Book Review: The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins

---

Synopsis:

When Evie Perez is cut off from everything she loves and forced to move to Iceland for the summer, she takes her canvas and paintbrushes into the picturesque cherry orchard behind her guesthouse. She stains her lips with stolen cherries in the midnight sun and paints a boy she’s never met.

Oskar is startled to discover Evie in his family’s orchard, and even more surprised to see himself on her canvas. Too ashamed to reveal his stutter, he remains silent as Evie returns day after day to paint, spilling confessions she wouldn’t even tell her priest.

As Evie’s life back home unravels, Oskar wants to comfort her with words, but he knows he’s waited too long, so he uses music instead. But when it all comes to the surface, he knows that if Evie can’t forgive him for lying, he may never forgive himself for surviving.

---

My Review:

“I write my words here between these pages where they hang, ripe for the plucking, and only sing them when I want to be heard.”

The Language of Cherries is a quiet YA contemporary with a strong mystical aspect.

The story is written in dual narratives, following Evie and Oskar. I love the lyrical aspect to Oskar’s narrative, it put a unique spin on telling his story.  I was 100% invested in the story of these two young people.

Evie has moved to Iceland for the summer with her father and is distraught that she has left her Abuela behind in the USA. She meets Oskar on his family’s cherry orchard. He is silent; choosing not to speak with his stammer and grieving for his family. I really enjoyed the mystical elements of the cherries of the Aisling tree that allowed the dreams to come to life. I like that Evie and Oskar’s lives became intertwined and how love blossoms through Evie’s magical paintings.

What is great about the characters in this novel is that Hawkin’s also fleshes out the side characters. We didn’t see that Evie was just a teenager who was rebelling against her parents, we saw the reason why. Hawkin’s allows the reader to see why Evie would want to stay with her Abuela, and it makes it even more devastating when you learn through the narrative why she can’t.

Hawkin’s world-building was excellent and I could really picture the setting. I loved the exploration of language, romance and magic in this novel. It wasn’t overpowering. The romance was slow-burning. We got to see it grow; they weren’t instantly in love with each other the first time they met. The magic was woven into the plot and was grounded in lore and originality. I loved that it wasn’t the forefront of the novel, because I felt the true magic of this novel was between Evie and Oskar.

This novel is incredibly heartfelt, unbelievably touching and extremely emotional. It is a novel about friends, family, first love and forgiveness. I couldn’t put this down and I would highly recommend this novel.

An e-copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

---