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emleemay 's review for:
Picnic at Hanging Rock
by Joan Lindsay
I didn't fall in love with this, but it was a quick, decent read. I liked the setting and, though it was written in the 1960s, I felt Lindsay did a great job of capturing an early 1900s feel. The characters and their mannerisms felt similar to [a:E.M. Forster|86404|E.M. Forster|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1402057803p2/86404.jpg] or [a:Edith Wharton|16|Edith Wharton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1484512230p2/16.jpg].
It begins with the titular picnic-- Valentine's Day 1900, which in Australia means a lovely summer day, when the girls of Appleyard College for Young Ladies go for a relaxing picnic at Hanging Rock. By the time they are ready to head back to school in the afternoon, three of the girls and one school mistress have gone missing. Yet another girl, Edith, who also left with the missing girls, is found panicked and confused, with no memory of what has happened to her companions.
The story is about the way this mystery affects the school, its headmistress, and the local community. The mystery of the missing girls has far-reaching consequences and touches many different people's lives, with one tragedy after another striking those surrounding it.
I think the main thing preventing me from loving this was that the characters were forgettable. This prevented me from truly becoming immersed in the story and mystery, even while the setting was vivid and the mystery itself intriguing. Wondering what happened to these girls kept me turning pages, though. Was it murder? Was a teacher involved? Did they die from exposure or starvation? Could it have been supernatural?
It begins with the titular picnic-- Valentine's Day 1900, which in Australia means a lovely summer day, when the girls of Appleyard College for Young Ladies go for a relaxing picnic at Hanging Rock. By the time they are ready to head back to school in the afternoon, three of the girls and one school mistress have gone missing. Yet another girl, Edith, who also left with the missing girls, is found panicked and confused, with no memory of what has happened to her companions.
The story is about the way this mystery affects the school, its headmistress, and the local community. The mystery of the missing girls has far-reaching consequences and touches many different people's lives, with one tragedy after another striking those surrounding it.
I think the main thing preventing me from loving this was that the characters were forgettable. This prevented me from truly becoming immersed in the story and mystery, even while the setting was vivid and the mystery itself intriguing. Wondering what happened to these girls kept me turning pages, though. Was it murder? Was a teacher involved? Did they die from exposure or starvation? Could it have been supernatural?