Janelle C. (jscrappy) reviewed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, Bk 1) on + 59 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
I wanted to enjoy this book, but didn't. The heroine, an eleven-year-old girl named Flavia, is precocious and smarter than just about all the grown-ups in her world. She's an aspiring chemist who takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of the dead man who appears in her garden one morning.
Unfortunately, Flavia is the only character with more than one dimension in the story, and also unfortunately, she is insufferable. I found it very hard to believe that Flavia's "voice" was supposed to be that of an eleven-year-old girl. She sounded more like an elderly man--which is, incidentally, the author's identity.
Add a lack-luster mystery, and you've got a disappointing book. There are better mysteries and better sleuths out there.
Unfortunately, Flavia is the only character with more than one dimension in the story, and also unfortunately, she is insufferable. I found it very hard to believe that Flavia's "voice" was supposed to be that of an eleven-year-old girl. She sounded more like an elderly man--which is, incidentally, the author's identity.
Add a lack-luster mystery, and you've got a disappointing book. There are better mysteries and better sleuths out there.
Nancy S. (avidbookcollector) -
Helpful Score: 6
Set in the English countryside near the village of Bishop's Lacey in 1950, eleven year old Flavia deLuce lives with two older sisters and her father, the family factotum Dogger and the part-time housekeeper and cook Mrs. Mullet at a decaying manor home called Buckshaw. Flavia's dad passes most of his time alone, collecting stamps and listening to music. Ophelia, the eldest sister, prides herself on her appearance, and then there's Daphne, who always has her nose stuck in a book. Flavia's mother died during a mountain-climbing trip in Tibet when Flavia was still very small, but her dad manages to hold the family together even though money is tight and the home needs major repairs. As the story opens, Mrs. Mullet discovers a dead bird with an antique stamp through its beak, and shortly thereafter, Flavia discovers a dying man in the garden. After all is said and done, Mr. deLuce is arrested, and Flavia's detective career begins in order to clear him.
What makes this story work is both the character of Flavia and the author's writing. It's often hard to remember sometimes that Flavia is only eleven, and the word precocious hardly begins to describe her. Because she's 11, people tend not to pay attention to her, and she's the most scheming little thing you can imagine. Her mind never stops working, she is as relentless as a pit bull when she's on to something, and she's brilliant -- she's a master of chemistry at her tender young age, and she sees all facets of the world around her in ways adults cannot. She has this wonderful gift of being able to make pretty much anyone tell her anything. At the same time, you get little glimpses into Flavia the little girl, such as when her sisters tease her, or when she thinks about her mother. As far as the author's writing, even though his main character is this precocious 11-year old girl, he still hangs on to the realities of post-war England. Dogger, for example, suffers what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder, after suffering through the atrocities of a POW camp. The family home, Buckshaw, once a beautiful and elegant manor, has seen better days. Bradley's characterizations are excellent, each person with his or her own voice and clearly-defined place in this story.And, most importantly, this story does not devolve into the realm of "cutesy" or sickeningly sweet at all. It's fun and yet at the same time, it's intelligent.
As far as the mystery goes, the whodunit is a bit transparent, but you really won't care because this book is so well written. You end up being engrossed in the world of Bishop's Lacey and in the deLuce family, and especially in Flavia, so while the core murder mystery is good, there's so much more going on that takes you over as a reader. I can highly recommend this book to anyone -- definitely one of my favorites for this reading year.
What makes this story work is both the character of Flavia and the author's writing. It's often hard to remember sometimes that Flavia is only eleven, and the word precocious hardly begins to describe her. Because she's 11, people tend not to pay attention to her, and she's the most scheming little thing you can imagine. Her mind never stops working, she is as relentless as a pit bull when she's on to something, and she's brilliant -- she's a master of chemistry at her tender young age, and she sees all facets of the world around her in ways adults cannot. She has this wonderful gift of being able to make pretty much anyone tell her anything. At the same time, you get little glimpses into Flavia the little girl, such as when her sisters tease her, or when she thinks about her mother. As far as the author's writing, even though his main character is this precocious 11-year old girl, he still hangs on to the realities of post-war England. Dogger, for example, suffers what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder, after suffering through the atrocities of a POW camp. The family home, Buckshaw, once a beautiful and elegant manor, has seen better days. Bradley's characterizations are excellent, each person with his or her own voice and clearly-defined place in this story.And, most importantly, this story does not devolve into the realm of "cutesy" or sickeningly sweet at all. It's fun and yet at the same time, it's intelligent.
