Much like the flowers that grow on the grounds of La Pradera, Anna-Marie McLemore's Wild Beauty is every bit as enchanting as it is deadly to all who enter. It takes hold of the reader from page one, wrapping itself around you like a vine pulling you farther into the magical and frightening yet beautiful world that Pradera created. The Nomeolvides women, young and old, are unlike any other women in the world. They are each unique in their way but very similar to one another to grow beauty from their hands. McLemore has a rare gift of making the reader see and smell but taste the world she has created which is extremely unusual.
The love and family between these women are developed with such care that you can feel it sing to your soul. You feel like part of their family, not just an outsider looking into their world and observing. The younger girls all fall for the same girl who lives on the land but is not blood-related. It makes for an interesting dynamic to see how each feels about her in their unique way. However, we find very soon that this bestowed gift they have comes with a cost that is in many ways too large to pay.
The pain, love, happiness, and loss swirls on the pages in such a way that it makes the reader breathless at times. It is so much to take, but you find yourself asking for more, a lot like the La Pradera asks of the Nomeolvides women. In many ways, I understood La Pradera throughout the book because it was always asking the women to give it more of themselves, and I felt like I was doing the same. I wanted more of them, but in doing so, it was destroying them a little each time. It was a double-edged sword for the women; they have this gift that they must use but using it takes pieces of themselves in the end. What a beautiful way to look at life and women, giving ourselves over, and sometimes it destroys us in the process. I don't know if the author intended this message to be passed on, but it made me think about life as a woman after reading this story. It made me reflect on what gets taken from us and what it does to us. Anna-Marie McLemore is a talent beyond her years, and I look forward to reading more from her to see what else she has to say.
The love and family between these women are developed with such care that you can feel it sing to your soul. You feel like part of their family, not just an outsider looking into their world and observing. The younger girls all fall for the same girl who lives on the land but is not blood-related. It makes for an interesting dynamic to see how each feels about her in their unique way. However, we find very soon that this bestowed gift they have comes with a cost that is in many ways too large to pay.
The pain, love, happiness, and loss swirls on the pages in such a way that it makes the reader breathless at times. It is so much to take, but you find yourself asking for more, a lot like the La Pradera asks of the Nomeolvides women. In many ways, I understood La Pradera throughout the book because it was always asking the women to give it more of themselves, and I felt like I was doing the same. I wanted more of them, but in doing so, it was destroying them a little each time. It was a double-edged sword for the women; they have this gift that they must use but using it takes pieces of themselves in the end. What a beautiful way to look at life and women, giving ourselves over, and sometimes it destroys us in the process. I don't know if the author intended this message to be passed on, but it made me think about life as a woman after reading this story. It made me reflect on what gets taken from us and what it does to us. Anna-Marie McLemore is a talent beyond her years, and I look forward to reading more from her to see what else she has to say.
This was a very beautifully written and lyrical story about a family of women who are tied to the land they live on. Amazingly they are able to call flowers from the soil with their hands. In addition to that, any person they fall in love with disappears, so they are cursed to never be able to carry out a life with someone they love.
When the most recent generation of women sacrifices their most treasured items to the land, the land gives them a boy. A boy who seems to be from one hundred years ago but doesn't remember any of his past. They struggle to figure out the mystery behind him and what he means to their family. They all also struggle to figure out the history of the land that has bound them all to it.
This story reminds me a lot of Sarah Addison Allen's "Garden Spells" or Catherynne Valente's writings. The story is lush and glittering, full of beauty and flower petals. Somehow it also remains real, true, poignant and earthy. There is a lot of magical realism in here as well.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. This is like a very sweet dessert; I wouldn't want to read this style of writing all the time but it is a beautiful and endearing thing to savor once in a while.
When the most recent generation of women sacrifices their most treasured items to the land, the land gives them a boy. A boy who seems to be from one hundred years ago but doesn't remember any of his past. They struggle to figure out the mystery behind him and what he means to their family. They all also struggle to figure out the history of the land that has bound them all to it.
This story reminds me a lot of Sarah Addison Allen's "Garden Spells" or Catherynne Valente's writings. The story is lush and glittering, full of beauty and flower petals. Somehow it also remains real, true, poignant and earthy. There is a lot of magical realism in here as well.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. This is like a very sweet dessert; I wouldn't want to read this style of writing all the time but it is a beautiful and endearing thing to savor once in a while.
