_cecilie_ 's review for:

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

4.5

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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It’s been some time since I thought to myself: well I’ll definitely have to reread this novel. But Picnic at Hanging Rock did that to me. Mainly it’s because I had the feeling, especially in the beginning, that I kept missing crucial information. Now that I read a few other reviews I’m fairly certain that I got everything there was to get but I’m still intrigued how a second read might alter or solidify my theories. The second reason that I want to experience this book again is because I was and am still loving the atmosphere and the writing. My Goodness, this was gorgeous. Despite all the drama and disappearances and tragedy it was an almost cosy experience? The nature descriptions really got to me, I mean, read this: The weeping elm at the window was murmurous with gossiping doves. and tell me that it doesn’t do something to you. The prose reads like an old sepia photograph or a letter of your grandmother writing about a faraway holiday from her youth. The timelessness is a theme in the story as well but even the writing furthers that theme because through its language it feels slower than it should and manages to linger still longer. It’s quite beautiful, is my point. 

The characters are sweet as well but were for me not the main factor I enjoyed. I had some problems in the beginning to distinguish the girls from one another, they’re basically all beautiful and rich and they stay somewhat elusive. Sara is different, because she’s poor, a bit younger, a very sweet girl and she has an adorable crush on Miranda. Her fate is one of the things that would make me skip a few pages because I just want her to be happy with either her guardian or her older brother. 

Speaking of Bertie who may or may not be Albert, I was loving his and Michael storyline and I don’t know if it was just me but they both had a very ‘and they were roommates’ thing going on. Firstly, opposites attract and boy are they opposites (at least societally) anyway I thought they were very sweet together and I prefer to remind myself that at least the runaway-heir and his companion the lowly coach man managed to get away together. Other than them no mysteries get solved in this edition so here are my spoilery theories. 1) I think it really was some magical realism time-shenanigans, 2)Sara was (probably accidentally) killed by Mrs. A and 3) Albert and Michael opened a farm and lived happily ever after in their little gay cottage-core fantasy world, because I want them to.