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Cherry Baby

Name: Cherry Baby
Author: Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell

Contemporary

Includes a Dog

At a glance

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Midwest representation

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Includes a GIANT dog

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For Calvin and Hobbes fans

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Complicated marriage

#1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell returns with a breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything — and isn't sure she wants it back.

Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie. Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home. Tom is the creator of "Thursday," semi-autobiographical webcomic, turned bestselling graphic novel, turned international phenomenon.

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Semi-autobiographical means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry: "Baby." Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby. Cherry never wanted this. No fat woman wants to see herself caricatured on the page let alone on the big screen, but there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize Cherry at the grocery store.

While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in—and wondering who she's supposed to be without him.

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Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin.

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She’d meant it.

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One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom’s overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album… and someone recognizes her from across the room.

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Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom.

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Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry.

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And best of all… he’s never heard of Thursday.

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Don’t just take
our word for it

"All the pleasure and kicky-feet excitement of a romance, with all the psychological depth and insight of great literature, Cherry is a heroine for the ages, and Rainbow Rowell is a damn genius!"

- Rufi Thorpe, author of Margo’s Got Money Troubles

"Cherry Baby is about love, and there are a lot of excellent sex scenes, but it’s also about women’s bodies in a way I’ve never read before. Rainbow Rowell, as ever, has written a book that only she could write."

- Emma Straub, bestselling author of American Fantasy

"I read this book cover to cover and it was so hot and delicious, so funny and smart and real, and the dialogue was so great and the sex was so steamy and uncringe that I want to study it. ... What a gift!"

- Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Wreck and Sandwich

“No.

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“I said no. Not now.

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“Steven, please, I’m begging you…

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“No—

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“No—

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“I know what you want, but I just—

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“I’m wearing black, Stevie. I just want—

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“For once, I just— ”

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Cherry’s phone chimed. She ignored it. She was trying to hold an overgrown dog at arm’s length while she got out the door.

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Trying unsuccessfully. Stevie was too big and too eager to be contained— she pushed forward, tail- wagging, brown eyes pleading for affection. Stevie had human eyes. Like a gorilla.

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“Okay, fine.” Cherry gave in, lifting her arms. “Fine, fine, fine.”

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Stevie leapt forward, rubbing her big head against Cherry’s black pants, first one thigh, then the other.

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“I know…” Cherry sighed and patted the dog’s broad back. “You’re a good girl, Stevie.”

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Stevie was a two-year-old Newfoundland–Great Pyrenees mix. (Some people called this a “NewfiePyr.” Cherry was not one of them.) She was huge and white, with black spots around her eyes and ears— and she was as fluffy as a sheep or some sort of mountain goat. There were dog owners who actually collected their Great Pyrenees’ fur and made sweaters from it. (Again, Cherry was not one of them.)

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Stevie looked like a polar bear wearing a burglar’s mask, and she was probably the nicest dog who’d ever lived. Her full name was Stevie Nicks. Cherry’s ex- husband had named her.

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Cherry’s phone chimed again. She kept ignoring it. Stevie was still trying to push closer. She was always like this when Cherry had been at work all day.

🙋‍♀️ Why we chose
Fun fact: we were today years old when we learned “Rainbow Rowell” is the bestselling YA-turned adult fiction sensation’s REAL NAME. And Rowell’s work is every bit as delightful as her name implies—Cherry Baby is equal parts heavy and light, grappling with serious topics like divorce and body image with both lightness and care.
Let’s begin: years ago, Cherry’s ex Tom based Baby, the romantic heroine of his hit webseries Thursday, on Cherry. Now Thursday is being made into a major Hollywood picture, and Cherry has to sit back and watch as she is essentially cosplayed by an actress in a fatsuit.
Meanwhile, Cherry embarks on a whirlwind romance with Russ, her longtime crush and best friend’s ex. The catch: Russ is thin, and Cherry has always privately believed that a guy like him would never be with a girl like her—and especially not with the Thursday movie blowing up on every screen (“What would it be like to get confirmation—from Hollywood, no less—that your girl was super fat?” Cherry wonders).
Cherry Baby offers readers a rare, nuanced depiction of the relationship dynamics between a fat and thin person, a topic little-explored in media but one which Rowell handles with her signature blend of humour and grace. This one’s for everyone who came of age during the golden age of YA and is looking for more.
⚠️ Content warnings
Fatphobia