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babsy_burns 's review for:

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
3.75
dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a good entry to the "Australian Gothic" canon. The mystery itself is unexciting for the latter-half of the book; where you're left with uninteresting characters following the aftermath of three school girls and their teacher lost on Hanging Rock. 

The suspense builds throughout the picnic scenes as the girls scale the mountain and eventhough we know the outcome, it never snapped me out of the gravity of the climb. 

Joan's strength is keeping the spirit of the missing alive throughout the novel and escalating the tension between characters confusion, fear and frustration. But her weakness is that the story does feel empty and incomplete.