Reviews - Picnic en Hanging Rock

1.74k reviews for:

Picnic en Hanging Rock

Joan Lindsay

3.65 AVERAGE

sturmvoqel's review against another edition

5.0

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

lorihenrich2021's review against another edition

3.0

This was pretty good. The most recent movie was actually pretty close to the story.

the_page_traveller's review against another edition

5.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

the_page_traveller's review against another edition

5.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

alice_12's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

sebsunshine's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious 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

boring and confusing i was lost.

i get the vibes, i just didn’t care about the characters

bookishlysophie's review against another edition

3.0

3.5

This book. If we're judging it based purely on how well written it is, this book could easily achieve five stars. It is a magnificent piece of writing, I haven't read much better in terms of setting the scene and immersing you in the world of the characters as Joan Lindsey has done.

The plot is where it falls apart. While I loved the mystery, and acknowledge that the 'mystery' of the plot is more about exposing the secrets of the characters and describing their responses to the tragedy, there is never any explanation as to what has happened- not even a clue or a hint to base a conclusion off.

So much is left uncovered, a lot is made of Mrs.Appleyard's sudden appearance in Australia but never revealed. It is upsetting as this is such a beautiful book, but you never really can get deep into it without something tantalising to digest in terms of the main plot.

I have heard there is a secret chapter and while I will review this separately from what I have heard this doesn't seem to fit with the non-magical and almost factual appeal of the book, this seems very disappointing especially when this is, on paper, such a wonderful mystery.

That being said, Picnic at Hanging Rock was a very enjoyable read from beginning to end and a great study of some interesting characters and a very thought provoking study of time and place in early 20th century Australia.