Review by bookedbymadeline - Flowers of Darkness

bookedbymadeline 's review for:

Flowers of Darkness by Tatiana de Rosnay

3.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

I’ve loved de Rosnay’s other works and I’ve been slowly making my way through her bibliography! This one was so different compared to her usual historical fiction novels as it’s a literary novel with sci fi elements. The premise was to look at the effects of AI and surveillance, set in a futuristic Paris!

This was an interesting plot/idea and I quite enjoyed it for the most part. I loved the character relationships and having an older protagonist! I also enjoyed the past POV through the MCs notebook, which slowly revealed a major conflict/secret. It kept me guessing and it was a nice unexpected twist!

It’s a very detailed, character driven story which is always 50/50 for me. At times I loved it and other times I found it difficult to focus on. For instance, I was pulled in really quickly but then it slumped a bit in the middle before picking back up again for the last 1/3.

It was feeling like a 4 star read until the last 20 pages when the ending felt rushed and there were too many loose ends-I have questions still-so I dropped half a star for those reasons. Flowers of Darkness is in the middle of my rankings so far for de Rosnay’s works; I have 2 of her books ranked below at 3 ⭐️s, Sarah’s Key and The House I Loved are still my top 2 at 5 ⭐️s, and I have 2 more left to read 😁

TW/CW: stillbirth, terrorism attack, cancer, infidelity, suicide, climate disaster, depression

Content Warnings