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laurasplorer 's review for:
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
by Holly Ringland
I had hopes for this book which it didn’t quite live up to.
Firstly, the concept seems unique but having read ‘The Language of Flowers’ by Vanessa Diffenbaugh I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two books; two women building lives from traumatic childhoods, learning to navigate the world through their own ‘language of flowers’ while maintaining problematic relationships with mother figures, love interests and their own self-love.
‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ is loaded with gorgeous description of the Australian landscape from coast to desert, flora and fauna. The novel’s flaw is it’s lacklustre protagonist and plot which dawdles in one place, before racing through others.
Alice is a wallflower whose personality coasts on Mary-Sue territory. She is beautiful, artistic, aloof and ethereal in a way that the men in this story are all smitten by her. Her personal transformation occurs frustratingly late in the novel, rushed through the last forty pages or so.
Her story is predictable to the versed fiction reader; she is a girl from an abusive family who grows up to find herself in an abusive relationship. But she doesn’t find the ‘strength’ to walk away as expected- instead, her abuser leaves and accuses her of domestic violence, which she does nothing to dispel. And so she bears the brunt of not only the physical and emotional trauma of abuse but also the knowledge that her abuser remains free to repeat his actions. This unfinished plot point becomes a blemish in the ‘happy ending’ of the novel.
I feel like this will be a popular book club read of 2018. There’s a lot to discuss about the Australian landscape, domestic abuse, the relationship towards land and people.
Firstly, the concept seems unique but having read ‘The Language of Flowers’ by Vanessa Diffenbaugh I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two books; two women building lives from traumatic childhoods, learning to navigate the world through their own ‘language of flowers’ while maintaining problematic relationships with mother figures, love interests and their own self-love.
‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ is loaded with gorgeous description of the Australian landscape from coast to desert, flora and fauna. The novel’s flaw is it’s lacklustre protagonist and plot which dawdles in one place, before racing through others.
Alice is a wallflower whose personality coasts on Mary-Sue territory. She is beautiful, artistic, aloof and ethereal in a way that the men in this story are all smitten by her. Her personal transformation occurs frustratingly late in the novel, rushed through the last forty pages or so.
Her story is predictable to the versed fiction reader; she is a girl from an abusive family who grows up to find herself in an abusive relationship. But she doesn’t find the ‘strength’ to walk away as expected- instead, her abuser leaves and accuses her of domestic violence, which she does nothing to dispel. And so she bears the brunt of not only the physical and emotional trauma of abuse but also the knowledge that her abuser remains free to repeat his actions. This unfinished plot point becomes a blemish in the ‘happy ending’ of the novel.
I feel like this will be a popular book club read of 2018. There’s a lot to discuss about the Australian landscape, domestic abuse, the relationship towards land and people.