The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry

Knowing she's dead isn't what makes me miss her. It's the little things. They take me by surprise. Then I get stomachaches and I have to distract myself and disappear inside a dark small space or a process so deep it swallows me. I miss her because she's not here. If I invoke her ghost, she'll be here, and I won't have to miss her then.

After the sudden death of her parents, Ginny is left feeling isolated and unsure of what to do. Her sister, Amanda, is trying to cope with the tragedy in her own way, but she doesn't really know how to look after Ginny, who has Asperger's syndrome. Ginny throws herself into cooking, because nothing else seems to be able to address her intense sadness the way cooking and food does. The first time, she makes a bread soup from a recipe written by her grandmother. Even before she could relish the awesome dish, her kitchen is visited by an unexpected visitor - the ghost of her grandmother herself, who warns her "Do no let her..." before disappearing.

The Kitchen Daughter is the story of autistic Ginny, who finds that thinking of food helps her cope with her sadness, anger and anxieties. She imagines the smell, feel and taste of food when she's feeling upset. She thinks of each person in terms of the food that comes to her mind when she hears their voice. For instance, her father has a tomato juice voice, her sister an orange juice voice, her friend David has a muddy/espresso voice.

I am usually skeptic of books featuring characters who have autism. Recently, there's been an explosion of literature in that category, and while some have been exceptional, quite a few have been just "following the trend". That said, I do like it when a book shows the disorder authentically. And in that respect, I thought The Kitchen Daughter did a great job in portraying Ginny's illness - her fears, her behavioral tics, her determination to do things her way. I was worried about the mystical element in the book - that of Ginny seeing ghosts when she cooks from their hand-written recipes. While I didn't exactly get comfortable with the ghosts, I thought it was a nice touch.

The Kitchen Daughter is the first foodie fiction that I've read. It was a change reading books with characters interacting first-hand with recipes (which have been shared) and even discussing methods of cooking them. I can see how this would appeal to someone who loves cooking. And since, I'm just beginning to get intimate with cooking (I've been lucky to have been with people who loved to cook for me), some of all that food references just went over my head. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book or get hungry, but it was not as much as I hoped to.

One thing that disappointed me about this book is that one mystery which was portrayed as very important early on in the book isn't solved by the end of the book. It didn't turn out to be too relevant later, because I understood Ginny to receive closure even without it being revealed, but there was still that little something nagging me at the back of my head. Barring that, I thought this was a different read of a usual storyline told in a refreshing novel way.

I received this book for free for review from Goldberg McDuffie Communications. The Kitchen Daughter was released on April 12th. Check it out on the publisher's page, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. To visit the author's website, click here.