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A review by teawiththefates
Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book has all the elements that could have made it one of my favourites - cozy magic vibes, childhood friends to lovers trope, mental health exploration - but the execution of it all fell flat for me.
I wanted to like this book so much more than I did, but I had such a hard time accepting the way things progressed. The protagonist either needed to be angrier than she was (instead of getting over things without any conversation or much self reflection to justify her shrugging something off) or more understanding (instead of being overly judgmental of things clearly done with good intent), and my opinions on these never seemed to match up with her actual reactions as they happened. I found the book consistently frustrating because of this.
On top of that, the ending felt a little incomplete; based on what happened in the book I wanted a much more complex consideration of the merits of joining the ranks of organized magic and the amount of control they feel the right to, especially when I still think that while yes, the law was broken, the spirit of the vow made to their organization was not and the justice served was not particularly just, and this is only ever acknowledged in the most minimal way. I feel like this story needs a sequel where we get to follow characters as they fight for magical reform and providing better mental health care! <end spoiler>
I wanted to like this book so much more than I did, but I had such a hard time accepting the way things progressed. The protagonist either needed to be angrier than she was (instead of getting over things without any conversation or much self reflection to justify her shrugging something off) or more understanding (instead of being overly judgmental of things clearly done with good intent), and my opinions on these never seemed to match up with her actual reactions as they happened. I found the book consistently frustrating because of this.
On top of that, the ending felt a little incomplete; based on what happened in the book I wanted a much more complex consideration of
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders
It’s all through a fantasy lens so the book often describes things in sort of a magical way, but the book deals with a lot of mental health - specifically anxiety and depression, and attempts to use (magical) illegal drugs to cope with depression and the negative consequences of this use, an organization responsible for healing people that refuses to support mental (“heart”) issues, and magic that acts like a mental health disorder - from the start of the book the protagonist hears it as a voice that consistently gaslights her and emotionally abused her.