kari's Reviews > The Language of Flowers

** spoiler alert ** Too much folding! “He folded himself into a chair. She folded her feet beneath her. He folded over in exhaustion placing his head on the table. She folded over in pain. She folded herself underneath the bush.”
How about: “He sat in a chair. She pulled her feet beneath her. He slumped over in exhaustion. She bent over in pain. She curled herself underneath the bush.”
Really, another verb is needed here and fold/ed was most overused. Yes, I am nitpicking, but since I was bothered enough to comment, the overuse of it was noticeable and bothersome.

Synopsis:
Foster child ages out of the system, plants a garden in a city park, sleeps under a bush.
Meets a florist who gives her a job, meets a man, rents a tiny blue room.
Gets pregnant, runs away to sleep under the bush.
Has baby, runs away to sleep under the bush.
Give baby away.
Happy ending.

The problems I have with this are that there isn’t any reason for any of the people who help this girl to want to help her. She snarls and sulks and is so hard and distant that I was left wondering why any of these people wanted to be around her let alone assist her. No one knows her sad/bitter/hostile history and she isn't talking so why should they feel anything for her?
It didn’t appear that under all her anger that there was a gentle caring person. She seems more that if you scratched the surface, first of all, you’d definitely get scratched back, but that under that tough exterior, you’d find something even harder and more unyielding. Can’t say that I liked Victoria much.
So can you enjoy a book when you don’t really like the protagonist? I find it can be difficult, but in the hands of a crafted writer, you can still enjoy the story. I didn’t find that to be true here.
For me, the story would have been better told in third person. I think some distance between Victoria’s mean thought process and the reader would have helped. I didn’t much like being in this misanthropic head and I didn’t get any idea of anyone else’s motivation for caring for her. Why did Renata hire her? Yes, she’s a magical flower genius, but why would she want this girl around, glaring at her customers? Yes, lots of glaring.
And Grant, why is he attracted to her? Does he have a thing for mean women? More snarling and glaring. He seems like a very gentle soul to be that way, didn’t understand what he saw in her, other than her ability to send messages by flowers.
Victoria’s negativity was so over the top. She finds out she’s pregnant and hates the idea of a baby, but won’t get an abortion because the idea that someone else would have control over her body for the time it would take to get the thing out (that’s how she thinks of it) is too horrid for her to think about. She is offered medical benefits by her employer, but instead she runs away to live under a bush. No, I am most certainly not kidding.
Having decided to have the baby and afterward figure out what she’s going to do with it, she gets no prenatal care, not even bothering so little as to pick up a bottle of prenatal vitamins at the drugstore. No, she’s too busy hiding under the bush.
And she spent hours in the library comparing flower meaning dictionaries(and countless hours photographing flowers with old time camera which she spends money on the film development even though she has very little money), but didn't bother to read one single book on pregnancy or child care.
So, again, not that first doctor visit and she knows a midwife, willing and ready to help her, but she doesn’t want that either. She’s going to give birth at home, alone, all by herself, because ... I have no idea what is wrong with her at this point.
Many people have shown her that they care about her, that they’re willing to help her, but she can’t accept it. I get that we’re supposed to believe that she’s so broken(she was an abandoned baby who never found a real forever home) that she sees herself as unworthy of anyone’s concern, but how it came off to this reader is that she’s too selfish and stubborn to do what’s right. This is when my connection to her broke down completely.
Also, after hiding in the bush, she comes back, continuing to hide while also building herself an amazing floral designing business. Uh-huh. I believe my suspension of disbelief was at the breaking point by this time.
Well, what a surprise, she isn’t able to have the baby all by herself so she gets help and after a week(during which she doesn't bother to even name the child), she gives it away (not for adoption), even though she could have asked for help, could have at the very least told someone when that person is there, in the room with her, asking her how she’s doing, that she wasn’t doing well. But no, she cannot do that. I have no idea why. And no one, not one single person, asks her where her child went. Not one. Did she bury it in her garden in the park? Toss it in the ocean? Where is it?
I know this is fiction, but that can't excuse complete disregard for life as it is or common sense. It's based in the real world. If a woman had a child she didn't want and that child disappeared a week later, that woman is going to be getting a serious visit from the police. Yet, she comes back without the child, glares all round, states that she won't talk about it and they all accept it. Really? REALLY?
I can’t recommend this one. Too irritating in style, characterization and unlikely plot.