Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

For 51 years, twins Julius and Jeanie Seeder have known only the life that their mother, Dot, zealously carved out for them. They cohabited with Dot in a crumbling cottage, growing their own food and selling some of it for the barest sustenance. But when Dot dies suddenly, the twins’ carefully constructed worlds and associated narratives come crumbling down. Financially unstable and lacking any marketable skills, the twins are stripped bare as they face a hostile world. Worse, the mother they understood as having superpowers, turns out to be disappointingly human. The secret Dot took to her grave turns everything Julius and Jeanie knew about their lives upside down. Fuller (Bitter Orange, 2018) paints a devastatingly haunting picture of abject poverty, especially in her descriptions of the houses they dwell in, each of which becomes a character in its own right. This tale offers a remarkable peek into how the embrace of family can completely smother other aspects of life. Nevertheless, human ingenuity persists. Fuller writes of Jeanie, “The idea of doing work other than looking after her own house and garden makes her feel like something inside her—as tiny as an onion seed—is splitting open, ready to send out its shoot.” It’s reassuring to think that reinvention is possible after all.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In Fullers fourth novel, when one thing is buried, another is unearthed.For those familiar with Fullers work, it will come as no surprise that a secret lies at the heart of her latest tale. Based in rural England, the novel opens in a dilapidated cottage with the unceremonious death of a woman named Dot. Shes found that morning by her grown twin children, Jeanie and Julius, who are 51 years old and have lived with her all their lives. While the death of their mother isnt a shock, its what follows that unnerves the twins. Apparently, there were debts their mother had accrued, and apparently everyone in town knew except Jeanie and Julius. No sooner do they bury Dot than they receive an eviction notice from the landlord, a man who the twins believe murdered their father. As far as they understood, their mother was given free rent as some sort of twisted reparation for their loss. Now homeless and jobless, the twins scramble to find work and shelter, which isnt easy for poor people, country people like them, especially with Jeanies weak heart. They eventually land on their feet, even finding time to pick their shared love of music back up, but it doesnt take long for the past to catch up to them. Fuller is a master of building suspense. At once unsettling and hopeful, her book checks all the boxes of an engrossing mystery, but it falters in its pacing. And when the book's big dark secret is finally exhumed, the reader feels just as cheated as its protagonists do.Misfortune runs amok in a story that can only be saved by turning the last page. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Fuller (Bitter Orange) follows a pair of 51-year-old twins leading an extremely sheltered life in present-day rural England in this evocative and wondrously anachronistic tale. Jeanie and Julius Seeder reside in the small cottage they grew up in with their widowed mother, Dot, who’s just turned 70. Upon Dot’s death, the twins’ lives are upended. Julius, who’s made do with odd jobs, has some social savvy, while his sister, who helped her mother in their extensive garden by supplying eggs and produce to a local market, has had little contact with the outside world. Additionally, Jeanie, felled by rheumatic fever as a child, never learned to read and write, which has rendered even the most mundane tasks into almost insurmountable challenges. The precariousness of their existence comes to the fore when their landlord’s wife evicts them. As the two struggle with making ends meet, another tragedy changes their lives and Jeanie comes to learn the truth behind their mother’s subterfuge that kept them by her side all her life. Though some readers may struggle to find their footing in the somewhat amorphous setting, Fuller builds suspense over the twins’ fate and ends with a brilliant twist. This one is worth staying with. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (May)

Library Journal
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This fourth novel from the award-winning Fuller (Bitter Orange) begins with a heartrending crisis for adult twins Julius and Jeanie Seeder. Left in near poverty when their father was killed in a farm accident, they live with their mother, Dot, on an isolated English country estate. They grow the food they need and sell extra produce at the town deli and markets; Julius also contributes his day-labor wages to their meager income. Jeanie has always stayed home because of a bad heart, and she's barely literate. When Dot drops dead in the kitchen, some disturbing questions surface. Why did Dot owe money around town? Was Jeanie's heart diagnosis a lie? Why are they being told they owe back rent for their cottage, which was supposedly rent-free for life? When they are evicted, Julius relocates them to a cramped, dirty camper out in the woods, without water, plumbing, or heat; they are defenseless when locals ransack the camper. As tragedy mounts, their former landlord helps repair their lives while also revealing long-kept secrets that link his life to theirs. VERDICT A gripping, unsettling narrative that ultimately offers a journey of resilience and hope, with unforgettable results.—Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In Fuller’s fourth novel, when one thing is buried, another is unearthed. For those familiar with Fuller’s work, it will come as no surprise that a secret lies at the heart of her latest tale. Based in rural England, the novel opens in a dilapidated cottage with the unceremonious death of a woman named Dot. She’s found that morning by her grown twin children, Jeanie and Julius, who are 51 years old and have lived with her all their lives. While the death of their mother isn’t a shock, it’s what follows that unnerves the twins. Apparently, there were debts their mother had accrued, and apparently everyone in town knew except Jeanie and Julius. No sooner do they bury Dot than they receive an eviction notice from the landlord, a man who the twins believe murdered their father. As far as they understood, their mother was given free rent as some sort of twisted reparation for their loss. Now homeless and jobless, the twins scramble to find work and shelter, which isn’t easy for “poor people, country people” like them, especially with Jeanie’s weak heart. They eventually land on their feet, even finding time to pick their shared love of music back up, but it doesn’t take long for the past to catch up to them. Fuller is a master of building suspense. At once unsettling and hopeful, her book checks all the boxes of an engrossing mystery, but it falters in its pacing. And when the book's big dark secret is finally exhumed, the reader feels just as cheated as its protagonists do. Misfortune runs amok in a story that can only be saved by turning the last page. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.