A review by laurenzokro
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Despite this being set in the summer, I found fall to be a very suitable time to be reading this - a mysterious disappearance that juxtaposes beautiful, vivid descriptions of the Australian natural landscape. The manner in which the book simultaneously tapped into these themes, and made them complement one another, was definitely its strongest aspect; Joan Lindsay was able to seamlessly transform a relaxing, jubilant, picturesque picnic on a sunny day into an unspoken, yet unmistakably omnipresent, horror that had much more far-reaching consequences than one would expect such a mere picnic outing to have. Yet Lindsay still made routine reference to Hanging Rock’s beauty and that of surrounding areas (even the beauty found in the world of Appleyard College) in spite of all that had occurred. This had the effect of magnifying just how jarring the effect was on the lives of those directly and indirectly involved, as well as depicting how quickly one’s sense of the familiar can be a painful - and in fact disturbing - reminder of the dark events that transpired.

My main complaint had to do with their being perhaps too much left to the imagination, and too much left unsaid. Although I understand and agree with the need to have some element of mystery as to what actually happened to the vanishing girls, it was done in a way that wasn’t really subtle -
for example, we read early on about Edith watching the girls walk away and her being unable to keep up, but not only is that moment never spoken of again (albeit partially due to Edith’s forgetting of it) but it appears entirely insignificant a detail - nothing explained later in the narrative is even remotely connected to this moment. I get the idea of trying to set an unsettling tone early on, but the way that it was completely ignored made it feel like what we read about at the picnic was not of any importance. This was again frustrating with the disappearance of Miss McCraw alongside the girls, with Edith again referencing having seen her and the detail not being brought up ever again. I understand the point of leaving some details unexplained and some aspects up to the imagination, but it felt like there was just no connection in the actual mystery itself - everything that happened felt so unaligned that it felt as though we were dealing with entirely separate mysteries rather than having them weave together.


Overall, I definitely respect what it was trying to do in terms of crafting a story that could show the simultaneous beauty and horror behind the natural world, as well as
how humans interact with tragic events (sensationalizing and personalizing them as well, as we saw with the townsfolk and the schoolfolk, respectively). While I do appreciate the intrigue that played into the story’s telling, it at times felt a little more undeveloped when intended to come across as unsolvable/unexplainable. Nevertheless I do think this is an enjoyable read for the imagery alone, which definitely kept me very invested in my reading.
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