As the novel opens, Victoria is turning 18 and officially
“aging out” of the foster care system in San Francisco. Her social worker picks
her up from her latest group home (with her one cardboard box of possessions)
and takes her to a transitional home, where she has just three months to find a
job and become self-sufficient. Victoria was abandoned by her mother at birth
and has been shuffled from one foster family to another for her entire
childhood. As a result of the continual abandonment and lack of love, Victoria
doesn’t know how to connect with people. Labeled a problem child early on, it
became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as she came to believe that she was
worthless, unloved, and unlovable.
Right from the start, the reader has hints that there was
one person in her past who did love Victoria, a woman named Elizabeth with whom
she bonded, but it is apparent that something horrible happened to break that
bond. With her lack of self-confidence and no sense at all of self-worth,
Victoria is lost out in the world by herself and paralyzed by doubts and fear.
She is kicked out of the transitional home after three months and ends up
sleeping in the park and wandering the city searching for scraps of food. She
is drawn to a local flower shop, where her unique knowledge of the meaning of
flowers gets her a job and starts her down a rocky path of making a life for
herself.
The chapters alternate between the present and the past,
where Victoria first met the only person who ever had any positive impact on
her life. As readers, we know there is some terrible secret hidden in her past
and that her idyllic time back when she was 10 somehow ended in tragedy. Those
secrets are slowly revealed as the past and the present come together, and
Victoria struggles to learn how to connect with someone and build a life for
herself.
Everyone in our book group enjoyed this engrossing novel,
and we had plenty to discuss. Like me, some of our members would not have read
it on our own because the topic – the language of flowers – didn’t seem all
that interesting to us. But the real topics here are foster care, love, life,
survival, and rebirth. While Victoria’s actions are sometimes frustrating as
she continually thwarts her own chances for success, the author provides enough
detail of her past history that you can understand why she is acting this way,
even if you don’t agree with it. It’s a compelling story filled with emotional
highs and lows and is highly recommended, even if you aren’t interested in
flowers. And if you are interested, there is a glossary in the back of
different varieties of flowers and their meanings.
308 pages, Ballantine Books
This was a fabulous book. I loved it, and reviewed it not too long ago. Like you, I would have not picked it up on my own. I read it with a book club. I agree, there is lots to discuss with this book; a good book club choice.
ReplyDeleteLiked this one a lot - the audio was good.
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