Cherry Baby

New out April 14, 2026

Cherry Baby

Rainbow Rowell

First published 2026

7.57.5 / 10
Score out of 1025 ratingsEarly score · confidence 14%

Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.

Our view

“Cherry Baby” is a thoughtful, hopeful novel about a woman forced to face a caricature of herself. Rainbow Rowell’s Cherry knows that her husband, Tom, is not coming home from Hollywood, where his semi-autobiographical comic is being filmed with “Baby”, a character so plainly based on her that strangers recognise her. Some readers find that Cherry’s relentless harsh thoughts about her own body make the book feel anything but body-positive.

The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.

About the book

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—a semi-autobiographical webcomic, turned bestselling graphic novel, turned international phenomenon. Semi-autobiographical. That 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 girl 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 her 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. Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin. She’d meant it. 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. Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom. Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry. And best of all…he’s never heard of Thursday. Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell’s richest, most ambitious—sexiest—novel yet.

Description: publisher’s blurb via Hardcover

Where the score comes from

The sources average 6.6 across 25 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 15% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 7.5 comes out.

SourceAverageRatingsWeight
Hardcover6.625 100%

More new books

You will also find this book on the New books page, with the other titles of the last twelve months.

Similar new books

Other books of the last twelve months with similar themes and mood.

In this book

Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.