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A review by writingcaia
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
This book sneaked up on me. I knew nothing going in, and as soon as I opened it and was faced with the beautiful flower illustration and the meaning of it I was immediately taken, but that was nothing. Yes, the illustrations are amazing and the floriography too, and are meaningful headers for each chapter, but the story, the tale was beyond captivating.
This is the coming of age of Alice Hart who at nine loses her father and pregnant mother to a fire, a fire she thinks she caused escaping her abusive, violent father. Initially, in very bad shape due to her fathers abuse, she stays in the hospital for a long time, and there she has only the librarian she met once reading to her, then a grandmother she never knew she had comes to take her when she is released, even though the trauma has taken her voice. And, there she goes into the unknown, into place that will be the secrets and the past hidden from her but always present, where truths and more lies lie, and the place where she will grow and love, and find that there, at Thornfield, where wild flowers bloom, a native flowers farm, florist and floriographist place, where abused and lost women - the “Flowers” - care for it, she too will blossom. But, will her overbearing, stubborn grandmother June allow her to fully be herself, to fully bloom?
So many secrets, so much violence in this family story, in these enchanting places, from a beautiful and raw seaside, to the dry and flowered native desert, in an Australia of abused women, abused natives.
Alice will have to brave it all and discover if she’s strong enough to break her family’s cycle, to have her voice and not let it be taken from her, to be the owner of her destiny.
I could talk about it all at length. The characters are rich and the history of the family so dense and complicated. The flowers, plant ones and women ones, and how they’ll play such a great part in all of it. But, I don’t want to give it away. I want you to brave it all with Alice.
For me the novel only failed in that I would have liked to know more of the implied final romance and more of some of the “Flowers” backstories and destinies, and the dog!!!
An absolutely gorgeous debut nonetheless, with, as you gathered, themes of family, abuse, coming of age, colonialism, and the good and bad people that shape one’s life.
This is the coming of age of Alice Hart who at nine loses her father and pregnant mother to a fire, a fire she thinks she caused escaping her abusive, violent father. Initially, in very bad shape due to her fathers abuse, she stays in the hospital for a long time, and there she has only the librarian she met once reading to her, then a grandmother she never knew she had comes to take her when she is released, even though the trauma has taken her voice. And, there she goes into the unknown, into place that will be the secrets and the past hidden from her but always present, where truths and more lies lie, and the place where she will grow and love, and find that there, at Thornfield, where wild flowers bloom, a native flowers farm, florist and floriographist place, where abused and lost women - the “Flowers” - care for it, she too will blossom. But, will her overbearing, stubborn grandmother June allow her to fully be herself, to fully bloom?
So many secrets, so much violence in this family story, in these enchanting places, from a beautiful and raw seaside, to the dry and flowered native desert, in an Australia of abused women, abused natives.
Alice will have to brave it all and discover if she’s strong enough to break her family’s cycle, to have her voice and not let it be taken from her, to be the owner of her destiny.
I could talk about it all at length. The characters are rich and the history of the family so dense and complicated. The flowers, plant ones and women ones, and how they’ll play such a great part in all of it. But, I don’t want to give it away. I want you to brave it all with Alice.
For me the novel only failed in that I would have liked to know more of the implied final romance and more of some of the “Flowers” backstories and destinies, and the dog!!!
An absolutely gorgeous debut nonetheless, with, as you gathered, themes of family, abuse, coming of age, colonialism, and the good and bad people that shape one’s life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, and Rape
Minor: Alcoholism and Animal death