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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
When I was a kid, the movie of this book was standard midday movie material for so many years. I had absolutely no interest in this book at all. All I remember about the movie was my parents sometimes switching to it, sometimes me as there was nothing else on besides cricket, and me sticking out about 30 mins and getting thoroughly bored.
Girls in ridiculous dresses prancing around the bush complaining that it was hot and there were flies. Of course there was. It was the end of our ridiculously hot, dry summers and you lot are prancing around in gloves. And dresses. I mean at 8 years old I'm watching them all trying to walk up bush tracks in dresses and I was thinking they were morons. After 30 mins of this, I usually gave up and went and played in the dirt. Or with a kangaroo or something.
So I never even thought of the book. Until the ABC's First Tuesday Book Club did a poll/show on 10 Aussie Books You Must Read Before You Die and it came number 10 as voted by the public. If you can get around geoblocks and can watch it I recommend it. As it made me think, what did I miss? I also realised, that maybe not seeing the movie was a perfect set of circumstances to read the book.
So I have read it. And what I missed, and was probably too young to get, was the ominous sense of place and the atmosphere. From the outset, you have the oppressive Australian heat beating down on you. You have that feeling of dryness, where you can feel the moisture being sucked out of your body on southern Australian days. If they are not described (I cannot remember as they are so vivid either way) you have that insanely loud sound of cicadas, their constant, shrill trilling/shrieking that screams you are in a hot, dry, remote, people-less place known as the Australian bush. That sound makes the feeling of remoteness resonate through your bones. Already you feel isolated. Then you add in the girls going missing and the element of mystery.
It's a short book, but I had no idea what was happening until it finished. And then I breathed. I mean that in the sense that I felt so tense, and oppressed, by the environment and then the mystery and it's surroundings, I finished the book and could breathe. Maybe I was holding my breath a little. But still those big, deep breaths. Then it hit me. I had no idea what had happened.
I think that is a strength to the book, and really maybe I should mark this as a spoiler, but I had no more of idea what had happened than I did when it occurred. Apparently there is an another chapter that explains all, but I don't think we need it. I am happy leaving it to a mystery of the bush. We have thousands of years of mysteries tied to our bush, and I am fine to give it another. It really is an ominous place. Also, it is a novelty to have a mystery in lit that isn't solved. So yay for an actual mystery.
For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/
Girls in ridiculous dresses prancing around the bush complaining that it was hot and there were flies. Of course there was. It was the end of our ridiculously hot, dry summers and you lot are prancing around in gloves. And dresses. I mean at 8 years old I'm watching them all trying to walk up bush tracks in dresses and I was thinking they were morons. After 30 mins of this, I usually gave up and went and played in the dirt. Or with a kangaroo or something.
So I never even thought of the book. Until the ABC's First Tuesday Book Club did a poll/show on 10 Aussie Books You Must Read Before You Die and it came number 10 as voted by the public. If you can get around geoblocks and can watch it I recommend it. As it made me think, what did I miss? I also realised, that maybe not seeing the movie was a perfect set of circumstances to read the book.
So I have read it. And what I missed, and was probably too young to get, was the ominous sense of place and the atmosphere. From the outset, you have the oppressive Australian heat beating down on you. You have that feeling of dryness, where you can feel the moisture being sucked out of your body on southern Australian days. If they are not described (I cannot remember as they are so vivid either way) you have that insanely loud sound of cicadas, their constant, shrill trilling/shrieking that screams you are in a hot, dry, remote, people-less place known as the Australian bush. That sound makes the feeling of remoteness resonate through your bones. Already you feel isolated. Then you add in the girls going missing and the element of mystery.
It's a short book, but I had no idea what was happening until it finished. And then I breathed. I mean that in the sense that I felt so tense, and oppressed, by the environment and then the mystery and it's surroundings, I finished the book and could breathe. Maybe I was holding my breath a little. But still those big, deep breaths. Then it hit me. I had no idea what had happened.
I think that is a strength to the book, and really maybe I should mark this as a spoiler, but I had no more of idea what had happened than I did when it occurred. Apparently there is an another chapter that explains all, but I don't think we need it. I am happy leaving it to a mystery of the bush. We have thousands of years of mysteries tied to our bush, and I am fine to give it another. It really is an ominous place. Also, it is a novelty to have a mystery in lit that isn't solved. So yay for an actual mystery.
For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/
Another great use of an audiobook. I didn't like the different voices for different characters, but it did allow me to get through a book I've been trying to get through for 4 years. I am so sad that this book didn't have any resolution, that it all got pinned on the headmistress when from her internal monologue, we know that they were some of her favourite students. I loved that I knew so much of the landscape of this book, having been to a lot of the places. But I am sad about Sarah and the outcome of what happened to her.
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A creepy classic!!
When the students of Appleyard College for Young Girls go picnicking at Hanging Rock on Saint Valentine's Day, 1900, nobody expects the day to be anything other than a nice diversion from the tedium of school. But when three students and a governess go missing on the Rock, the school and surrounding community are gravely affected in the aftermath of this shocking event.
This book was interesting. It is set in Australia, and the author opens the story as follows: "Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, my readers must decide for themselves. As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important." This cheeky opening suggests that what matters in the story to follow is not what happened to the missing persons, but rather, what happened to those who stayed behind. Though the central mystery is never fully satisfied, this book is more concerned with the effects of tragedy within a small and isolated community.
The inverted seasons (it is summer in February) lent the book an otherworldly quality to me, since I live in the Northern Hemisphere. The landscape of Australia is a character in this novel, and not necessarily a gentle one. Were the girls taken by nature as retribution for underestimating the wildness of Australia? Were they abducted by humans? Eaten by animals? The reader must draw her own conclusions, but one thing is for sure: attempting to summit the Rock will result in tragedy...
When the students of Appleyard College for Young Girls go picnicking at Hanging Rock on Saint Valentine's Day, 1900, nobody expects the day to be anything other than a nice diversion from the tedium of school. But when three students and a governess go missing on the Rock, the school and surrounding community are gravely affected in the aftermath of this shocking event.
This book was interesting. It is set in Australia, and the author opens the story as follows: "Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, my readers must decide for themselves. As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important." This cheeky opening suggests that what matters in the story to follow is not what happened to the missing persons, but rather, what happened to those who stayed behind. Though the central mystery is never fully satisfied, this book is more concerned with the effects of tragedy within a small and isolated community.
The inverted seasons (it is summer in February) lent the book an otherworldly quality to me, since I live in the Northern Hemisphere. The landscape of Australia is a character in this novel, and not necessarily a gentle one. Were the girls taken by nature as retribution for underestimating the wildness of Australia? Were they abducted by humans? Eaten by animals? The reader must draw her own conclusions, but one thing is for sure: attempting to summit the Rock will result in tragedy...
An amazing novel, and I also really recommended the audio recording read by Yael Stone who plays Dora Lumley in the recent TV adaptation.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
so, i read this book for school. there are definitely some elements about it that haven't aged well. joan lindsay definitely had some internalised misogyny when writing this book. a large criticism of it is that i think mike and albert should have ended up together, they are clearly gay for each other. also i found the ending very underwhelming and i feel rather unsatisfied after finishing it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
I’ve loved the movie for years and rewatched it multiple times, and can’t believe it took me so long to read the book. It’s eerie and sad and haunting. The momentum dies down a bit near the end but it’s still a brilliant chilling mystery.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place..."