A review by extemporalli
The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp

3.0

This was enjoyable, but I couldn't fully get into the book because for so much of it Lesley was really disagreeable, which made it tough reading. Added to which, the little boy she adopts seems to require little from her, which was part of Sharp's philosophy that the disengaged parent is probably a better and less exhausting parent than the overly engaged one, but which made for a very distant and unemotional novel. Added to which, Lesley's best friend from the city (who pops up throughout the novel as a motif for what Lesley left behind when she moved to the country) was unpleasant and insincere throughout without getting a fitting comeuppance, so what was the point really?