Bitter Orange By Claire Fuller

 Bitter Orange

By Claire Fuller

Frances Jellico is staying at Lyntons, a dilapidated English country house, doing surveys for the estate's new owner. While staying in the attic there she finds a couple is staying in the rooms below hers and that she can spy on them in her bathroom through a hole in the floor.

Cara, the young woman is troubled and tells Frances stories about her past with the young man, Peter, as well as how she met Peter, the child she had )which she claimed was by immaculate conception), and other assorted personal details about her relationship with Peter.

Peter is also being paid by the estate's owner to catalogue the contents of the house and to make architectural reports about it. He and Frances become fast friends as well, and Frances starts to think their is something more to Peter's attentions.

Near the house is a church Frances attends and she wonders at the vicar, Victor, who seems not to be happy in his current role and talks to her about Lyntons and about his congregation. He takes an interest in Frances, what she's up to at Lyntons, and the people she is cohabiting with.

Cara and Peter draw Frances into their fold, feed her, and go on mini adventures around the grounds. Peter warns Frances to not believe everything Cara tells her. Meanwhile Frances starts seeing and hearing things in the hosue and she begins to question her own sanity, whether or not someone else is in the house, and what exactly she should or should not believe about Cara and Peter. Eventually, Cara's stories coalesce and are contradicted by Peter. The two have a tempestuous relationship that culminates in a tragedy that Frances can't help but be involved in.

Alongside this story is a future story where Frances, obviously on her death bed, is talking with Victor who wants her to confess what she knows about what happened at Lyntons and he repeatedly asks her to tell him what she did. In the end she keeps her secret, but the twist shows us who is being truthful and who is the manipulator at Lyntons.

This book was a page turner I could not put down. It held a sinister air right from the beginning, a tension boiling under the surface throughout the book. Frances is an awkward character that has no idea how to function normally in society, who constantly questions what she is doing and how people are perceiving her. Her upbringing adds an air of sorrow and pity to her character, and that backstory plays into her life at Lyntons. A twist reveal shows us what kind of person Frances is and what she is capable of. The story is tragic, as all of Fuller's books have been up to this point, and I was there for it. The writing in this book was her most confident yet. The story is about penitence, as all of the characters have something to regret and ask forgiveness for.

I'm giving Bitter Orange 5 stars.