Reviews with content warning for Grief - Picnic at Hanging Rock

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

6 reviews

rosemaryandrue's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

On St. Valentine’s Day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls and their teacher vanish while on a school outing at Hanging Rock. Though they have disappeared from view like a rock dropped into water, the consequences of what happened will ripple outward until they touch the stories of even those who had been on the periphery of their lives.

I’ve had my eye on the book for a few months now, so when I opened my Cannonball Book Exchange package from ElCiccio to find she’d send me a copy, I was super excited. And quite without meaning to I picked the perfect time to read it.

I took my copy on holiday to Fort Lauderdale, where I started reading it on a blustery afternoon at the beach and finished it after a leisurely few hours strolling around the Bonnet House Museum, an idyllic time capsule of a house that was built and occupied by the same family for the past hundred years, with the last resident turning it over to the state of Florida as a museum when she passed away at the age of 109. It was an apt place for Picnic at Hanging Rock, a book which among other things deals with the peculiarities of time.

This is a short but deliciously written book, and I savored every chapter I read. Though the central mystery of the disappearances is not solved, it doesn’t really matter because the story is more about the people who are left behind. Lindsay plays with reality and time with gleeful abandon – I understand now why so many doubts have swirled around about if the story was based in fact or not. I came away from the end of the book with sense of sadness and dread, but fascination too at the tricks that ‘destiny’ can play. Perhaps I have discovered a new favorite book.

I did, of course, read the famous Chapter Eighteen, which was cut off the original manuscript before publication. It contains the solution to the fate of the girls (well, as much as the reader can know, anyway), and the parting imagery I was left with thoroughly creeped me out. It’s a mark of how perfect Picnic at Hanging Rock is that I concluded I hadn’t really missed its absence.

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picnicatthehangingtree's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Beautifully written and atmospheric

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edamamebean's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I’ve been wanting to pick this up for at least three or four years. It was just as good, if not better, than I hoped it would be. Lovers of open-shut mysteries won’t like it very much, as it leaves you with more questions than answers, but those questions linger long after the last page. This one will definitely stick with me and I won’t be surprised if I end up reading it again someday.

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ramblingravioli's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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bookstorian's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

After reading the script adaption and wanting to know more about the story prior to teaching it I knew that this Aussie classic needed to be read.

There are so many aspects of the story that my literary brain loved and there were others that were a little waning on my modern sensibilities.

Here is what I thought as I read:

-Loved the establishment of place, the idea that the landscape, especially the rock becomes a character. There is so much beautiful language used to articulate this.

-The shrouded mystery happens quickly. There is so much foreshadowing in the lead up to the picnic.

-The things that cannot be explained. The lure towards the rock, the clocks stopping and the curse like aftermath of the picnic is clear (reminded me of what happened to Howard Carter’s crew after the discovery of King Tut).

-Feels a little spooky, so well done that you can see why people think it is a true story as it feels so plausible that it could actually happen. People disappearing into the bush, probable.

-The flick between time and perspective got a little confusing at times and I had to go back an reread different sections. The narrator achieved a very subjective perspective throughout the story. Not placing the blame on any one or anything and letting the reader decide (even from the very beginning this is clear).

-I became sleepy like the characters at the later half of the story. I did already know the ending from the reading the script though.

-I’m ok with the ending. I’m ok with the not knowing. It makes the story more plausible and believable, people disappear all the time without any resolutions being made. I think stories that don’t have an ending that comes wrapped in a big bow are often the ones I think about the most afterwards.

-Also special shout out to the cover artist. I loved the moody sketch and colour palette of the book, plus extra points for a matte cover!

Overall, I am glad that I have read this text as not only do I have more contextual information about the play but I can also give this Aussie classic a big tick. Keen to check out the mini-series as see how it translates to screen now!

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sarah984's review

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book is a tale of the unsolved disappearance of a group of schoolgirls on a picnic trip and how that shock reverberates through their community and changes other characters’ lives forever.

The points of view are all well done in terms of having different voices and showing which aspects of what had happened mattered to them. I understand from the introduction that there were originally supernatural elements that were toned down for publication and I think that was a good call.

Due to the setting and the publication date, there are a few things that seem pretty dated, including racially insensitive language and a weird obsession with bullying one of the children for being fat.

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