Reviews

Flamingo by Rachel Elliott

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fitheflea's review

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emotional lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

izzymartin's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

This was a book group choice and I found it a quick read. It tells the story of a homeless man, Daniel, who returns to the part of the country where he spent some time as a young child and where he and his mother were welcomed by their exuberant neighbours. The narrative shifts between the 1980s and 2018 and there are multiple points of view, although the motivations of some of the characters are not entirely clear. Other readers will enjoy this more than I did. For my tastes, the prose was too choppy with overuse of sentence fragments and very short paragraphs.

chills_multiply's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

leahshafik's review

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3.0

I had such high hopes for the book, I loved the premise, I loved the switching in timelines, I loved the idea of the characters but it fell flat for me.
I loved how well written it was, it was almost poetic/lyrical in the way it was written. However, I feel like that was to distract us.
We are left with surface only characters, no depth, a glimpse, an inkling (read the book) as to who they are.
Maybe that was intentional, but I wanted more, I needed more.
Eve, for example, was such a centric part of the book but her character was given a weird send off (not a spoiler). The rest of the characters, as usual, don't bloomin talk to one another. I find it so weird that the art of communication seems to be lost in fiction. Why can't people just tell each other things?
Although I have some negative feelings about the book, I did love it's construction, I did love the writing style and I wanted to love the characters, it was there, it just wasn't enough.
3* for me :)