THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS – VANESSA DIFFENBAUGH by Silvia Meler BAT 1
A moving, captivating, moving and very well written novel, The Language of Flowers, moves through past and present creating a vivid portrait of the unforgettable memories of a young woman whose talent for flowers helps her change others´ lives, even as she struggles to overcome her own traumatic past.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions, honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love, but for Victoria Jones, the main character of the book, it has proved more useful in communicating mistrust, solitude and horror. After her traumatic experience as a child living in foster care, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only way of expressing herself is through flowers and their meaning.
Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realises she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide if risking everything is worth having a second chance at happiness.
ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES – JENNIFER NIVEN
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a heartbreaking book about mental illness and the effects it has on the person and those around them.
Theodore Finch is suicidal, fascinated by death, he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small it is, stops him from doing it.
Violet Markey suffers from a Post Traumatic disorder, living in the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape the present she lives in, remembering the recent death of her sister.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, six storeys above the ground, it’s unclear who saves who. And when they pair up on a project to discover the ‘natural wonders’ of their state, they go, as Finch says, where the road takes them, to discover the small, bizarre, beautiful, ugly and surprising places in their state.
Both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries about each other. It’s only with Violet Finch can be himself: a weird, funny guy who is not so much of a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can stop wishing away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
This heartbreaking story is of love shared, lives lived, and two teens that find one another while standing on the edge. Moreover, the book explores adult themes making them understandable for young adults.
I really enjoyed reading this book because it gave me a lot to think about and it’s a book that stayed with me long after finishing it.
Silvia Meler BAT 1
I’ll Give You The Sun
By: Jandy Nelson
A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss and betrayal that will leave you breathless, teary and laughing, often at once.
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly, willing to do anything to get into an art school, and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door. On the other side there is daredevil Jude cliff-diving and wearing bright-red lipstick and is the one doing the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years of the story are told by Noah. The later years are Jude’s. What the twins don’t realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world. And become a family once again.
“I gave up practically the whole world for you,” I tell him, walking through the front door of my own love story. “The sun, stars, ocean, trees, everything, I gave it all up for you.”
― Jandy Nelson, I’ll Give You the Sun
Book review by Silvia Meler BAT 1