As far as the mystery goes, the whodunit is a bit transparent, but you really won't care because this book is so well written. You end up being engrossed in the world of Bishop's Lacey and in the deLuce family, and especially in Flavia, so while the core murder mystery is good, there's so much more going on that takes you over as a reader. I can highly recommend this book to anyone -- definitely one of my favorites for this reading year.
Jennifer P. (jenners) reviewed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, Bk 1) on + 121 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
1950s England. Flavia de Luce is many things: an aspiring chemist (who happens to have her own very well-equipped laboratory), a younger sister you need to be careful of (revenge on her sister Ophelia takes the form of poison ivy lipstick), and a fledgling detective. Her first detective investigation begins when she finds a dying man in her garden and watches him breathe his last breath and hears his final words: "Vale!" Of course, Flavia has more than a passing interest in the case as her distant and remote father is arrested for the stranger's murder. As she flies around the town of Bishop Lacy on her trusty bike Gladys, Flavia manages to stay one step ahead of Inspector Hewitt, much to his irritation and bemusement. However, Flavia does almost too good of a job unraveling the mystery of the dead man in the garden when she uncovers a decades-old crime that may or may not be related. Coming face-to-face with the murderer at long last, Flavia finds herself in a bit of a jam that may be even too challenging for her precocious intellect.
Like so many precocious girl detectives before her, Flavia lives in a world of her own making. Like Kate in What Was Lost, she is free to go as she pleases. Her mother Harriet died in a mountaineering accident when she was a baby. After his wife's death, her father retreated into his obsession with stamps and barely pays his daughters any attention. Flavia's older sisters are more adversaries than friends. Perhaps her closest friend is Dogger, the gardener and war buddy of her father. Yet Dogger is a bit off due to his war experiences, and Flavia is forced to consider him as a suspect during her investigation.
I loved how Flavia just up and did whatever she wanted: from concocting chemical experiments in her lab to breaking and entering. Flavia is a wondrous character but perhaps a bit unbelievable. I cannot imagine a real 11-year-old being as well-informed and educated as Flavia. But really who cares? All I know is that I quite enjoyed my time in Flavia's company. She amused me and was as daring and adventurous as I wish I could have been at her age. This book was a delight from start to finish, and I for one will be along on her next adventure, which is due to be released on March 9.
Oh, and as far as the mystery goes, this is one of those books where the character is the main attraction rather than the mystery itself. I suspect it isn't that hard to figure out "who done it" but that isn't really the attraction of the book anyway. The star of this book (make no mistake about it for fear of being poisoned!) is Flavia herself.
An Excerpt
It was all Ophelia's fault. She was, after all, seventeen, and therefore expected to possess at least a modicum of the maturity she should come into as an adult. That she should gang up with Daphne, who was thirteen, simply wasn't fair. Their combined ages totaled thirty years. Thirty years!against my eleven. It was not only unsporting, it was downright rotten. And it simply screamed out for revenge.
Like so many precocious girl detectives before her, Flavia lives in a world of her own making. Like Kate in What Was Lost, she is free to go as she pleases. Her mother Harriet died in a mountaineering accident when she was a baby. After his wife's death, her father retreated into his obsession with stamps and barely pays his daughters any attention. Flavia's older sisters are more adversaries than friends. Perhaps her closest friend is Dogger, the gardener and war buddy of her father. Yet Dogger is a bit off due to his war experiences, and Flavia is forced to consider him as a suspect during her investigation.
I loved how Flavia just up and did whatever she wanted: from concocting chemical experiments in her lab to breaking and entering. Flavia is a wondrous character but perhaps a bit unbelievable. I cannot imagine a real 11-year-old being as well-informed and educated as Flavia. But really who cares? All I know is that I quite enjoyed my time in Flavia's company. She amused me and was as daring and adventurous as I wish I could have been at her age. This book was a delight from start to finish, and I for one will be along on her next adventure, which is due to be released on March 9.
Oh, and as far as the mystery goes, this is one of those books where the character is the main attraction rather than the mystery itself. I suspect it isn't that hard to figure out "who done it" but that isn't really the attraction of the book anyway. The star of this book (make no mistake about it for fear of being poisoned!) is Flavia herself.
An Excerpt
It was all Ophelia's fault. She was, after all, seventeen, and therefore expected to possess at least a modicum of the maturity she should come into as an adult. That she should gang up with Daphne, who was thirteen, simply wasn't fair. Their combined ages totaled thirty years. Thirty years!against my eleven. It was not only unsporting, it was downright rotten. And it simply screamed out for revenge.
