very well presented ~ just enough spicy physicality, with dollops of true intimacy along with the couples’ sensory interactions ~ written with true tenderness.
I love how the author had me relating to Cherry’s fat body concerns without feeling sorry for her but rather getting to understand her true concern of how her partner felt about her. And truly, passionately, enjoying herself and the sex!
Notwithstanding the jerky high school boys she tells us about, we learn that the men in her life just love her body. She’s deservedly proud of that.
Cherry’s glad-to-be-fat mantra that is the very definition of her personality, movingly and creatively conveyed by the author in a “so there/I double dare you to make fun of me and not love me the way I am.” Further, Cherry doesn’t allow anyone to even hint at her need to lose weight.
This is Cherry’s super power. Rowell has written her in a truly engaging, convincing way that rather defies popular, conventional attitudes.
If I have a wee small bone to pick with the logistics of the story it is that Cherry is so strong and seemingly in command of the things that are within her ability to manage in her world, yet she seems to cry so very much. While I readily admit that I’m a complete cry baby, there just seemed to be moments in the book when Cherry didn’t need to be crying. It is at odds with her personality. Moreover it contrasts with the tender, honest, intimate dialogue Cherry has with Russ, Tom, and even her highly spirited dog, Stevie Nicks, (who is hilariously described as looking more like Gene Simmons when she and Tom purchased her.)
My heart melted when Cherry looked at Stevie at one point, and in her overwhelming sadness looks into the dog’s mournful eyes, describing what she sees is as if a human got trapped in there, like in a sci-fi film. Who hasn’t looked into a dog’s eyes and experienced such a soulful reflection. This is an example of the emotional depth Rowell delivers…
Reading the book, I felt I was on a kind of teeter-totter. I thought she and Russ would get to a happy-ever-after. Then, Tom came back to move his things out and I thought he was the disrupter, getting in the way of Russ and Cherry getting back together after they had a falling out over, you guessed it, Baby and weight issues.
The story is layered. There’s the romances, family dynamics, and then there’s the self- identity issues that all three main characters struggle with.
This element threads through the book as a prism; we can see Cherry’s anxieties and Baby’s persona through their lens’.
The novel’s twists unfold like a flower’s petals and you’re embracing the honest complexity of their situations. You are so very emotionally invested that you can’t put it down. The book is that compelling.
You may not agree with the choices made but you can readily identify with the personalities; you are emotionally tethered to the straightforward, sparkly dialogue of the characters. It’s all so engaging; you find yourself, doubtless, rooting for love. And as the author writes: “Loving yourself enough to believe that someone else might, too.”
I truly enjoyed this book. Reading it totally replaced my streaming series nightly ritual. I wanted ~ no needed ~ to know what was going to happen. No spoiler I hope, but the ending was a bit abrupt. But then… I pondered that it concluded in a good, provocative way that will leave you discussing and dissecting with your friends and book club.
The writing style is so refreshing, intimate, and revelatory. It’s an emotional journey and makes you believe in second chances.
You’ll embrace this big, beautiful novel ~ and Cherry Baby.
This book should be on your Want to Read list, and your holiday gift list.
Cherry Baby comes out April, 2026 and is now available for preorder or wherever you get your books.
Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Harper Collins for the ARC (Advanced Review Copy)
