A wonderful book, I liked it very much. I loved the S.F. setting, and reading about the world and business of flowers. The characters were richly drawn. They were real, not especially likable and they were definitely flawed. But I liked that they suffered, learned, grew and moved on.
For me it was an introduction to the foster care world, and what a miserable situation that is. In our discussion we didn’t talk much about Meredith, the social worker, but I found her very interesting also. I can understand someone doing this kind of work for a while, but what does it take to stay and keep trying? She seemed fully committed and did her best in spite of the miserable system and what must be a serious lack of any reward or job satisfaction.
I enjoyed the language of flowers aspect, it was a nice additional layer of interest throughout the book. I will look forward to Diffenbaugh’s next book.
I found this book a chore to read because I found the main character so unlikable. She was just plain nasty. I’m not sure why any other character in the book put up with her. Had she shone a glimmer of warmth, humor, sympathy, or other positive attribute, I might have rooted for her to find some happiness.
Alternating chapters (changing the protagonist’s age) make this a fairly well-paced book. But I had trouble figuring out whether it was character-driven or plot-driven, as neither were completely satisfying. I found the characters’ actions credible, for the most part, and interesting. I think the author got too wrapped up, though, in the suffering (infant-care, for example) and missed an opportunity to give readers real awareness of emotional dysfunctions.
A wonderful book, I liked it very much. I loved the S.F. setting, and reading about the world and business of flowers. The characters were richly drawn. They were real, not especially likable and they were definitely flawed. But I liked that they suffered, learned, grew and moved on.
For me it was an introduction to the foster care world, and what a miserable situation that is. In our discussion we didn’t talk much about Meredith, the social worker, but I found her very interesting also. I can understand someone doing this kind of work for a while, but what does it take to stay and keep trying? She seemed fully committed and did her best in spite of the miserable system and what must be a serious lack of any reward or job satisfaction.
I enjoyed the language of flowers aspect, it was a nice additional layer of interest throughout the book. I will look forward to Diffenbaugh’s next book.
I found this book a chore to read because I found the main character so unlikable. She was just plain nasty. I’m not sure why any other character in the book put up with her. Had she shone a glimmer of warmth, humor, sympathy, or other positive attribute, I might have rooted for her to find some happiness.
Alternating chapters (changing the protagonist’s age) make this a fairly well-paced book. But I had trouble figuring out whether it was character-driven or plot-driven, as neither were completely satisfying. I found the characters’ actions credible, for the most part, and interesting. I think the author got too wrapped up, though, in the suffering (infant-care, for example) and missed an opportunity to give readers real awareness of emotional dysfunctions.