Rebecca H. (amichai) reviewed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, Bk 1) on + 368 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I first tried to read this book by listening to it on audio. I found it irritating and decided I just did not particularly like the reader. Then I tried to read it in the ordinary way and realized I still could not spend the time. My main issue is with the supposed 11 year old protagonist. I love ten and eleven year olds - I am a teacher of fifth graders - and I know some extraordinarily intelligent ones - but I just found the thinking/verbal/literary style of Flavia de Luce completely unbelievable. I can accept unbelievable, I think, if something else draws me in....for me, nothing did.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
Helpful Score: 2
First Line: It was as black in the closet as old blood.
If you have an eleven-year-old sister whose passion is chemistry, it would not be wise to hogtie her and lock her in a closet. But if you're the older teenage sister whose own interests never stray far from your own appearance and romance, you may not realize that payback will be forthcoming... and a bit ugly.
Once Flavia picks the lock and clambers out of the closet, already plotting her revenge, we quickly learn that: it's the summer of 1950; the de Luce family lives in a huge ancestral pile called Buckshaw outside the village of Bishop's Lacy in England; Colonel de Luce seems to live for nothing but collecting postage stamps; and his three daughters are pretty much allowed to do as they please.
In Flavia's case, she spends a lot of time on her own in an ancestor's fully-equipped laboratory teaching herself all about poisons. (Just what you want every eleven-year-old to know about.) However, shortly after she escapes from the closet, strange things begin to occur. A dead bird with a postage stamp skewered on its beak is found on the kitchen doorstep. Then a very rude red-headed stranger has an argument with Colonel de Luce late at night, and mere hours later, Flavia trips over his dead body in the cucumber patch. Naturally Flavia's father is arrested for the murder, and the young girl is determined to discover the identity of the real killer.
I avoided reading this book for a while due to the avalanche of press it received when it was first published. I knew that I did want to give it a try, but the more a book is touted as the best thing since sliced bread, the more I hesitate to pick up my butter knife.
I did find the first-person narrative laugh-out-loud funny several times as Flavia described her adventures, and the mystery did have some meat on its bones so that it was not easily deduced. The characters in the surrounding small villages were quite well-done, too. However, Flavia's father and older sisters were too stereotyped-- and Flavia herself was a bit scary. Colonel de Luce needs to spend more time with his children and less time with his stamps. Flavia would welcome the attention, and it would keep her away from her Bunsen burners and lethal concoctions.
All in all, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie was, for me, a fun, light-hearted way to spend an afternoon, but I failed to fall completely under its spell.
If you have an eleven-year-old sister whose passion is chemistry, it would not be wise to hogtie her and lock her in a closet. But if you're the older teenage sister whose own interests never stray far from your own appearance and romance, you may not realize that payback will be forthcoming... and a bit ugly.
Once Flavia picks the lock and clambers out of the closet, already plotting her revenge, we quickly learn that: it's the summer of 1950; the de Luce family lives in a huge ancestral pile called Buckshaw outside the village of Bishop's Lacy in England; Colonel de Luce seems to live for nothing but collecting postage stamps; and his three daughters are pretty much allowed to do as they please.
In Flavia's case, she spends a lot of time on her own in an ancestor's fully-equipped laboratory teaching herself all about poisons. (Just what you want every eleven-year-old to know about.) However, shortly after she escapes from the closet, strange things begin to occur. A dead bird with a postage stamp skewered on its beak is found on the kitchen doorstep. Then a very rude red-headed stranger has an argument with Colonel de Luce late at night, and mere hours later, Flavia trips over his dead body in the cucumber patch. Naturally Flavia's father is arrested for the murder, and the young girl is determined to discover the identity of the real killer.
I avoided reading this book for a while due to the avalanche of press it received when it was first published. I knew that I did want to give it a try, but the more a book is touted as the best thing since sliced bread, the more I hesitate to pick up my butter knife.
I did find the first-person narrative laugh-out-loud funny several times as Flavia described her adventures, and the mystery did have some meat on its bones so that it was not easily deduced. The characters in the surrounding small villages were quite well-done, too. However, Flavia's father and older sisters were too stereotyped-- and Flavia herself was a bit scary. Colonel de Luce needs to spend more time with his children and less time with his stamps. Flavia would welcome the attention, and it would keep her away from her Bunsen burners and lethal concoctions.
All in all, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie was, for me, a fun, light-hearted way to spend an afternoon, but I failed to fall completely under its spell.
