I had high expectations for this book. It came highly recommended by NPR and other trusted literary sources. I hated it. A lot. A whole lot. The whole time I was reading it, I kept waiting to like it, to like something about it, but it never happened. It was like when I went to see that horror movie, The Ring, that was supposed to be so scary; I kept waiting to get scared, and then the credits rolled, with me still waiting. If this book had been written by a South American author, it would be called magical realism. Young Rose suddenly develops an ability to taste the emotions of whoever makes her food. It begins, as the title suggests, with a lemon cake made by Rose's mother. The mother seems happy and bubbly but is secretly depressed. It gets to the point where Rose mostly eats highly processed foods made in big factories by machine. She also has a weird genius older brother who I think is supposed to be gay. Rose has a crush on her brother's best and only friend. Rose, because of her weird food thing and other hang-ups, never really makes a life for herself. Rose's older brother falls apart and begins disappearing.
There's never really much of a plot. Rose is annoying and pathetic. Her brother is also annoying and pathetic, both in their own special ways. I'm not really sure what the big hype about this book is.
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