An NPR Best Book of the Year
“Unsettling and eerie, Bitter Orange is an ideal chiller.” —Time Magazine
From the author of Our Endless Numbered Days and Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange is a seductive psychological portrait, a keyhole into the dangers of longing and how far a woman might go to escape her past.
From the attic of Lyntons, a dilapidated English country mansion, Frances Jellico … far a woman might go to escape her past.
From the attic of Lyntons, a dilapidated English country mansion, Frances Jellico sees them—Cara first: dark and beautiful, then Peter: striking and serious. The couple is spending the summer of 1969 in the rooms below hers while Frances is researching the architecture in the surrounding gardens. But she’s distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she finds a peephole that gives her access to her neighbors’ private lives. To Frances’s surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to get to know her. It is the first occasion she has had anybody to call a friend, and before long they are spending every day together: eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes until the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. Frances is dazzled. But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don’t quite add up, and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the glamorous, hedonistic couple, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur. Amid the decadence, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand their lives forever.more
A rich, dark pressure cooker of a novel that simmers with slow heat and suppressed tension.
I bought this book in hardback because the cover is so gorgeous. This story is exquisitely creepy. It starts in the present with Frances’s imminent death and the mysterious indication that she needs to confess to something. Straight away there is mention of a mysterious Judas hole and pinking bathwater – something terrible has happened. Then the story flips back to Frances in the attic at Lyntons where she is staying to survey the garden architecture, desperately hoping to find evidence of a Palladian bridge.
When Frances meets Cara and Peter her life changes. Peter is there to take an inventory of the contents of the house. Awkward and gauche Frances is bewitched by Cara and Peter and they enable her to re-invent herself. It’s Fran’s awakening – she’s never eaten pasta or drunk grappa and she casts off her girdle and learns all about wine. But Frances’s awful and sheltered childhood at Dollis Hill leads to much misunderstanding. I clung to the scenes with the lovely Victor as he felt like he was giving safe narration whilst Cara and Frances couldn’t be trusted. I relished the descriptions of the orangery, the bitter orange tree of the title, the peacock wallpaper and the stuffed grizzly bear. I love how Fuller keeps drip-feeding secret after secret and, after the final revelation, I was left reeling. Dark and utterly mesmerising.
I ended up reading half the book in one evening. Yes, I stayed up too late but had to finish it.
On her deathbed, Frances Jellico believes she is being pressured by a Vicar to tell the truth of what really happened over a hot summer in 1969 when she was hired to evaluate the gardens of a crumbling 1740s c. English country house.
At thirty-nine. Frances had led a narrow life caring for her incapacitated, critical, and recently deceased mother. Grateful for the work, Frances arrived at the house to discover a man about her age and a younger women already staying there. Peter was hired to evaluate the house and furnishings. His companion Cara is beautiful and emotionally unstable. Frances is curious about their lives.
“I know of course right from wrong. My father, Luther Jellico, had instilled it into me before he left and then Mother had continued in her way: payment will always be due for any wrongdoing, don’t lie or steal, don’t talk to strange men, don’t speak unless spoken to, don’t look your mother in the eye, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t expect anything from life.” from Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
The house showed abuse and destruction from the soldiers stationed there during WWII, rooms empty and everything in disrepair. Strange things happen in the house, including the interactions between a protective Peter and volatile Cara.
Peter and Cara draw Frances into their carefree existence, setting aside their work for picnics with wine and smoking cigarettes and even a nude swim. Cara tells Frances her tragic story while Peter asks Frances to help him keep tabs on the mercurial Cara.
The local Vicar warns Frances to escape their influence.
It is too late, for these people are caught in a web of lies and fantasy that unravels with fatal consequences. And Frances accepts that “Payment will always be due.”
A slow beginning, but then it picked up and I couldn’t put it down. Fuller is a master of misdirection, and managed to surprise me, which isn’t easy to do. Psychologically suspenseful and very well written.
meh
I had to force myself to finish this book. I didn’t find anything redeeming about the story or characters.
DNF
The ending pissed me off but that’s just me.
Complex story and characters. It’s not a simple read..and it’s a very slow process to uncover the point of the story (and I loved the thought processes and thinking required of the reader to appreciate this book)! I suggest it to those who like or want to think about a read once in a while.
Two women from different backgrounds work together to change their lives.
Like Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Bitter Orange sings, enchants, haunts. If not for Claire Fuller’s stunning language and mastery of control, I’d have succumbed to the temptation to blaze through these pages just to see how the suspense resolves. A beautiful novel.
Well-written.
A trio of appraisers and evaluators stay in a historic manor house for 4 weeks. The main character, a woman, is smart but socially maladjusted and the other 2 have their own issues. Everything, and I mean everything, goes south, people reveal their true natures, and the ending is a real shocker.
Bitter Orange reminded me of Summer days when I was a child. I could head out into the woods for an adventure, go swimming all day, or laze around the house eating random things from the cupboard. Claire Fuller perfectly captured the feeling of lazy summer days where you don’t have a care in the world.
And the descriptions of the dilapidated mansion and grounds had me wishing I was there with Cara, Frances, and Peter exploring a secret world. Their late night meals filled with delicious food and bottles of wine had me feeling jealous of their gluttony and wanting to send my husband to the store for the makings of a charcuterie board.
Bitter Orange was the perfect end of Summer read for me. It was filled with revelations I didn’t see coming and drama that I didn’t want to turn away from. It was slow at times, but isn’t that how you want Summer to pass. I was not bothered by the pace because Fuller kept giving just enough information to make me want to see what was going to happen next.
How the trio’s story came to an end had me pausing to rehash what had happened. I enjoyed thinking back to the various parts in the story that foretold how it would end. But even with the foreshadowing I still found the ending to be, while not shocking, definitely an ending that I will remember for a long time.
This is a book that I will be recommending when people are looking for something a bit different. To remind them of Summers past and that living outside of your means may not always be the best thing to do.
A lady thrust this into my hands at the train station saying, “You simply MUST read this!” So, free book with a recommendation, it’s a win win, right? Eh. It was okay, but no one character leapt out and grabbed my attention. Instead I found myself pitying them. Really wasn’t anything redeemable about any of them.
Definitely being returned to the commuter library.
Well written, the plot was intriguing.
A twisty, thorny, darkly atmospheric page turner.
Claire Fuller is such an elegant writer and this book is incredibly atmospheric, vivid, and intriguing. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t reading a forgotten classic.
Bitter Orange was engaging and mysterious! I enjoyed the tone of the story and the way the pieces came together in a way where Claire leaves you devouring the pages to find out what will happen. The story is about Frances and her stay at the mansion Lyntons in England. Frances is staying there and researching the architecture of the gardens. The couple Peter and Cara are also staying there in the rooms below hers. Frances has discovered that there is a peephole in her floor that she can use to view Peter and Cara’s activities. Frances, Peter, and Cara begin to spend time together over the next days. We get to know the characters through Frances’ descriptions and through the conversations she has with the other characters. Frances begins a complicated relationship with Peter and Cara. The plot is mysterious and a little dark as it feels as if something is going to happen at any time. Truth and stories are shared between Frances, Peter, and Cara as they spend the summer days together exploring the house and the grounds. Be prepared to be surprised over and over by what happens throughout the story!