The day after the funeral all our mourning clothes hung out on the line like sleeping bats. ‘This will be really embarrassing,’ I kept saying to my family, ‘when she shows up at the door in a week or two.’
When Deena’s wild and mysterious sister Mandy disappears – presumed dead – her family are heartbroken. But Mandy has always been troubled. It’s just another bad thing to happen to Deena’s family. Only Deena refuses to believe it’s true.
And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family’s blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions – but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse’s roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family’s rotten past – or rip it apart forever.
Title: All the Bad Apples
Author: Moira Fowley-Doyle
Publisher: Penguin
Date: August 27, 2019
Genre: YA Mystery, Magical Realism
I’ve been aware of Moira Fowley-Doyle’s work for a little while after hearing her name for the first time at YALC and reading her work in the Proud anthology, a collection of short stories, poetry and artwork centred around the theme of LGBTQ+ pride.
But it wasn’t until my friends over at The Little Contemporary Corner chose her book, All the Bad Apples, for their LGBTQ+ book club that I decided to pick up one of her books. I went into it without much of an idea of the plot or whether other people enjoyed it, which I think is the best way to read books!
The story, genre & tone
All the Bad Apples follows Deena, an Irish teenager who thinks she might be gay. She tells her sister Mandy, which leads her to learn about a supposed curse that has been in her family for generations. When Mandy disappears, Deena must go off in search of her sister, and on her journey she discovers her family’s dark roots.
The book has a mysterious, almost sinister tone that gave me goosebumps. Any book that is told through mysterious letters and tells a story of a dark, twisted past is enough to make me want to keep reading!
I don’t usually read things that are horror-like, but since reading Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand, I’ve wanted to read this sort of book more and more. It has a magical realism element that I’ve come to really love over the past few months, and I couldn’t put it down.
One of the things I’ve come to love about the magical realism genre is how you often can’t tell is a story actually does contain magic or if it’s symbolic of something happening in the real world or inside the characters’ heads, and this book definitely had that element of uncertainty and mystery.
LGBTQ+ themes
If you know me, you’ll know that I love books that have LGBTQ+ themes. This book explores sexuality in a way that feels completely unique: it is symbolised throughout the book as a curse (a curse of the “bad apples” of the family) that must be broken, but is ultimately overcome and the characters feel stronger for it.
It’s interesting to see the different LGBTQ+ relationships throughout the history of Deena’s family, and how several generations of intense trauma have affected their views of sexuality today. It’s definitely one that makes you think and stays with you long after turning the last page.
Why you should read this book
You’ll love this book if you like a story filled with intrigue and mystery, magical realism, complex characters that you really feel a lot for, and a strong moral element that makes you think about the issues that the book is exploring, which often uses symbolism to tell a greater story. All the Bad Apples is a book that explores LGBTQ+ themes in Ireland in a unique, magical, and heartbreaking way, and it’s a must-read for everyone.
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